Penn State sees steady growth for linebacker Kobe King
Handling a variety of questions about Tig Brown at his Tuesday press conference, James Franklin contextualized the senior safety’s value to the defense. The Nittany Lions, he said, are better when Brown is on the field, not only for his playing ability but also because of his influence on the rest of the unit.
The sentiment was true in the trenches, Franklin said, of P.J. Mustipher. Tucked into his response, though, was a nugget that has taken on a growing significance through Penn State’s 2022 season.
With time, the acclimation of Kobe King to the Mike linebacker position, along with that of Tyler Elsdon, has provided stability in a place of some uncertainty.
“You’re starting to see Kobe and Elsdon do that at linebacker,” Franklin said. “But coming into the season, obviously we didn’t know that. We didn’t know how that was going to be.”
Penn State’s linebacker progress
Specific to King, a redshirt freshman, that clarity has simply come with time.
Producing back-to-back weeks with two of the better Pro Football Focus grades of his career, playing extensively in place of an injured Elsdon at Indiana, and then returning for an even split of reps against Maryland, the improvement has been twofold.
Individually, King is becoming more productive with more confidence. At Indiana, that looked like a team-high eight tackles with a career-high 2.5 tackles for a loss. Against a Terrapins outfit unable to move the ball against Penn State last weekend, the results were a more-subdued two stop, but a 100 percent tackle rate on in his 21 total snaps.
“You never like to see a guy get hurt, but it was beneficial for Kobe because he got a ton of reps in the game,” Franklin said on his Thursday night radio show last week. “He had to run the defense and as the season has progressed, he just continues to gain confidence and is playing faster, both physically and mentally. You hate to see anybody get hurt, but specifically for Kobe, it was really valuable and he played well. Manny continues to gain more and more confidence in him.”
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Next steps
That second component stands to serve King well now and into the future. But, more so, it also portends a positive trajectory for Penn State’s defense as it looks to build reliability and on-field direction at that position.
Contrasting the instinctual ability of Zakee Wheatley to play well and do so relatively early in his career at Penn State, Franklin chose King on Thursday night as his example of steady steps taken to learn the position and the defense.
“There are other guys that you’re starting to see, like Kobe King, who as he’s getting more reps, he’s starting to play a lot faster because he’s getting more comfortable. He knows his assignments more inside and out, which is allowing him to just go play like he did all the way back in Little League,” Franklin said. “So, that’s been a positive. You’re starting to see a change for him.”
Regardless of that time frame for acclimating into a place of comfort on the field, it’s a change Penn State is determined to produce and is pleased to see happening.
