UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Defensive tackles strive to make disruptive plays behind the line of scrimmage. For Penn State, the battle in the trenches is built upon the pillars of competitiveness, leadership, and physicality.
Entering his first season as the defensive line coach, Deion Barnes is curating a culture on the defensive front to play together while embracing the depth and competition to continuously improve.
Barnes is orchestrating a unique sense of camaraderie among his players by stressing key values of togetherness and taking nothing for granted.
"They're as close as they possibly can be and they're pushing each other," Barnes said. "They know how I feel, they know everything is earned and they're trying to earn every rep out there. They know any slip up, they look like 'hey, it can be the day that somebody jumps in front of me,' so it is intentional on all the defensive ends and defensive tackles."
At Barnes' disposal are a pair of young defensive tackles in redshirt sophomore Jordan van den Berg and sophomore Zane Durant, who are already sharpening their skills on and off the field to develop as young leaders.
A transfer from Iowa Western Community College, van den Berg enters year three in Happy Valley after appearing in all 13 games last season. Learning from longtime Nittany Lion PJ Mustipher, the Johannesburg, South Africa, product is developing as a leader by sharing Mustipher's lessons with his teammates to help everyone around him improve.
"I'm a person that really likes to lead by example," van den Berg said. I'm a person that just really keeps my head down, just works as hard as I can and by example, I feel like I've been able to help a lot of younger guys. I try to take them under my wing and just show them the ropes."
With a plethora of talented edge rushers and experienced defensive tackles like redshirt seniors Hakeem Beamon and Dvon Ellies, Barnes has placed a significant emphasis on stopping the run through technique of strong hands, hip positioning, block recognition and creating knockback to generate tackles for loss. With Barnes' mentoring and a stable of talented tackles at his disposal, Penn State goes into the fall with high expectations along its front.
Barnes' players have taken those mantras to heart throughout fall camp and with the season quickly approaching, his messages are being received by his players, including van den Berg, who expressed his overwhelming confidence in his fellow defensive tackles.
"We're very talented, I think we may have the most talented D-tackle room in the nation," van den Berg said. "It's very highly, ultra competitive, highly athletic, everyone's pushing each other and everyone's trying to get the starting job so everyone is just competing every single day."
Hailing from Lake Nona, Florida, Durant made five tackles and one sack in his 13-game freshman campaign in 2022. While showing off his speed, size and athleticism, Durant is learning how to play with a chip on his shoulder heading into 2023.
Demonstrating how he's playing with more feel, a faster twitch and a faster first step at the line of scrimmage, Durant is taking run defense "personal" while working on his level of physicality and strength heading into his second season in Happy Valley.
"I think with the effort from the defensive line, we've been real physical and real dominant," Durant said. "One thing that we're big on is imposing our will on offensive lines, so we look forward to doing that this year."
