Are DE Shane Simmons, CB Tariq Castro-Fields ready to step up for the Penn State defense?
Penn State football will be replacing several long-term starters next season, with two of those departures — defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos and cornerback John Reid — heavily affecting the pass defense.
Those spots will need to be filled effectively for Penn State to regain its 2019 form on that side of the ball. Two players in particular, both seniors, plan on showing they’re more than capable of doing the job.
Shane Simmons, while easy to overlook because of the youth at defensive end, is ready to help fill Gross-Matos’ shoes while Tariq Castro-Fields wants to prove his high-level cornerback play from early last season was no fluke.
“This is a really important year for me,” Simmons said in a teleconference with the media Wednesday afternoon. “This is a very important season for me.”
Simmons has appeared in 34 games in his four seasons on campus but has tallied only one career sack. The redshirt senior knows his time hasn’t gone as planned, especially considering he was a five-star recruit out of high school, but he’s ready to put that behind him.
“The story isn’t finished yet,” he said. “I still believe I can leave my mark at Penn State.”
He’ll have plenty of competition to replace Gross-Matos along the defensive line. The fifth-year senior will be joined by redshirt sophomore Jayson Oweh and true sophomore Adisa Isaac in the fight to start alongside redshirt senior Shaka Toney.
Isaac and Oweh have both proven their worth as edge-rushers in their short time on campus. Isaac recorded 1.5 sacks in his true freshman season and flashed elite athleticism off the edge in his lone year with the team to this point. Oweh has proven to be one of the best athletes on the roster, reportedly running a 4.33 40-yard dash (0.08 seconds faster than former Nittany Lion Saquon Barkley ran at the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine), and has already racked up seven sacks in only 17 games played.
Simmons said both players are more than ready for large roles if that opportunity comes their way.
“I really think both of them are NFL kind of players,” Simmons said. “They’re really fast. They’re probably the fastest defensive ends that I’ve seen up close and played with.”
While the two young defensive ends will be battling with Simmons for the job, Castro-Fields thinks the veteran has put in the necessary work to compete for the job.
“Shane is gonna step up,” Castro-Fields said in a teleconference with the media Wednesday evening. “I think he’s gonna be a leader in that room.”
Castro-Fields will have plenty of work ahead, too, as he tries to replace the leadership and knowledge of Reid as the team’s top cornerback. Fortunately for the senior, he’s had plenty of former teammates that have gone on to play in the NFL to learn from. Reid was drafted in the fourth round by the Houston Texans in last month’s draft, while former teammates Christian Campbell, in the sixth round in 2018, and Amani Oruwariye, in the fifth round in 2019, have also heard their name called during the draft.
The senior corner has learned from all three former teammates, like learning how to study film from Reid, but especially learned from the latter two because of their similar size and build. All three — Castro-Fields, Campbell and Oruwariye — are at least 6-foot and weight at least 190 pounds.
“(I learned) how Christian used his length at the line,” Castro-Fields said. “He was super physical. Amani, (I learned) his ball-hawking skill. That’s one of his best attributes. He could be two yards from a guy running a go route and still look back (for the ball).”
Now he, and Simmons, will be charged with taking what they’ve learned in their time on campus and turn it into a successful final season. For Simmons, that means proving he was worthy of the praise he received in high school, and for Castro-Fields it means showing he can be the type of lockdown cornerback the Nittany Lions need him to be.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:01 PM.
