{"id":466612,"date":"2026-10-15T09:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/466612\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:05:24","slug":"penn-state-football-defensive-tackle-dallas-vakalahi-prioritizing-physicality-against-familiar-michigan-sideline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/466612\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Football Defensive Tackle Dallas Vakalahi Prioritizing Physicality Against Familiar Michigan Sideline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State football defensive tackle Dallas Vakalahi knows a thing or two about the Michigan Wolverines. <\/p>\n

Vakalahi spent the last two seasons at Utah under now-Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham. It\u2019s not exactly a homecoming for him, but the West Valley, Utah, native is excited to line up against his old coach and former teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach [Whittingham], he\u2019s an amazing coach. One of the biggest things I noticed about him is he\u2019s very big on culture,\u201d Vakalahi said after practice Wednesday. \u201cI expect to play a team that\u2019s built their chemistry together, and they\u2019ve grown really strong in that aspect.\u201d <\/p>\n

Vakalahi joined Penn State on January 8<\/a>, just 13 days after the Wolverines hired Whittingham following the Sherrone Moore scandal. The 326-pound defensive tackle noted Whittingham\u2019s departure as a surprise, but he still holds much respect for his former coach. <\/p>\n

With so much time in his system, though, Vakalahi knows exactly what Penn State\u2019s defense should expect on Saturday in the Big House. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things is coach Whittingham is big on being physical. He\u2019s a lot,\u201d Vakalahi said. \u201cA lot of things he does are having the guys up front being the most physical and out-physicaling their opponent. I think what our plan is is to match that, if not be more physical than them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That recipe and ideology don\u2019t seem to align with what Penn State has shown in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions were dominated at the line of scrimmage against Northwestern and USC, and it\u2019s been a glaring issue that has prevented Penn State from truly forming an identity on either side of the ball.<\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator D\u2019Anton Lynn went so far as to say he doesn\u2019t know if Penn State won the line of scrimmage once against the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

With Michigan\u2019s talent and Whittingham\u2019s emphasis on physicality at the line of scrimmage, the Wolverines could smell blood in the water come Saturday. Still, the Penn State defensive line remains focused on its own process and on building chemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn practice every day, being able to play with each [defensive] tackle and having a different rotation has kind of helped us find our best fit, and those who we know we fit best with,\u201d Vakalahi said. \u201cAnd then, as well as helping us learn each other\u2019s tendencies and what we do. Some people like to go inside out and vice versa \u2026 Just knowing how to play off of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vakalahi emphasized Penn State doesn\u2019t have chemistry issues on the defensive line, but the group is still figuring out the scheme and how each piece flows together for the best possible on-field product. <\/p>\n

One of the unit\u2019s biggest shortcomings is its lack of ability to get home on the quarterback. The Nittany Lions have produced eight sacks so far, with linebacker Tony Rojas accounting for four and Kooper Ebel, Caleb Bacon, Yvan Kemajou, and Alex Tatsch notching one.<\/p>\n

Kemajou and Bacon are the only defensive ends on that list. No defensive tackle has registered a sack yet. Penn State also lost Tatsch to a season-ending injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For comparison, Michigan has 12 sacks on the year. USC has 15. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is just being able to first rush off the edge, and then as well as getting our interior [defensive] linemen involved in that,\u201d Vakalahi said. \u201cThis week in practice, we\u2019ve been really emphasizing the fact that we need to use the interior [defensive] linemen to put pressure as well and get in that backfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn State will especially need to be on its toes against Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood. While he hasn\u2019t had a great season so far, he is still arguably the most athletic quarterback the Nittany Lions will face all year.<\/p>\n

Vakalahi mentioned third-down stops as a necessary area for growth. Wisconsin, Northwestern, and USC went 14-for-38 (36.8%) on third down combined. <\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t really a bad figure, and Michigan\u2019s offensive third-down conversion percentage sits at 40.7%. Penn State just has to be prepared and be better at the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is just getting off the ball, getting hands on first, and making sure that we\u2019re the ones striking and not being struck,\u201d Vakalahi said. \u201cAs we\u2019ve been in practice, a lot of the things that we have seen are just being able to snatch off. Just make sure that we\u2019re in our gap and that there\u2019s nothing else that\u2019s going to take us out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn State and Vakalahi have to up the physicality and be ready to go against a Wolverines team that has something in common with the Nittany Lions: they\u2019re both starving for a win. <\/p>\n

\t\"\"\t<\/p>\n

Oscar is a third-year broadcast journalism student from Los Angeles. He’s probably at the movies. He mostly writes about Penn State football. Email him at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State football defensive tackle Dallas Vakalahi knows a thing or two about the Michigan Wolverines. Vakalahi spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[158835,24706,29015,158836,158837,102,104,103,158838,158839,158840,48277,158841,158842,158843,19609,795,48279,158844,158845,158846,158847,158848,113403,158849,158850,158851,158852,158853,158854,158855,158856,158857],"class_list":["post-466612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-alex-tatsch-injury","tag-big-ten-football","tag-bryce-underwood","tag-bryce-underwood-michigan","tag-danton-lynn","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-vakalahi","tag-dallas-vakalahi-penn-state","tag-dallas-vakalahi-utah","tag-kyle-whittingham","tag-kyle-whittingham-michigan","tag-matt-campbell","tag-matt-campbell-penn-state","tag-michigan-football","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-michigan-wolverines-football","tag-nittany-lions-football","tag-penn-state-defensive-line","tag-penn-state-defensive-line-physicality","tag-penn-state-defensive-struggles","tag-penn-state-defensive-tackles","tag-penn-state-football","tag-penn-state-football-2026","tag-penn-state-football-news","tag-penn-state-football-sacks","tag-penn-state-michigan","tag-penn-state-michigan-2026","tag-penn-state-pass-rush","tag-penn-state-vs-michigan","tag-tony-rojas","tag-utah-football-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}