Explaining the Penn State pass defense celebration: How it started, what it means, and why it helps the Lions
Penn State has an NCAA-leading 41 pass breakups through four weeks. And, the Nittany Lions have made sure to celebrate each and every one of them in a way unique to them.
You can see exactly how they do it in the photo above. That’s corner Kalen King. He has six pass breakups on the year. Only position mate Joey Porter Jr., has more with nine. The raised arms and hands pointing out signify a ‘no-fly zone’ the Penn State defense is trying to build.
So far, they have done a pretty good job of doing so. Besides the pass breakup count, the Lions are also 18th in the country in opponent passing yards per attempt at 5.8 and No. 10 in opponent completion percentage at 51.3. It’s two of the reasons why you’ve seen the celebration so often.
“It just keeps the energy flowing,” Porter Jr., said. “It just keeps bringing the energy to the team, and to the to the whole stadium, just to have everybody riled up and make a play. We’re going to do that every time.
“The fact that everybody’s doing it, even the offense, the offensive line, the coaches; like we had [defensive coordinator] Manny Diaz in there on the sidelines. It’s crazy. We like what it’s doing for the whole team. So, we’re just going to keep going with it.”
Who started this Penn State celebration?
Porter Jr., gave credit to one of his teammates when asked about its origin on Wednesday.
“It really started in the corner room over the summer,” Porter Jr., said. “Daequan Hardy, he started it for the corner room. And, we’ve just been keeping up. Every time we make a play on the ball, we do the celebration. It means no fly zone.
“It started in the corner room, and everybody on the team just started doing it. And now it’s just the thing that we do on the team now. We got the coaches doing it. Some of the fans are starting to do it. So, it’s nice little movement.”
So, next time you’re watching the Penn State defense celebrate, you’ll know where it came from and why they’re doing it. And, considering the breakup streak doesn’t figure to end anytime soon, it’s expected that the secondary and other members of the program will have plenty of opportunities to use it moving forward.
“It was a big thing that coach Manny Diaz and the other coaches on the defensive staff wanted us to do: Get more hands on footballs and be more disruptive in the pass game,” Porter Jr., said.
“And, I’ll say man [coverage], which we’ve been playing a lot recently, has been helping us a lot, getting our hands on footballs and being more active with the receivers. So Manny knew this was going to be the case for us and we just got to get our hands on more footballs.”
