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Penn State Training Camp Preview: Defensive Depth Chart Battles to Watch | BWI Live

Headshot 5x7 reduced qualityby: Thomas Frank Carr07/30/25ThomasFrankCarr
Jim Knowles, Zion Tracy Penn State Football On3
Penn State's nickel position will have one of the most open competitions between cornerback Zion Tracy (left) and safety King Mack (center). Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles (right) will oversee the change in defensive philosophy this season. (Photo elements from USA Today Network)

Penn State football starts training camp today for head coach James Franklin’s 12th season leading the Nittany Lions. On today’s BWI Live Show, we’ll preview the final two camp battle positions in our summer series as the competition kicks off in Happy Valley for the upcoming year. We’ll also have a guest appearance from former Penn State football player and current media figure Landon Tengwall on the show. Tengwall sat down for an extended conversation recently, and we’ll air part of it on today’s show.

If you want to be part of the action, join us live at 10 a.m. on YouTube! We’ll be taking questions from the audience during the first portion of today’s show and answering them on air. If you can’t catch the show live, you can always access it on any podcast platform, in this article, or 24/7 on our YouTube Channel.

Camp starts today

We’ve dissected just about every aspect of Penn State football over the last six months since the team ended its 2024 season in January. However, there are still underrated aspects of the 2025 season that we’ll discuss on today’s show. With camp starting this week, we’ll dive into a few of those topics to begin the show. We’ll also outline our broad expectations for what we think of training camp this Fall.

Penn State depth chart battles: Defensive edition

We focused exclusively on Penn State’s receiver position on Tuesday’s show. Today, we’ll wrap up our look at camp battles by focusing on the defensive side of things. The Penn State nickel position has a wide-open competition for snaps beginning today. Who are the players to know, and what do they bring to the table? We’ll discuss.

Finally, we’ll end our look at the defense with a review of the linebacker room. Will Dom DeLuca start for Penn State in 2025? Can the team find enough players to fill out a two-deep? We’ll discuss the players that fans need to know heading into Media Day and open practice this weekend.

Sitting down with Landon Tengwall

Finally, we’ll preview a portion of an extended sit-down with Tengwall to end the show. Tengwall has quickly become a staple in the Penn State ecosystem with his film breakdowns and videos on YouTube. Recently, he sat down for a season preview discussion with Blue White Illustrated. We’ll air part of that conversation on today’s show with the full, unedited version on the site later today.