Converted safeties and hyper-athletic linebackers have taken over the traditional run stuffers. Entering the 2018 season, Penn State football looks like a speedy bunch in the middle portion of their defense. In the past, college linebackers usually stood anywhere from 6-feet to 6-foot-2 on average and weighed 235-plus pounds.
Through much of the “Linebacker U” days, the defenses needed guys that could stop the run first. The linebackers needed to be able to play the pass as well but not to the level they do now. Offenses have progressed and moved into the spread-happy era.
In order to combat this spread trend, defenses became thinner and faster.