Kobe King is coming off of his ‘best game’ according to Manny Diaz

Often when people are speaking about the Penn State football team Kalen King is a name that people talk about. But, not enough people are talking about his brother Kobe King who has taken over the Mike linebacker position on defense this year. It wasn’t given to him, he had to earn it. But Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Manny Diaz explained on Tuesday how Kobe separated himself from the competition.

Kobe King is coming off of his ‘best game’ according to Manny Diaz

One of the biggest fall camp position battles that the Penn State football team had this summer was at middle linebacker. Tyler Elsdon manned the position in 2022 but Kobe King saw a ton of action. The question became, could King push for the starting job? We saw that question answered during the West Virginia game and King has never looked back. Manny Diaz spoke about Kobe King recently.

Diaz said, “The only thing that was holding Kobe [King] back was his confidence and understanding schematically what to do and how to get us lined up. He got better and better at that as the year went on last season. But I think spring ball when [Tyler] Elsdon was out with his rehab I think that did wonders for Kobe’s confidence. I think just playing with the ones and being more comfortable with the calls and getting everyone lined up. It made a big difference for him. And when Elsdon came back in training camp, we thought they both had great training games. We felt that both guys were starting-caliber mikes, we just felt that Kobe just edged him a little bit.”

Diaz continued, ” I think another big development is that Abdul [Carter] can play mike for us right now. It gives us different options against different types of teams. But I think Kobe had his best game on Saturday, He’s playing fast he can make plays in the backfield and it’s just fun to see a guy play with confidence and playing free and having fun out there.”

Kobe King had 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 1 sack against Northwestern on Saturday. He continues to improve each week at the linebacker position.

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