Dani Dennis-Sutton isn’t shying away from what went wrong at Penn State last season. In his defense, it’d be easy to come out and say what went wrong without taking accountability, but it’s good to see him and some of the other guys on last year's team have it.
As he prepares for the next step in his football career, the Penn State star was honest about what happened, pointing to how the Oregon loss quickly turned into something bigger. For a program with high expectations, that shouldn’t have happened.
“Obviously, it was a tough season and things like that,” Dennis-Sutton said, per 247 Sports.
“I feel like, for me, the reason why things went bad, sort of snowballed, we let the Oregon loss turn into the next loss to the next loss, and then ultimately, Coach Franklin got dismissed. But yeah, I think I've learned from it. I think I've grown from it. My leadership skills, I think, have grown tremendously this year, especially once Coach ended up leaving. I felt the team looked at me, specifically the defense, looked at me as the leader. I took pride in that. I wanted to finish the season off strong with those guys. I reflected, and I've learned a lot.”
Dennis-Sutton showed the type of guy he was in Penn State’s bowl game against Clemson. Not to say that the game was meaningless, but it kind of was. Instead of opting out like others, he decided to play, and there was pride in that.
“Obviously, it's, like, not cool to play in a bowl game, unless it's the playoffs,” Dennis-Sutton said. “Or the cool thing is to leave after three years. But for me, obviously, my journey is different. Who I am is different. I wanted to play any possible game I can for Penn State. You never know what happens.”
That mindset should stand out to scouts. While others opted to sit, Dennis-Sutton leaned into being a Penn Stater.
“Well, I mean, I'm reflecting on it a lot because every coach is asking me about it,” Dennis-Sutton said.
A legit NFL talent, he should find success in the league.