Nittany Sports Now can confirm that Penn State defender Tony Rojas is out with a long-term injury.
NSN reported earlier Wednesday that the third-year linebacker missed practice because of an injury suffered the previous day, and Nate Bauer of Blue-White Illustrated reported later that Rojas would be out long-term.
NSN can also confirm that report.
Rojas is one of Penn State’s most important defenders. He’s second on the team with 25 tackles, and he and Amare Campbell (37 tackles) have emerged as a formidable one-two punch.
Injuries are familiar to anybody who plays football for an extended period of time, and unfortunately for Rojas, injuries have plagued him throughout college. Last season, Rojas played most of the year on one arm because of it. Through four games, he had been healthy in 2025, picking up two sacks against Villanova, which is more than he had all of last season. The analytics see Rojas as one of Penn State’s best defensive players. Rojas had a quality overall grade of 72.7 via Pro Football Focus. He’s also played the third most snaps on Penn State’s defense with 176, an average of 44 per game. In Saturday’s 30-24 double-overtime loss to Oregon, Rojas played a season high 70 snaps.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.So, yeah, this is a big loss.
Based on what defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said two weeks ago, Tatsch is the next man up behind starters Rojas, Campbell and Dom DeLuca.
“I think (burning his redshirt is) a possibility for him,” Knowles said. “We evaluate everything, even the D squads when they’re going against our offense. We saw enough things with him in the skill level to show that he could possibly come in and compete this year as a freshman, the linebacker skills. So we thought it was worth the investment to start getting him meaningful practice snaps, meaningful game reps, because he showed those skills. So you really always have to choose who you’re going to invest those reps in, and we saw enough really good things on the practice squad and in other situations to think it was worth the investment.”
No. 7 Penn State takes on UCLA Saturday at 3:30 ET in Pasadena on CBS
