An expected position switch has become officially official for Penn State football.
Weeks after the start of fall camp revealed that former linebacker Caleb Bacon was working with the defensive ends. He’s now listed as a DE on the team’s website.
This change comes after Bacon spent four seasons as a linebacker at Iowa State.
In that time, Bacon became a team captain and an honorable mention All-Big 12 performer. But Bacon’s 6-foot-4, 242-pound frame made him a realistic candidate to move to the edge, and that’s ultimately what Matt Campbell and the coaching staff decided to do ahead of fall camp.
“We felt like we gave him so many reps in the spring at linebacker, we’d be missing the boat not to start him off in fall camp on the EDGE,” Campbell told reporters at local media day earlier this month.
“As we kind of got through spring, we kind of felt like, man, we’d be missing the boat not to add his multiplicity,” Campbell said. “He’s a great edge player. He certainly has the ability to slide back and play Mike or Will linebacker at times as well because he’s great in coverage. He’s a smart football player.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.NSN caught up with Bacon himself on local media day, and he further explained the reasoning behind the switch.
“I think Coach Campbell, even at Iowa State, brought that up to me,” Bacon said. “He really liked me as a pass rusher there, both in ’23 and ’25 when I played. I feel like that was even with very minimal coaching in the pass-rush game. I didn’t really work with the D-line there much. A lot of it was just effort, attitude and rushing.”
“I worked with (the DEs) a little bit, but not too much,” he said. “Being in the D-line room here has opened things up a little bit more, learning different techniques from guys like Coach C (Christian Smith) and Coach (Ikaika) Malloe. I feel like that’s really helped me so far in fall camp.”
Penn State opens its 2026 season against Marshall Sept. 5. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 on FS1.
