Penn State football makes LaVar Arrington II position change official

Penn State football is officially moving sophomore defender LaVar Arrington II from linebacker to defensive end. BWI previously reported the planned change for the son of ‘Linebacker U’ legend LaVar Arrington. Now, head coach Matt Campbell and co., have made the change on the program’s online roster.

“I think with LaVar, everything is already switched over to where he’s working with me for the majority of his stuff,” new Nittany Lions edge coach Christian Smith said in February. “Just with some of the practice tape I watched, He beats tight ends and running backs pretty frequently. You know, I’m excited to see him go against offensive tackles.

“He has a skill set that he can win with at the same rate as some of those guys. You watch him run down on kickoffs; he’s one of the first guys down. And then when he gets to the point of contact, and he’s gotta blow something up, he’s not afraid. So those are the traits that you look for.”

Arrington played in seven games last season, all after Terry Smith replaced James Franklin as the program’s head coach. However, he played primarily special teams covering kicks and did not record a counting stat in 2025.

“In LaVar’s case we talked to Big LaVar and they’re totally fine with it,” former interim head coach Terry Smith said when asked about Smith burning his redshirt last year.

Penn State defensive end group is a work in progress

Arrington transitions into a position group that features next to no returning production. Max Granville is one of the most productive returnees at the college level despite missing all of last season due to injury. Sophomore Yvan Kemajou is coming off a 2025 season in which he put up 13 tackles (five for loss) and 1.5 sacks over 11 games. Newcomers to the team at defensive end include former Colorado pass rusher Alex McPherson, onetime Iowa State pass rusher Ikenna Ezeogu, and Class of 2026 four-star signee Jackson Ford.

Additionally, Smith, the aforementioned edge coach, previously told BWI that the program is intrigued by redshirt freshman Dayshaun Burnett for possibly make the reverse transition.

“Another guy that’s floating around is Dayshaun Burnett, who played linebacker a little bit in high school. He’s been a D-End since he’s been here, but those guys are just edges that give you some multiplicity that we can have. We want to put players in the best situations,” Smith said. “Outside linebacker and D-End, a lot of that stuff can become the same thing at the end of the day.