Michigan State Football: Will Jacub Panasiuk reach lofty goal in 2021?

Offseasons are when lofty goals are made and screenshots are taken.

Some players set extremely lofty goals which are inevitably called out after the season when they aren’t reached and Freezing Cold Takes is tagged all over Twitter.

But sometimes those lofty goals are met.

For Jacub Panasiuk, his goal of being the Big Ten’s sack leader in 2021 seems a little crazy considering he wasn’t fully healthy in 2020 and has never had more than 3.5 in a single season, but returning as the veteran of the Spartans’ talented defensive line, it’s fairly possible.

Some people forget that Panasiuk almost didn’t play during the 2020 season as he announced — controversially — that he wouldn’t play unless Chuck Bullough was back as an assistant. He quickly took back those words and welcomed the new coaching staff and Ron Burton is a familiar face that helped him adjust to the other new coaches.

Now that Panasiuk is all-in and hopefully fully healthy, he believes he can have a monster impact and lead the conference in sacks.

Is it a realistic goal?

Michigan State football needs Panasiuk to lead Big Ten in sacks

Michigan State’s pass rush last season was not great and Panasiuk being slowed by COVID-19 was a big reason for that. He finished with just one sack and 2.5 tackles for loss in five games but he wasn’t fully healthy. That could change in a full 2021 season.

Let’s take a look at the numbers past sack leaders have had and see what Panasiuk needs to reach in order to pace the Big Ten in sacks.

• 2020: Micah McFadden (6.0 sacks)
• 2019: Chase Young (16.5 sacks)
• 2018: AJ Epenesa/Chase Young (10.5 sacks)
• 2017: Joe Gaziano (9.0 sacks)
• 2016: TJ Watt (11.5 sacks)
• 2015: Carl Nassib (15.5 sacks)

There have been a couple of outliers over the past 5-6 seasons with Young getting 16.5 sacks in 2019 and Nassib securing 15.5 in 2015 so the most realistic number to keep an eye on is somewhere in the 9-11 range.

Over his career, Panasiuk has 7.5 sacks so he would have to more than double his all-time production, but now that he’s the clear starter at defensive end and assuming he plays all 12 games, he should be able to record a career-high in sacks, at the very least.

Leading the Big Ten in sacks is possible because I could see him breaking out for 9-10 but the more likely scenario is that he finishes with 5-6 and a career-best.

You have to love the fact that he’s setting these goals, though.