Penn State to be ‘very aggressive’ in transfer portal
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The transfer portal officially opened Monday, starting a stretch of 20 days between Monday and Dec. 28 where players can enter the portal and find a new college program. The portal won’t open again until April 16 for 10 more days.
Penn State has been quiet as far as departures go, with just reserve tight end Jerry Cross and freshman defensive tackle T.A. Cunningham announcing their exits from Happy Valley. On the flip side, though, Penn State is going to be “very aggressive” in searching for additions, as James Franklin said this week.
The Nittany Lions have a College Football Playoff run still ahead of them, playing SMU at home Dec. 21. Added with the fact they played in the Big Ten Championship, a 45-37 loss to Oregon, this past weekend, Franklin estimated his team may be a week behind others in making a plan for the portal, which he said they’ll do this week.
“The challenge that I don’t think a lot of people think about is typically, when your season ends and you’re in that time getting ready for a bowl game, you have time to sit down with all of your players and find out what’s going on. Who’s coming back, who’s considering going into the transfer portal, who is going into the transfer portal,” Franklin said. “And a lot of those things impact your decision making on who you’re going to try to go out and get to replace those guys with.”
“But I’ve asked our staff to be aggressive and move and make some decisions in positions that we think we’re going to have some needs,” he added.
Franklin and other Penn State staffers have reiterated the point over the past few weeks that the Nittany Lions are not a “big transfer portal team.” Instead of searching for any talented players that may be available, the staff tends to solely target positions of need and focus mostly on recruiting and developing high school prospects. On the 2024 roster, Penn State has just 11 players that transferred in from FBS schools. The Lions also tend to target players whom they heavily recruited out of high school, an important factor to keep in mind with many portal targets.
Franklin declined at the end of the regular season to point out specific positions he felt Penn State would need to add at, citing the fact that there were still games to be played.
Here, we’ll analyze a few of the positions Penn State seems most likely to look for in the portal. We’ll also drop a few names to watch at certain positions, some being names we’ve heard connected to Penn State and others that make sense from an exterior perspective.
Wide receiver
This is an obvious one, sure, but Penn State will continue to target wide receivers until it fixes a wide-ranging notion that the position is holding the Nittany Lions back. Julian Fleming transferred from Ohio State this season but has had relatively minimal impact with 14 receptions for 176 yards and one touchdown. Harrison Wallace III has been far and away been Penn State’s top wideout, but he still only holds 39 receptions for 638 yards and four scores. If it weren’t for superstar tight end Tyler Warren, the passing game would be an even bigger question mark than it already is.
The good news for Penn State fans, though, is that the transfer portal will be loaded with receiving talent. The Nittany Lions already have names like FIU’s Eric Rivers (62 receptions, 1,172 yards, 12 touchdowns, 18.9 yards per catch), Miami Ohio’s Reggie Virgil (41, 816, 9, 19.9) and N.C. State’s Kevin Concepcion (53, 460, 6, 8.7) in their sights. It’s hard to tell just how high Penn State can or will swing at the position, but some bigger names like Auburn star freshman Cam Coleman or Kentucky’s Barion Brown have also made themselves available so far.
Defensive line
The Nittany Lions are likely to lose a ton from their talented defensive line. Tackle Dvon J-Thomas is out of eligibility, end Abdul Carter is a surefire first-round pick and both tackle Zane Durant and end Dani Dennis-Sutton will have intriguing NFL decisions to make. There are promising young players at both positions, but Penn State will surely look to add depth and probably at least one impact player at both spots.
Texas A&M edge rusher Enai White is a top name to watch, having formerly been Pennsylvania’s No. 2 prospect from Imhotep Charter. This is a position Penn State could look for lower-level prospects to make a jump at, like Alonzo Ford or Derrick Tangelo have done in the past. Kent State’s Kameron Olds and James Madison’s Darold DeNgoghe (from Pennsylvania) are productive names who have jumped out so far.
Linebacker
Part of Penn State’s struggles in stopping the run against elite competition this season have come because of a lack of depth at linebacker. Captain Kobe King has played good football, but fellow starter Tony Rojas is still raw overall. There isn’t much depth behind them, as the staff waits to see what younger talent like Ta’Mere Robinson and Anthony Speca can become.
Two names jumped out at the position: star West Virginia freshman Josiah Trotter and Bowling Green veteran Joseph Sipp Jr. Trotter hails from St. Joe’s Prep in Philadelphia, while the Lions got an up-close look at Sipp, who had 75 tackles this season, when they played the Falcons.
The under-the-radar adds
Penn State will look at offensive line additions. Though right guard Sal Wormley is the only current starter who will run out of eligibility for 2025, position coach Phil Trautwein can never have enough bodies up front. There could be a specific emphasis, too, on bringing in athletic linemen who fit OC Andy Kotelnicki’s scheme well.
Junior running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen could each leave for the draft this year. There are seriously talented youngsters behind them, like the injured Cam Wallace and freshmen Quinton Martin and Corey Smith. There are two more talented freshmen in the 2025 class in Jabree Wallace-Coleman and Tiqwai Hayes. But adding a veteran who can provide a spark on limited touches, like Trey Potts in 2023, would make sense.
Finally, defensive back will be a position of relative need. Star senior Jaylen Reed will be out of eligibility, while the injured Kevin Winston Jr. could consider the NFL. Starting corner Jalen Kimber runs out of eligibility, too. There are plenty of young players the staff likes at corner to have little worry about the position’s future, but at both corner and safety, it’s just like the offensive line: you can never have too many bodies.
One-time Penn State commit Jordan Allen, formerly at LSU, and Pittsburgh native Raion Strader, formerly at Miami (Ohio), are names to keep an eye on at corner. Purdue standout safety Dillon Thieneman, though he doesn’t have prior ties to Penn State, could be a nice add that is proven in the Big Ten.