A Penn State defensive end has entered the transfer portal.
It’s Jake Wilson, who has been with the team since 2020.
Most of Wilson’s playing time from 2021-23 was spent on special teams.
Over the past two seasons, Wilson played all 26 of Penn State’s games.
Rivals.com first reported that Wilson would be entering the transfer portal from Penn State, and Wilson has since confirmed it with a statement on social media.
I’ve had a great four years at Penn State and it will always be a home and a family to me but after graduating this fall I have decided to continue on to the next stage in my career. I have entered the transfer portal with two years of eligibility and my recruitment is now open
— Jake Wilson (@wjake17) January 2, 2024
“I’ve had a great four years at Penn State,” Wilson wrote, “and it will always be a home and a family to me. But after graduating this fall, I have decided to continue on to the next stage of my career.”
The in-state product picked Penn State after a career at Nazareth High School, which is roughly three hours from State College. At Nazareth, he was named team MVP for the 2017 and ’19 seasons and helped the squad 6A district championship senior year. That year, Wilson exploded for 119 tackles, 36 tackles for loss and a single-season school record of 19 sacks.
Despite only playing defensive snaps in three of Penn State’s 13 games this season, Wilson became a fixture on Penn State’s practice squad, so much so that he was the developmental squad’s co-defensive player of the year along with true freshman LB Kaveion Keys.
In early November, head coach James Franklin said Wilson and fellow walk-on Jace Tutty– who transferred to Youngstown State earlier this month– “have been really awesome all year long” and called Wilson “Mr. Consistent.”
“[He’s] been phenomenal for us and having a big role in getting us ready each week to be able to be successful,” Franklin said.
