If you were to ask Penn State head coach James Franklin how he would describe his program, he wouldn’t want the image to be one that is transactional and not transformational.
“We’re not a big portal team,” Franklin said, last season. “We’re a developmental program, we embrace that, but we will go out and make moves in the portal where we need to.”
Franklin faced a few hard realities as his 2024 season was coming to an end.
No. 1 was losing tight end Tyler Warren, who was the program’s first John Mackey Award winner – awarded to the nation’s top tight end.
While the tight end room was deep and the prospects to reload were a lot easier, what was difficult for Franklin was the realization the lack of production on the perimeter from wide receivers wasn’t maximizing quarterback Drew Allar’s potential.
Warren may have had an ability to masquerade many of the deficiencies the wide receiver possessed, but to ask that from Luke Reynolds, Khalil Dinkins, and Andrew Rappleyea – who was returning from injury is a tall task indeed.
Ideally, Franklin wanted the ball to be spread around but not concentrated to one specific target like Warren was a season ago.
“What we hope to do is to spread the ball around,” Franklin said during his appearance at Big Ten Media Days that was held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
“In a lot of ways, I think It makes us more difficult to defend when there’s more guys on the field that we think can impact the game at any moment.”
When you couple Franklin’s statements of Penn State’s willing to leverage the portal where they need to and the desire to pass it around. The notion of Penn State wanting to give Allar all the resources necessary to fully realize his potential was apparent.
During Allar’s session with the media at Big Ten Media Days he talked about how Devonte Ross (Troy), Kyron Hudson (USC), and Trebor Pena (Syracuse) made their initial impressions.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“They’ve been great for our room. I think one thing about all of them is they came in and put their head down and worked. They were not coming in entitled to anything. They earned everybody’s respect from the players standpoint, on the offensive side of the ball and defensive side of the ball, and the coaching staff. Those guys will put their head down and work, and they’re unselfish and that sort of thing and that sort of way. So I’m really excited.”
During 2024, Hudson grabbed 38 receptions for 462 receiving yards and had three receiving touchdowns. One of Hudson’s signature plays came in Week 1 against LSU where Hudson made a signature one handed grab deep in LSU territory between two defenders.
At Syracuse, Pena had almost instant chemistry with Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord. Pena led the ACC conference with 84 receptions and had career highs in receiving yards (941) and receiving touchdowns (9).
One of the more exciting receivers to come is Devonte Ross. Ross had displayed in a game against Iowa that he could play up to the competition by having five receptions for 142 yards, with two receiving touchdowns. Ross notched the first punt return for a touchdown surrendered by Iowa special teams since Christian McCaffrey did it in the 2016 Rose Bowl.
Last season, Ross led all Sun Belt pass catchers with 11 receiving touchdowns.
Allar having an opportunity to work in the spring and summer with his new wide receivers gave his assessment of each.
“Kyron’s a bigger receiver who’s going to make those contested catches. But again, he’s not just a big receiver that’s going to make contested catches. He can win on routes. He’s fast. He’s fast enough to win on the balls and that sort of thing.”
“Devonte has been really good. He’s a really twitchy guy, like he’ll make some guys missing space, and I’m really excited for him. And then obviously having Trebor now come in, obviously a little bit later than the other two, but he’s done a great job of putting himself in that room and earning the trust of everybody in that room.”
Allar feels the room is “really good” and has good reason to be excited to see how each produces that will elevate Penn State’s passing game.
