Less than 11 weeks after Penn State ended its 2024-25 football season with a last-second loss to Notre Dame in the national semifinals in the Orange Bowl, the Nittany Lions began spring practice Tuesday.
Penn State is well-positioned to make another run in the College Football Playoff in the fall after Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zane Durant and Zakee Wheatley decided to return.
Coach James Franklin addressed the media a few hours before the Lions’ first practice. Here are five takeaways from that press conference:
1. Drew Allar needs to take another step
Allar will begin his third season as the starting quarterback with a veteran offensive line in front of him and one of the best running back tandems behind him.
He completed 66.5% of his passes last season, the second-best percentage in school history, for 3,327 yards and 24 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He ranked 13th nationally in efficiency, but Franklin said he can be better.
“He needs to take another step this year,” Franklin said. “He’s done that every single year that he’s been here. He needs to take another step when it comes to his mobility, his leadership, his completion percentage, his touchdown-to-interception ratio. It’s really all of it.
“The exciting thing is that Drew may be 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, but he’s still got a lot of growth and development (ahead of him). He’s a young kid.”
2. Two new pieces at wide receiver
Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans, Penn State’s top two wide receivers last season, transferred shortly after the Orange Bowl, Wallace to Mississippi and Evans to Washington.
For whatever reason, Wallace and Evans were not as productive as they could have been the last two seasons.
Allar and the Lions hope Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross can improve the production there after they transferred to Penn State, Hudson from USC and Ross from Troy.
Hudson is a former four-star prospect from Los Angeles-area powerhouse Mater Dei. He played in every game the last three seasons and made 38 catches for 462 yards and three TDs last season.
Ross was a first-team All-Sun Belt Conference pick last season when he had 76 receptions for 1,043 yards and 11 TDs. He also averaged 17 yards on punt returns and scored on a 77-yard return against Iowa.
“It’s hard to really judge a receiver,” Franklin said, “before you’ve seen him at practice running routes, creating separation and making contested catches. In terms of their attitude, work ethic and demeanor and in terms of how they fit in our locker room, all those things have been really good.”
3. Lighter load for returning veterans
Allar, Singleton, Allen, Dennis-Sutton, Durant, Wheatley and others will have a lighter workload in the spring, as expected. Franklin also said they will not be pushed during preseason training camp.
“It’s very similar to what we’ve done in the past with our established guys,” he said. “You guys saw it with (All-American offensive tackle) Olu Fashanu (two years ago). With our established guys who have played a lot of football, we will modify their reps.
“It’s a fine line because they still need to get better. That’s why they came back. We need to be smart about that.”
Their decreased reps also will allow younger players to get more practice opportunities in their place.
“It gives you a better evaluation of those guys,” Franklin said.
4. Late start for three key players
Linebacker Tony Rojas, offensive lineman Anthony Donkoh and tight end Andrew Rappleyea will not be “fully available” during the early portion of spring practice.
Rojas, who started every game last season, underwent surgery on an upper-body injury shortly after the season. Donkoh started 10 games at right tackle before an unspecified injury knocked him out of the final five games.
Rappleyea sustained an unspecified injury in the opener last season at West Virginia and missed the final 15 games.
“They will not be fully available at the beginning of spring ball,” Franklin said. “We’ll see how that goes. It’s hard to say. Everybody heals differently and at a different pace. There are some things they’ll be able to do and some things that they won’t.”
5. Changes for Blue-White Game
Penn State’s annual Blue-White Game is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 26, even though other schools such as Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan State, USC and Texas have canceled their spring games.
“I’ve been at Penn State long enough to understand the impact that Penn State football has on this entire community,” Franklin said. “There needs to be give and take with this. We need to work together. For me to sit here and say we’re not going to have a spring game, I don’t think that would make sense for a ton of reasons.
“The university schedules a ton of fund-raising events around the spring game. A lot of people are in town. It’s like a homecoming for the spring.”
Franklin said the game will have a modified format without television coverage. He said it will have shorter quarters, no halftime and live and thud tackling.
“I know we have some real, real football people in our fan base that will want to watch and evaluate our roster, get excited and have discussions at the barber shop about the season,” Franklin said. “I also think it’s valuable for you guys. For all those reasons, we’ll still do it.”
