Penn State Football Kicks Off First Day of Practice for 2023 Season

Penn State’s football team began summer camp late Wednesday afternoon in preparation for a 2023 season that is already highly anticipated.

And heated, even though the temperatures never hit 80.

The first four periods of Day One practice on the fields outside Lasch Building and Holuba Hall were open to the media (26 members were in attendance), and you could tell a number of the players were on edge – in word and in deed — as they ran through simple drills.

A lot is on the line. Already. 

The Nittany Lions, coming off an 11-2 season and a Rose Bowl victory, are rated as one of college football’s best teams. They are ranked fourth (USA Today), fifth (The Athletic, NCAA.com), sixth (Phil Steele), seventh (CBS Sports) and eighth (ESPN’s Bill Connelly).

For good reason: Their 2023 roster features 26 players who have made at least one start and, overall, they have a combined 324 career college starts to their credit. As head coach James Franklin heads into his 10th season at Penn State, only his 2017 squad — which the 2023 team rivals for most talent in the past decade — had more experience, with 359 starts.

Franklin is 77-36 (.681) at Penn State, but just 1-5 vs. Ohio State and Michigan over the past three seasons, and is 4-14 since 2014. (He’s 3-15 vs. Top 10 opponents at PSU.) His success, and that of the Nittany Lions, will hinge largely on how they fare in their games at Ohio State (Oct. 21) and in Beaver Stadium against Michigan (Nov. 11) in the last year PSU will face both of those top-tier Big Ten teams on an annual basis.

In 101 days — on Nov. 12 — Penn State will know if its work on Wednesday paid off.

Right now, Penn State’s biggest question mark(s) are with its passing game.

Transfer wide receiver Dante Cephas (Kent State) brings 145 catches for 2,139 yards and 12 TDs to a Penn State receiving corps that needs bolstering. In the WR drills on Wednesday, veteran PSU receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith was the hands-on vocal leader and focal point, lining up first for every drill, while Cephas laid back and waited his turn as new WR coach Marques Hagans corralled and threw to his receivers.

Quarterback Drew Allar led off on all the passing drills I viewed, and is the presumptive starter, even though Franklin has not yet named him as such. Allar, a sophomore in 2023, completed 35 of 60 passes for 344 yards and four TDs (and ran 18 times for a 5.2-yard average), as a five-star freshman in 2022. He was a big presence on the practice field on Wednesday, and looked every bit of his 6-foot-5 frame and 243-pound.

“That’s money, that’s money,” offensive coordinator and QB coach Mike Yurcich repeated again and again to Allar and his likely back-up, Beau Pribula. Danny O’Brien, a former offensive analyst for Penn State, was active during the QB drills — permitted now that he is a graduate assistant. O’Brien was ACC Freshman of the Year as a QB at Maryland under Franklin’s tutelage as the Terps’ O-coordinator.

Former GA — and member of Penn State’s Supa Six a decade ago — Deion Barnes is now the D-line coach with the departure of John Scott Jr. to the Detroit Lions. In the defensive session I watched, so did Barnes – who looked on from afar as second-year defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, a very active coach, ran the drill.

Penn State practiced in helmets and modified, smaller shoulder pads as they ramp-up to wearing full gear later into camp. Penn State will concentrate on just football for the next 18 days, before classes at Penn State start on Aug. 21.

The Nittany Lions open the 2023 season at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2, in Beaver Stadium against West Virginia. The game will be nationally televised on NBC, with former PSU quarterback Todd Blackledge serving as analyst alongside Noah Eagle.