UNIVERSITY PARK — Don’t look now, but the Penn State Nittany Lion football team will begin practice for the 2025 season on Wednesday, July 30, one month before its opening game against Nevada.
That’s just six days from the publication of this issue of the Gazette, so even though there is a lot of warm weather still to come, it might be time to get ready for some football.
And it looks like it will be some good football as well.
The 2025 Nittany Lions have been getting a ton of good press, and the team is almost universally picked to return to the College Football Playoffs and even surpass last year’s run into the National Semifinals.
The USA Today Sports Network and Cleveland.com picked PSU to be the champions of the Big Ten. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach ranked Penn State as the No. 1 team in the country going into the new season, while the Lions were ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25, No. 7 in the 247Sports Poll and No. 7 in the CBS Sports Ranking.
Of course, all of the predictions have to be taken onto the field, but there are very good reasons for Penn State to be thought of so highly.
The first and most important, is its strong returning talent.
The Lions have an elite backfield returning with running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, both with 1000-yard seasons in 2024. They are arguably the best running back tandem in the country.
Senior Drew Allar returns for his third season as the Lions’ starter and second under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Allar had a strong season in 2024 with 3327 passing yards and 24 touchdowns.
He will be protected by a solid offensive line that returns four starters and is impressively deep. The line really came into its own in the latter stages of 2024.
Three receiver transfers will boost the receiving corp and add a new dimension to the offense. The transfers include Trebor Pena, who led the ACC in receiving last year, Devonte Ross from Troy and Kyron Hudson from USC.
And the Lions will again heavily rely on a defense, led by new coordinator Jim Knowles that will boast a talented defensive line, a strong secondary and a young, aggressive group of linebackers.
Enhance all of that with other transfers and a strong recruiting class and the Lions will put impressive talent on the field this season.
Penn State also returns an experienced coaching staff led by head coach James Franklin who will enter his 12th year.
Koltelnicki turned down head coaching opportunities to return this year to coach the Lions, and Knowles is considered at the top of his profession and is coming off a national championship coaching with Ohio State.
There are numerous talented position coaches and highly respected recruiter Ja’Juan Seider as well.
These factors all point to a run at the title, but there are concerns.
No wide receiver caught a pass in the Notre Dame playoff game last season, and the hopes are that the new transfers will help turn that room into one of the strong points of the team.
The Lions will also have to find replacements for two of the best players in the country last year: Abdul Carter and Tyler Warren.
The schedule will be a challenge with games against playoff teams Indiana, Iowa, Oregon and Ohio State.
Two of the games against those teams, Ohio State and Iowa, will be away games.
Penn State will, of course, have to avoid upsets and play consistently well against the top teams.
But the word is that last year was the beginning of the learning curve, and what the team learned will carry over to 2025’s big challenges.
It all starts at practice in six days, and then it really starts on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Beaver Stadium against Nevada.
