Penn State Sports Magazine
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J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3 11 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "Sometimes you can convince an older player who just wants to be a part of a big-time program and part of a special experience to come as more of a backup," Franklin said. "But more times than not, the guys that you're going to want would rather go somewhere to play and be the guy and compete. "That's always a challenge when you're starting a true freshman or a redshirt freshman. You may start a true freshman and have five quarterbacks on your roster, but after the season ends, your room is going to change dramatically." With Veilleux gone — he resurfaced at Pitt in late December — the Lions will have three scholarship quarterbacks next year. Allar will be back for his sophomore year, while Beau Pribula and Jaxon Smo- lik will have freshman eligibility. Pribula redshirted this fall, while Smolik is set to arrive as a member of the Lions' 2023 recruiting class. If Franklin wants a fourth scholarship quarterback, he could address that need by adding someone in the portal, but Penn State's efforts of late have been focused on other positions: wide receiver, defen- sive back and the offensive and defensive lines. The Nittany Lions were particularly ac- tive in their pursuit of wideouts during the first few weeks of the transfer portal window, which opened on Dec. 5 and ex- tends through Jan. 18. Their targets have included Dont'e Thornton (formerly of Oregon), Kaden Prather (West Virginia), Devin Carter (NC State) and Rara Thomas (Mississippi State). In addition, the staff has pursued two former Kent State wide- outs: Dante Cephas and Devontez Walker. Of those players, Cephas looked to be the most likely to end up at Penn State. A three-star prospect in the On3 Consensus coming out of Penn Hills High in Pitts- burgh, Cephas got to know the Nittany Lions when he was a recruit and recently renewed those acquaintances during a December visit. "I went there in high school a lot," Ce- phas told On3 following his visit. "It was good. I got to see all the new facilities they've got. It brought back old memo- ries." As a redshirt sophomore at Kent State, Cephas caught 82 passes for 1,240 yards and 9 touchdowns. He followed that breakthrough season by totaling 48 re- ceptions for 744 yards and 3 scores this past fall. Penn State's needs at wide receiver be- came more acute when Parker Washing- ton announced in early December that he will forgo his last two seasons of eligibility to enter the NFL Draft. With Washington and super senior Mitchell Tinsley exiting, the Lions have lost their two most pro- ductive wideouts from the 2022 season. Heading into the Rose Bowl, Washington and Tinsley had accounted for 91 of the 149 catches that Penn State's wide receiv- ers had made this year, and 1,139 of 1,828 receiving yards. As of mid-December, the Lions' most significant addition via the portal had been punter Riley Thompson, formerly of Florida Atlantic. In his lone season with the Owls, the Melbourne, Australia, native averaged 45.4 yards per punt and earned Freshman All-America honors from Col- lege Football News and The Athletic. He'll have four years to play three at Penn State and will be on scholarship. While Washington was a big loss, Penn State got a boost elsewhere when third- year sophomore offensive tackle Olu Fashanu announced that he was plan- ning to come back in 2023. Fashanu had been on a rocket ride in the fall, going from first-year starter to projected first-round draft pick in a matter of months. He suffered an unspecified injury in Week 8 against Ohio State and didn't play in Penn State's last four regular-season games, but his sudden emergence as a top NFL prospect made his decision to return, if not a surprise, then at least a relief. Fashanu joined interior lineman Hunter Nourzad in opting to return to Penn State for one more year. Nourzad, who won honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in his first season after transferring from Cornell, announced in November that he was planning to use his final year of eligi- bility in 2023. ■ Franklin On College Football's New Normal: 'Things Happen Fast' It might have seemed as though the NCAA's Division I Council was helping bring some stability to college football when it approved a measure in August to limit when players could put their names in the transfer portal. With the rule change, players who wanted to enter the portal would have to do so during the two windows that the NCAA created: Dec. 5-Jan. 18 and May 1-15. What looks good on paper doesn't always work well in practice, though, and Penn State coach James Franklin didn't sound particularly enthused when asked at the Nittany Lions' Rose Bowl media day about the change. "I think a lot of things that the NCAA comes up with probably in theory make sense," Franklin said. "As always, I don't know if there's enough conversation going on with the actual practitioners. In terms of the transfer process, I think you can have all the conversations you want beforehand, but when it hits, it's different." Franklin's concerns involve the overlap between the first transfer window and the early signing period. Most schools, including Penn State, aim to sign all of their verbally committed prospects in December, leaving little work left to do in the traditional signing period. That approach may relieve much of the anxiety that coaches used to feel in January and early February, but now December has become a flurry of activity, forcing coaches to manage the comings and goings via the transfer portal at the same time they're working to finish off their recruiting classes. Those difficulties are compounded at schools that have made coaching changes after the season. Even at schools where the staff isn't in flux, though, the move to concentrate transfers into two discrete windows has forced coaches to be nimble. "It's just a very different pace," Franklin said. "You could get a phone call at 12 at night from a kid that's been on the fence [about transferring]. He's ready to jump, and you better have the answer, because now, if you don't give him the answer, he wakes up in the morning and he has second thoughts because you haven't given him a direct answer. "Things happen fast. We're still working through those things. There are a lot of different moving parts." — Matt Herb