Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1533674
A P R I L 2 0 2 5 2 5 with a critical question of his own: Who takes over the top spot from Warren in his room? This question is also open-ended. You'd have to go back to 2018, the first season after Gesicki left, to find the last time the Nittany Lions faced as much un- certainty at the tight end position as they do this spring. Everything worked out fine back then; four-star newcomer Pat Freiermuth filled the void admirably, catching 8 touchdown passes that fall, the most by a freshman tight end in program history. In the six seasons that followed, it was clear who the leader of the position group would be. This year, however, that is not the case. The Nittany Lions return four scholar- ship tight ends and are bringing in three additional freshmen, but there's no un- disputed heir apparent to Warren. Seeking Opportunities From a seniority standpoint, Khalil Dinkins is next in line to ascend to the first-team spot. Now a redshirt senior, Dinkins caught 14 passes for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2024, all of which were career highs. Dinkins has plenty of athleticism and graded out as the Lions' top run- and pass-blocking tight end in 2024 accord- ing to Pro Football Focus. If he finally breaks out and becomes a force this fall, few will be surprised. Dinkins actually started six games last year — games in which Penn State opened with two tight ends. Franklin liked how Dinkins complemented Warren, giving opponents a lot to process when looking over Penn State's offense. "When he's on the field, they can't put him into a box and say, 'This guy's the receiving tight end and this guy's the blocking tight end,'" Franklin explained last September. "Those guys can line up in spread sets. They can motion into the backfield and play fullback, they can play on the line at tight end, they can play in the [H-back] position. That's when tight ends are most valuable, and when defen- sive coordinators get headaches about them." Because of Warren's success, Dinkins never got the chance to showcase the full range of his abilities, but the starting job could be his in 2025. He won't win it without a fight, though. Howle has recruited very successfully in recent years, with all seven of his current scholarship tight ends having received at least four stars from On3. It would be fair to say that Dinkins shared the No. 2 line on the tight end depth chart with Luke Reynolds last season. Like Freiermuth, Reynolds burned his redshirt in Year 1, finishing with 9 catches for 111 yards and a score. He did see sub- stantially less action than Dinkins, play- ing on 267 snaps to the veteran's 482, and the disparity was even more pronounced on run-blocking snaps, with Dinkins see- ing more than twice as many (292) as his true freshman teammate (134). But Reyn- olds was the No. 62 overall player in the On3 Industry Ranking for the 2024 class and has been focused on getting stronger ahead of his sophomore season. Chuck Losey, Penn State's assistant athletics director for performance en- hancement, said Reynolds has gained roughly 40 pounds from the time he stepped foot on campus. Reynolds' atten- tion to detail — he said this past February that he was up from 214.8 pounds at his very first Penn State weigh-in to 248 now — is another indicator of how focused he is on improvement. The Westford, Mass., native realizes that to be a complete tight end, he must show he can block Big Ten defensive ends and run with the back seven defenders. It's a demanding job that requires year-round dedication. "The strength staff did a great job of keeping the power and athleticism when I gained weight," Reynolds said. "It wasn't too hard for me to gain weight, just be- cause that was my goal. I kept telling myself that's what I was going to need to do to be able to perform. But there was definitely an adjustment period through- out camp and obviously throughout the season, just playing at 245 to 250 pounds because I had never done it before. "It's a credit to the strength staff for putting good weight on me. There are two parts to it. It's the effort that the strength staff puts into me, and then the effort that I put into myself, being diligent, consis- tent when I'm eating, eating the right Khalil Dinkins had 14 catches for 122 yards last season and ranks fourth on the team in both categories among returning players. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL