Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1535618
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 5 15 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M By The Numbers 1st Penn State's spot in Joel Klatt's post-spring top 25. The FOX Sports analyst has coach JAMES FRANKLIN's team ahead of Texas, Ohio State, Oregon and Clemson. "They're following the blueprint of the teams that have just won the national championship," the veteran football commen- tator said on the May 5 edition of "The Joel Klatt Show." "This is why I'm putting them in this spot. You look at what Michi- gan did in 2023. You look at what Ohio State did in 2024. Both of those teams had a core group of veteran players who stayed. They stayed, and they won a championship. Both of those teams had veterans at quarterback. They had veterans on both sides of the ball. They were excellent at the line of scrimmage. They had chips on their shoulders from the way they were bounced from the postseason in years prior. All of that is true about Penn State." 2 Big Ten men's basketball teams that will be making their first-ever appearances at the Bryce Jordan Center next season. USC and UCLA will travel to State College for the first time as two of seven home-only opponents on PSU's upcoming schedule. (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wis- consin are the others.) The 2025-26 schedule also has Penn State traveling to two new venues. The Nittany Lions will visit Oregon and Washington for the first time in program history, with the Ducks and Huskies joining Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue on PSU's slate of road-only opponents. 6.28 Points per set by Florida outside hitter Kennedy Martin last season, the highest average in Divi- sion I. In one of the biggest moves of the women's volleyball offseason, Martin announced May 7 that she was transferring to Penn State. An All-American and semifinalist for AVCA Di- vision I Player of the Year honors, Martin said she "can't wait to be part of such a strong and storied program." The 6-foot-6 rising junior will help fill the void left by the graduation of Jess Mruzik, who last December led PSU to its eighth national championship. 8 Big Ten road wins by the Penn State baseball team this sea- son. It's the most conference road victories for PSU since it won nine in 2007. The Nittany Lions concluded the Big Ten regular season at 15-15 and were 31-22 overall prior to the start of the conference tournament. 10th Penn State's place on the list of college football's best coaching jobs, as compiled by On3's Andy Staples. Taking into account such factors as administrative alignment, fan and donor support, past success and proxim- ity to recruits, Staples and colleague Ari Wasserman ranked their top 10 jobs nationally, with both including Texas, Georgia and Ohio State in their top three, albeit in a different order. Wasserman didn't have the Lions on his list, but Staples made them his final entry. "Pat Kraft's arrival [as athletics director] in 2022 from Boston College was the moment Penn State … started taking football as seriously as its coaches and fans wanted," Staples wrote. "That may mean I have the Nittany Lions too low on this list, but the competition is stiff. We need to see whether Penn State can consistently compete for national titles first." 23 Number of Penn State teams that earned perfect Academic Progress Rate scores in data released by the NCAA in early May. That total included all 14 of the univer- sity's women's teams. On the men's side, the teams earning perfect 1,000 APR scores were basketball, cross country, fencing, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball and wrestling. 33 Number of Penn State players selected in the past five NFL Drafts. Eight Nittany Lions were chosen in 2022 and '24, the team's highest total since 1996. PSU's five-year total ranks sixth nationally behind Georgia (49), Alabama (48), Michigan (46), LSU (43) and Ohio State (36). PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS