Penn State Football still eyeing transfer portal: James Franklin takeaways

With Penn State Football in their last week of spring practice, head coach James Franklin sat down with the media Wednesday night for a state of the union on the Nittany Lions

We are just a few days away from the 2021 Blue-White Spring game as Penn State Football will put a bow on their spring practice.

The spring game will look and feel a lot different than usual, as coach James Franklin said Wednesday night, it will look a lot more like a practice than a scrimmage, but did say it will have more “bells and whistles” than any old practice.

With only freshmen allowed into Beaver Stadium, the game will not be televised, nor will it be open to the media. Despite that, it is a big landmark after not having any type of spring ball to speak of last season due to Covid-19.

Franklin is one who usually fills these weekly zoom sessions and press conferences with generic coach speak, but has been more open and transparent with the media and fans alike this offseason, and once again Wednesday night was more of an open book.

Let’s take a look at three key takeaways from Penn State Football coach James Franklin’s meeting with the media: 

3. The transfer portal is still in play as the staff looks to finalize the roster

It has been well documented that Franklin has shown an aggressiveness in the transfer portal we have not seen in the past, adding five players this offseason from the portal, all of which were starters at their former schools.

The one position the Nittany Lions did not dip into in the transfer market was quarterback, a position many fans hoped they would target. However, Franklin would not rule it out, or any position for that matter. He said he expects a wave of post-spring ball action in the portal, and Penn State Football is open to adding at all positions.

"“For us, I think it always helps if it’s a young man that we have a previous relationship with…but that doesn’t always have to be the case,” Franklin said."

Having only three scholarship quarterbacks is a concern on the offensive side of the ball, but defensive end is also a position where depth is a concern, even after adding defensive end Arnold Ebiketie from Temple.

If the post-spring ball wave Franklin predicts comes to fruition, expect that to be a position he and the staff target.