Victory Bell Rings
Fansided

Grading Penn State Football’s Transfer Additions

By Alec Whitaker

Western Kentucky's Mitchell Tinsley Transfered to Penn State Football earlier this month. (Image via Lansing State)
Western Kentucky's Mitchell Tinsley Transfered to Penn State Football earlier this month. (Image via Lansing State) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
Penn State Football
Penn State’s new offensive line coach, Phil Trautwein, (image via YorkDailyRecord) /

Offensive Guard Hunter Nourzad

Everyone knows Penn State’s offensive line struggled in 2021, things needed to change.

Penn State also lost three starters either to the NFL or from running out of eligibility. While youngsters like Olu Fashanu and Landon Tengwall look ready for increased roles, still adding another veteran presence felt necessary.

Enter Cornell transfer Hunter Nourzad.

While Nourzad played tackle at Cornell, he’s expected to play guard for the Nittany Lions. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 298 pounds on Cornell’s roster, guard is probably a better position for him in the Big Ten.

Nourzad was one of the best linemen in the Ivy League, being named a first-team All-Ivy League player last season. This led to him being courted by plenty of teams when he entered the portal, including Iowa and Illinois.

This was a really nice portal victory for offensive line coach Phil Trautwein, considering Iowa is an offensive line factory and Illinois will be better at producing linemen with Bret Bielema now at the helm of the program.

Winning this battle was impressive and adding an offensive lineman was a necessity for Penn State this off-season. If there is one downside, it’s that tackle was probably a bigger need than guard, but a target that made sense never really emerged.

Grade: B+

Home/Penn State Football