Three positions Penn State Football needs to target in the transfer portal

2. Defensive Tackle

Penn State Football doesn’t need defensive tackles for the sake of depth, it needs to find a specific body type.

Penn State’s biggest defensive tackle, P.J. Mustipher, is moving on after the season. The Nittany Lions may lose another defensive tackle in D’von Ellies, who took part in Senior Day activities.

While these are big losses, Penn State still has some talent at defensive tackle in Coziah Izzard, Hakeem Beamon and Zane Durant. These are talented players, but they are all listed under 300 pounds.

Why does that matter?

James Franklin himself said he felt his defensive line didn’t have the size necessary to keep up with Michigan’s physical offense. The Wolverines ran all over Penn State this year, and Franklin doesn’t want that to happen again.

While the Nittany Lions have some fantastic athletes at defensive tackle, they don’t have a lot of space eaters.

Franklin and his staff should be on the lookout for big-bodied defensive tackles in the portal who can help the Nittany Lions stop Michigan and the other run-first offenses in the Big Ten. Penn State added Derrick Tangelo from the portal to its defensive tackle rotation in 2021. Finding a defensive tackle with a similar size to Tangelo (6-foot-2, 308 pounds) would be a big win.