Penn State has never been a big player in the transfer portal. James Franklin prefers to use the portal to patch holes on his roster rather than rebuilding the infrastructure. He did that well this past offseason with eight impact transfers, the most impactful transfer haul of his career.
Consequently, when you’re not bringing in a bevy of talent through the portal, you don’t push out much talent either. Penn State focuses heavily on roster retention, but even so, the roster churn of modern college football is inevitable. 16 players left the program through the portal in the offseason, and more will be heading out the door after this year. Some may be thinking portal sooner than that.
Roster battles will heat up in fall camp, and the losers who see their name slide down the depth chart will immediately be on transfer portal watch. But why wait? Considering how I expect the depth chart to shake out heading into Week 1, these are the five players I’m already putting on transfer watch heading into 2025.
This isn’t specifically about Ivey, who Drew Allar recently mentioned as a potential contributor to the offense this season, it’s just about whoever is the odd man out in the receiver room. James Franklin was desperate to overhaul Allar’s group of pass catchers this season and did so with three stop-gap options in their final year of eligibility.
Ivey will be stuck behind Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross, Trebor Pena, and even Liam Clifford in his redshirt senior season, but if he also slides behind Kaden Saunders, redshirt freshmen Tyseer Denmark and Peter Gonzales, and true freshman standout Koby Howard, then he could be on the move sooner rather than later. The same goes for Saunders if he fails to return to form after missing most of last season with an injury.
Chimdy Onoh was almost an afterthought upon his arrival in Happy Valley. His 2023 recruiting class was headlined by five-star offensive tackle J’ven Williams and offensive tackle Alex Birchmeier, who also flirted with five-star status. Then, Anthony Donkoh was the first from the 2023 class to crack the starting lineup in the trenches, emerging at right tackle last season.
Now, Onoh is a depth piece on the interior, who has played just 36 snaps across his two seasons with the Nittany Lions. In 2025, he’s likely to fall behind Birchmeier and Texas A&M transfer TJ Shanahan as the third backup guard. Even with Drew Shelton, Nick Dawkins, and Nolan Rucci all in their final seasons of eligibility, there won’t be enough turnover up front for Onoh to be in line for a starting role in 2026.
Cam Wallace entered the 2024 season as the primary backup to the elite running back tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Now, Singleton and Allen are back for their senior year, but Wallace may fall as far as RB5 by Week 1.
Wallace suffered a “long-term” injury in Penn State’s early-season win against Kent State, ceding opportunities to true freshman Quinton Martin Jr. and Corey Smith as they preserved their redshirt but found their way onto the field in blowouts. Both Martin and Smith looked strong in limited action, so it’s unlikely that Wallace will walk back into his RB3 role in fall camp.
The return of King Mack after his one-season hiatus at Alabama was good news for the Penn State secondary, but potentially devastating to Lamont Payne Jr.’s career prospects. The former three-star safety played just two defensive snaps last season and five for his career. Mack represents a significant roadblock to playing time for Payne, who could be on the move if he fails to crack the safety rotation in fall camp.
If the line of succession isn’t already clear at quarterback, it likely will be after fall camp. After his third year as the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions, Drew Allar will hand the program over to 2024 four-star Ethan Grunkemeyer. Grunkemeyer emerged as QB2 for Penn State in the College Football Playoff and saw his first career action against SMU in the first round after Beau Pribula entered the transfer portal and Jaxon Smolik missed an extended stretch with an injury.
Smolik may return for a QB battle next year, but with his eligibility already waning, if it becomes clear that Grunkemeyer is the favorite son of Franklin and the rest of the staff, Smolik could look elsewhere for a starting opportunity.