Despite a bad miss, James Franklin’s 2024 transfer portal haul is paying off big for Penn State

After falling short in the Big Ten Championship Game against Oregon, Penn State nabbed the No. 6 seed in the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket. The very next day, James Franklin indicated that he and his staff would have a more aggressive approach to the transfer portal than last year, and there may be a correlation between the Nittany Lion’s 11-2 season and that philosophy. 

Franklin’s focus in the offseason has always been on talent retention over acquisition, but two of the six players he brought into Happy Valley through the portal last season, have been huge pieces of his team’s success. Adding veteran talent through the portal allowed Franklin to plug holes on his roster and build critical depth to withstand injuries, so why wouldn’t he want more of that for 2025? 

The headliner of Franklin’s 2024 portal class was wide receiver Julian Fleming. The Ohio State cast-off was a former five-star recruit from Pennsylvania, but he didn’t have the impact many expected in his homecoming season. Fleming has just 14 catches for a Penn State offense that still desperately needs talent at wide receiver. However, two other members of the class, who didn't generate as much buzz, have had an even bigger impact and will continue to in the CFP. 

The portal provided Penn State crucial depth

Fleming wasn’t the only former PA five-star who returned home last offseason. Offensive tackle Nolan Rucci transferred to Penn State from Wisconsin, and initially lost a fall camp battle for the starting right tackle spot. However, when Anthony Donkoh went down with an injury against Minnesota in Week 13, Rucci stepped in and has been excellent since. 

Most teams, even other national championship contenders like Ohio State, would and have struggled to withstand injuries to starters along the offensive line. The transfer portal has helped to spread O-line talent across the country and thin out the depth of even the best teams, but Franklin used the portal to bolster his depth up front and that decision helped the Nittany Lions go blow-for-blow with No. 1 Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game. 

After a rough performance in relief against Minnesota, allowing four QB pressures, Rucci has been excellent. Across his starts against Maryland and Oregon, Rucci has allowed just one pressure in 76 pass-blocking snaps, and he hasn’t been a downgrade in the run game. The Nittany Lions had their best rushing performance of the year against Oregon with 297 yards on the ground. 

Rucci will be the starter at right tackle in Penn State’s CFP first-round matchup with SMU at Beaver Stadium on December 21, the only first-year transfer starter on the offensive side of the ball. Penn State will start two first-year transfers on defense, cornerbacks Jalen Kimber and A.J. Harris. While both have started all season, Franklin struck gold with Harris, a sophomore from Georgia with two years of eligibility left who has blossomed into a star for Tom Allen’s unit. 

A transfer portal star

Harris is the defense’s clear No. 1 cornerback, often shadowing the opponent's primary outside weapon. Against Oregon that meant Evan Stewart. Tez Johnson torched the Nittany Lions from the slot for 11 catches, 181 yards, and a touchdown, but Stewart didn’t make a single catch and was only targeted once. For the season, Stewart has 48 catches for 613 yards and five touchdowns. 

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw in Harris’s direction five times, twice to Johnson, and the sophomore allowed just three catches for 12 yards. Penn State’s defense had plenty of problems on Saturday night, but Harris was not one of them. He’s arguably been the second-most consistent player on the team behind Abdul Carter, who was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. 

There will inevitably be misses in the transfer portal, as there are in high school recruiting. That’s why Franklin and many other head coaches have been hesitant to dive into the portal palooza head first, and many coaches that have, have been burned, like Mike Norvell at Florida State this season. It’s a volatile market, and Franklin learned that with Fleming, but he also experienced to upside of getting it right with a young player like Harris that he has for multiple seasons at a position of need. 

The foundation of any championship program will always come from high school, which seems to have been proven out over the early years of the portal era. However, it could be tough for any program, especially Franklin’s, which recruits at a high but not elite level, to get over the hump without a more aggressive approach to the transfer market. Harris and Rucci have taught the 11th-year head coach of the Nittany Lions that lesson, one he appears to be applying to his 2025 roster construction.