Penn State is all-in on winning the 2026 national championship. That’s been clear since the 2025 campaign came to an abrupt end in the College Football Playoff Semifinals and James Franklin managed to keep nearly the entire core of his roster in Happy Valley for one more year. However, there is still one glaring hole on his roster that Franklin desperately needs to fill.
A year ago, Tyler Warren kept the passing game afloat in an offense that Andy Kotelnciki essentially constructed entirely around the talented tight end’s strengths. Now, with Warren off to the NFL, Kotelnicki and senior quarterback Drew Allar will need to lean more heavily on a revamped wide receiver room, and it appears that Franklin is after that group’s missing piece in the spring transfer portal.
Coveted Syracuse wide receiver transfer Trebor Pena is visiting Penn State today, a source tells @CBSSports/@247Sports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) April 18, 2025
Had 84 catches last year, was an All-ACC selection and ranks as one of the top players in the transfer portal.https://t.co/10Sz3YwNKg pic.twitter.com/7phj3A7Wdc
Syracuse transfer wide receiver Trebor Pena visiting Penn State
Following the CFP semifinal Orange Bowl loss to Notre Dame, which featured zero receptions for Penn State wide receivers, Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans both fled to the transfer portal with their replacements already secured through the transfer portal. Penn State upgraded with the additions of USC transfer Kyron Hudson and Troy transfer Devonte Ross, but WR3 is still a massive question mark in Happy Valley.
Last season, veteran Liam Clifford led the way with 198 snaps in the slot, but managed just 18 catches for 286 yards and one touchdown, and ranked 56th in yards per route run (1.06) out of 64 Big Ten wide receivers who saw at least 25 targets. True freshman Tyseer Denmark appeared to be working his way towards late-season playing time, but didn’t see the field in the CFP and caught two of his three targets with a bad drop against Purdue in Week 12.
Even with Hudson and Ross solidified on the outside, an offseason slot receiver battle between Clifford and Denmark doesn’t inspire much confidence, so it’s no surprise that Franklin quickly began pursuing the ACC receptions leader who ran nearly 80 percent of his route from the slot last season after he entered the transfer portal amidst an NIL dispute with Syracuse head coach Fran Brown.
Despite his elite-level production, the rising redshirt senior may not have a long-term NFL future, so he’s looking to maximize his earning potential with his final year of collegiate eligibility and could cost a pretty penny for the Nittany Lions. Still, he’s such a perfect fit at a position of desperate need that even an asking price upwards of $1 million, or the $2 million number that Brown has floated, shouldn’t scare Franklin off.
Pena caught 84 passes for 932 yards and nine touchdowns in Syracuse’s pass-happy offense last season. A skilled playmaker with the ball in his hands, he averaged 5.7 yards after the catch per reception, which would have slotted just behind Clifford for the high-water mark among Penn State receivers a season ago, though on much higher volume.
Hudson is the physical outside force, Ross will threaten defensives vertically with his deep speed, and rising sophomore Luke Reynolds projects as the Tyler Warren replacement, but it’s hard to imagine even the former five-star tight end will be nearly as reliable as a chain-mover on third-down. No, Allar needs a security blanket over the middle of the field who can consistently separate against big-time opponents, and no player in the spring portal cycle fits that mold better than Pena.
With such a loaded roster heading into the 2025-26 season, it’s time for Franklin to finally deliver against teams like Ohio State and Oregon, and if that means spending big in the spring portal for an additional wide receiver, then so be it. Penn State needs to go all-in because this season is the best chance the program has had to win a national championship this century.