James Franklin’s transfer portal philosophy is to bring some of the best Pennsylvania natives he let escape the state as high school recruits back to their home state. He did it with Nolan Rucci and Julian Fleming last offseason and has already landed Philadelphia native Enai White who comes to Happy Valley from Texas A&M with two years of eligibility remaining.
Adding White will help limit the impact of Abdul Carter’s inevitable departure for the NFL as a first-round draft pick this spring. However, so far, Franklin has been unable to fill the void on the interior of the defensive line that will be left by veterans like Coziah Izzard and Dvon J-Thomas as they graduate after lengthy careers at Penn State. On Friday night, a day before the Nittany Lion’s first-round College Football Playoff victory over SMU at Beaver Stadium, USC defensive line transfer Bear Alexander committed to Oregon, and on Saturday, Franklin’s staff lost out on another highly-coveted portal target along the defensive line.
PA native David Blay, who developed into an All-Conference USA first-team player at Lousiana Tech in his redshirt junior season, had visited Happy Valley and appeared interested in a homecoming, but chose Miami (FL) for his final year of eligibility instead. Blay was a zero-star recruit out of Levittown, Pennsylvania in 2021 when he enrolled at West Chester University, a DII program in eastern PA. Blay had also drawn interest from Florida State, Illinois, Oklahoma, USC, Wisconsin, Mississippi State, and Arkansas.
Franklin has made good use of the portal this offseason, landing White and USC wide receiver Kyron Hudson, but the portal cycle will be largely unsuccessful if he’s unable to bring in another offensive playmaker and at least an interior defensive lineman. Next season is Drew Allar’s final year in Happy Valley and Penn State needs to maximize that opportunity because it is rare to have a national championship-caliber player and potential first-round NFL draft pick at quarterback.
With Round 1 of the CFP out of the way, Franklin has a window to dive back into portal recruiting and make a splash before the cycle comes to an end on December 28.