James Franklin has never wanted Penn State to be a big player in the transfer portal, but national championship expectations have an interesting effect on college football coaches. For the first time in his tenure, Franklin took some big swings in the spring portal window and filled the final holes on his loaded roster.
The biggest changes, both in and out, were at the wide receiver position. Both Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans jumped into the portal after combining for zero catches in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal loss to Notre Dame, and were replaced by an entirely new and hopefully improved group on the outside.
It was far from an offseason overhaul; the core of Franklin’s roster is still his veteran returners like Drew Allar and Nicholas Singleton. However, these three transfer portal additions raised the ceiling for Penn State in 2025.
Penn State's 3 biggest transfer portal additions:
Nobody was expecting last season’s ACC receptions leader to be on the market this spring, but after an NIL re-negotiation dispute with Syracuse, suddenly Trebor Pena was looking for a new home in his final year of eligibility. Even after the winter portal additions of Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross, Penn State still needed some pop at the wide receiver position, and Pena will provide it as a dynamic playmaker from the slot.
With the limitations of last year’s roster, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki built Penn State’s entire passing game around Tyler Warren. Despite losing the superstar tight end to the NFL, the Nittany Lions should have an improved aerial attack and the deepest group of wide receivers in Allar’s three years as the starting QB.
Ross, the Troy transfer receiver, is the field stretcher, but Hudson is the more important pick-up because he has the size to be a true No. 1 target on the outside. Outside of Warren, Allar didn’t have anybody who could consistently win one-on-one last season, and while Hudson isn’t an elite separator, at 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, he’s a physical contested catch winner who will be reliable on third down.
Last season, Allar did a better job raising his level of risk as a passer, but he’s still too conservative early in games. With Hudson, he’ll have a player he can trust to dominate at the catch-point, which should allow him to push the ball downfield more freely.
Somehow, linebacker became a weakness at Linebacker U, and Franklin wouldn’t stand for it. After the Blue-White game, Franklin put out a call to transfer portal linebackers who want to join the remarkable legacy of the most famous position in Happy Valley, and Campbell answered.
As a sophomore last season, Campbell racked up 76 tackles from his off-ball linebacker spot and was a disruptive force in the backfield. Campbell will battle Dominic DeLuca for reps next to Tony Rojas and provide crucial depth at a position that suddenly got thin after Ta’Mere Robinson left for USC in the spring portal window.
Penn State's 2 biggest transfer portal losses:
The talented quarterback was never going to stick around for another season as Drew Allar’s backup. Pribula left the program before the CFP to secure the starting job at Missouri. It doesn’t necessarily impact Penn State’s long-term succession plan behind Allar because Pribula would enter his final season of eligibility after Allar left for the NFL, but now, if Allar goes down, Franklin will have to turn to either redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer or redshirt sophomore Jaxon Smolik.
Robinson played just 100 defensive snaps across eight games in his redshirt freshman season. However, with veteran linebacker Tyler Elsdon out of eligibility and Kobe King leaving for the NFL, Robinson was next up on the depth chart behind Rojas and DeLuca. While he may not appear to be a massive loss, other than wide receiver, Robinson was the only transfer portal departure that prompted a one-for-one transfer replacement.