James Franklin loses only impact transfer from Penn State football’s 2024 portal class (Time to panic?)

Penn State does not rely heavily on the transfer portal to add talent, instead focusing on high school recruiting, but James Franklin might be focusing a little too much on the high schoolers. 

One day after signing all 25 members of the No. 14 recruiting class in the country, Franklin and the Nittany Lions lost one of their two transfer commits. Alan Herron, a three-star offensive tackle from Division II Shorter University in Georgia flipped his commitment to Maryland. 

Now, Penn State’s only transfer commit this offseason is kicker Chase Meyer who is transferring from Tulsa. Meyer went 17-20 on field goals last season with no kicks beyond 50 yards as a sophomore. 

It may have been difficult for Herron to earn playing time amongst the logjam of four-star offensive tackles that the Nittany Lions boast on their roster including Drew Shelton, Alex Birchmeier, J’ven Williams, and Chimdy Onoh. 

With both starting tackles, Olu Fashanu and Caedan Wallace, off to the NFL, Penn State will need multiple young players to step into starting roles protecting Drew Allar next season. Herron would have offset some of the inexperience on the offensive line but is far from a crippling loss. 

What could be crippling to Penn State, especially with aggressive programs like Oregon and Washington entering the Big Ten, is not making any moves of significance in the transfer portal. 

James Franklin has said that Penn State is “not a big transfer portal team,” but every team needs to do something in the portal to compete. When Herron was committed, Penn State was 69th in the country in the transfer portal rankings and now the Nittany Lions will fall even further.