Nittany Lions in spring football: Every former Penn State football player in the UFL

College football has long been the NFL’s primary feeder system, discovering, developing, and hand-delivering the best talent from across the country. The sport’s status as the most powerful tributary is unquestioned and will remain unchallenged, but for the players who are overlooked by the league initially, there is another path to an NFL career. 

The XFL and USFL both sprung back up in recent years as an attempt to capitalize on the immense yet somehow growing popularity of football in America. This year, however, after both leagues faltered during the pandemic, the leagues combined to create the UFL, one unified eight-team spring football league. 

The UFL serves not just as spring entertainment for the football-starved American public, but as a path to the NFL for those players initially overlooked by the league, or who stumbled upon entry.

Penn State only has two players currently in the UFL but could have more next season after multiple players who entered the 2024 NFL Draft went undrafted. John Lovett played just one season at Penn State after four at Baylor and ran for 177 yards on 52 carries. Steven Gonzalez was a second-team All-Big Ten offensive lineman during his time in Happy Valley Gonzalez had a stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills.