These Penn State football players who saved their starting spot for 2024

A huge part of Penn State’s problem at wide receiver this season was the Harrison Wallace III injury. Wallace left in the Indiana game and didn’t return until the Peach Bowl, only playing seven games and finishing with 19 catches for 228 yards and one touchdown. 

However, Wallace is locked in as WR2 for 2024, mostly because James Franklin only went out and got one pass-catcher in the portal. Wallace was the first wide receiver that Drew Allar targetted in the Peach Bowl and outpaced KeAndre Lambert-Smith in snaps, 36-21. 

Wallace was the No. 1 wide receiver for Penn State and was treated that way by Ole Miss. He was blanketed by their rangy cornerbacks and didn’t get free until the fourth quarter, in garbage time. Penn State didn’t even complete a single pass to a wide receiver until the fourth quarter. 

Julian Fleming will be an important addition to Penn State’s wide receiver room, he’s a talented veteran, but an Ohio State castoff who Ryan Day only saw as a run-blocker isn’t exactly going to elevate the Nittany Lions to national title contention. 

In the final game of the year, Wallace jumped to the top spot on the depth chart, and he’ll keep a starting role, but that’s not a good thing for the 2024 Penn State Nittany Lions. 

In his seven games, Wallace averaged 1.41 yards per route run 311th in the country tied with Mike Tomlin’s son Dino who caught 24 passes for Boston College. So yes he won the starting job, but he also ran uncontested.