Young Penn State tight end heading to transfer portal after redshirt sophomore season

The college football transfer portal doesn’t officially open until Monday, December 9, but with the regular season over there isn’t anything stopping players from announcing their intentions to transfer. Even Penn State’s trip to the Big Ten Championship Game to face Oregon this upcoming weekend didn’t prevent a young tight end from leaving the program. 

On Monday, two days after the Nittany Lions beat Maryland 44-7 in the regular season finale at Beaver Stadium, redshirt sophomore tight end Jerry Cross announced that he will be entering the transfer portal. Cross is a 6-foot-5 254-pound former four-star prospect out of the state of Wisconsin, but over his three seasons in Happy Valley, he has played just 32 total offensive snaps. He played three snaps on Saturday against Maryland and appeared in three games this season, all blowout wins. Cross will enter the transfer portal with two seasons of eligibility remaining. 

Even with redshirt senior Tyler Warren leaving for the NFL after Penn State’s impending run through the College Football Playoff, the Nittany Lions are loaded at right end and Cross is unlikely to factor into their plans. Khalil Dinkins is expected to return for his redshirt senior season, true freshman five-star Luke Reynolds has played 206 snaps across 12 games this year, and Andrew Rappleyea should see significant work in 2025 as a redshirt sophomore after missing nearly of the 2024 campaign with a long-term injury. 

Rappleyea’s injury would have been Cross’s best chance to see the field, but Reynolds had passed him on the depth chart and seized the opportunity to burn his redshirt. The former high school wide receiver is an ideal candidate to transfer down to the Group of 5 level for increased playing time. The transfer portal will remain open from December 9-28, and Cross will almost certainly not be the only Nittany Lions to jump in.