College Football players are proverbially like a leased sports car. Cherish them while you can because you won’t have them at your disposal for long. Now, with the advent of NIL, they’re pretty high-maintenance, too. In that realm of thought, Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter is a Ferrari. Carter has been a revelation up in State College who’s given opposition quarterbacks perpetual nightmares. But unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, his tenancy at Happy Valley is up soon.

With Abdul Carter-conservatively a top 10 pick-exiting, HC James Franklin inadvertently needed an adequate replacement. His foray into the transfer portal to fill this vacancy has brought about some success. However, James Franklin has begrudgingly missed out on his primary target. After a failed courtship with Penn State, defensive end David Blay has instead signed on with the Miami Hurricanes.

David Blay was a top-5 D-lineman traversing the portal. No surprises for an EDGE who was named first-team all-Conference USA last season. This recognition came off the back of Blay garnering 46 total tackles, 10.5 TFLs, and 6.5 sacks. His recruitment essentially boiled down to Penn State, Miami, and OU. The pieces have fallen, and David Blay will spend his final year of collegiate eligibility with the Canes. 

Naturally, this development didn’t quite go down well with the Nittany Lions faithful. In the backwash, Insider Zach Seyko relayed his thoughts on why circumstances accentuate the magnitude of this blow to PSU. Speaking on the Locked on Nittany Lions YouTube channel, Seyko said “Why this is such a big deal is because you don’t know what’s going on with Zane Durant. You still don’t know what’s going on with Dani Dennis-Sutton. Those guys have the option to go to the NFL or to come back. Even if Penn State is able to retain both of them, it is still an absolute necessity to get as many defensive linemen as you can” 

Zach Seyko also stated “David Blay was easily, easily going to be a starter for Penn State. I don’t think that was up for debate.” With how much turnover could potentially ensue in the D-line, landing a senior who’d slot straight in would’ve been ideal for Franklin. As much of a setback as this is, it’s not all doom and gloom. As aforementioned, Penn State has indeed found some success on the recruitment front. Although it’s not David Blay, a new face will feature in the trenches for PSU. The crux of the situation is whether he’s a starter off the jump.

James Franklin opts into a more volatile Plan B in his pursuit for an EDGE

When you’re poised to lose a player of Abdul Carter’s ilk, you’ve got to have contingency plans in place. Anyways, you’re hardly going to replace his output with one individual. James Franklin and Co. did just that. The program has onboarded the services of edge rusher Enai White. The Pennsylvania native left Texas A&M via the portal after 3 seasons, including a redshirt.

Enai White was a 4-star recruit out of high school and the No. 2 overall player in Pennsylvania. Despite this, his time down at A&M hasn’t quite been linear. He has only appeared in 13 games for the Aggies. The promise hasn’t translated to the gridiron for a multitude of reasons. The main one is health. Enai White has suffered injuries at different junctures, including a season-ending one in 2023 that required knee surgery.

By extension of his perceived lack of experience, there’s been skepticism over whether he can be the direct replacement for Abdul Carter. This makes missing out on David Blay an even bigger indictment. While in high school, White trained with Penn State D-line coach Deion Barnes, who was on the receiving end of James Franklin’s wrath on the sidelines against SMU. At Least a pre existent synergy will help Enai White settle quicker. He has the tangibles to succeed, physically as well as talent-wise. Franklin, Barnes and the rest of the staff will hope he can stay fit and deliver on his promise. It remains to be seen if Penn State will pivot to a different target to fill its Carter-shaped void.