Penn State’s 2024 season was marked by one of James Franklin’s classics: losing in big games. The team failed to capitalize on their opportunities against Oregon in the Big 10 championship game, struggled against Ohio State in the regular season, and ultimately suffered a significant loss to Notre Dame in the semifinal. The team had a strong roster of talented players. They had Tyler Warren, one of the best tight ends in Penn State’s history, and Kaytron Allen, who delivered a 1,000+ yard season. In defense, they had Abdul Carter as their stalwart. Yet, Franklin couldn’t quite salvage anything from the season. Now, imagine a team without many of these veterans.

At the end of the 2024 season, nine veterans lost eligibility or opted to go pro. Their heart of defense, Abdul Carter, is gone and is being touted as one of the top picks in the 2025 NFL draft. Then, Tyler Warren has also gone to the draft and will be grabbed in round 1. Other players in the defensive line, like Dvon Thomas, Hakeem Beamon, and Coziah Izzard, are no longer with the team. Their absence brings a looming concern for James Franklin.

Greg Pickel, a Penn State insider, discussed the concern about Penn State’s D-line in a conversation with Thomas Frank Carr of the Penn State Football podcast. “If there was a meter here, you know, a red, yellow, green meter, mine would be teetering a little bit towards the red,” Pickel said about the defensive line problems. Carr then interjected and provided an even more grim scenario for James Franklin.

The loss of veterans mentioned above could be more concerning than people imagined. Think of the Penn State defensive line last season, which remained elite throughout the year. They produced players like Durant, who had 42 tackles and 3 sacks. Moreover, Devon J-Thomas totaled 35 tackles and provided room for edge rushers like Abdul Carter (12 sacks) and Dennis Sutton (8.5 sacks) to exceed all expectations. But this year, all that will change.

“I’m getting a little bit of the bad vibes from the fact that we’re talking about freshmen and we’re talking about guys that have never played before that are going to get in too deep. Because one of the guys you’re counting on is Alonzo Ford, who’s injured. So I hate being the bad vibes police, but I don’t have great vibes about that,” Carr said. The freshman additions, while plenty, have real question marks around them.

The current players do not necessarily offer the confidence Penn State would want with their defensive tackles. Ty Blanding, a redshirt sophomore, has been involved too little to make a difference and has only two tackles to his name. Another redshirt freshman, Xavier Gilliam, has the same story: one recorded tackle. DeAndre Cook and Liam Andrews haven’t seen the snaps and experience required to play at the highest level. Overall, Penn State is concerned about the lack of experience. Maybe one or two portal additions could make up for it?

Triple blow for Penn State shows more woes in store?

Adding players from the portal would be more difficult for Penn State and James Franklin than expected since Penn State currently has 100 players in their 2025 roster, and this presents a problem in maintaining the roster limit along with signing new portal players. Greg McElroy rightly highlighted the issue: “Penn State is probably going to be in a situation here in the spring portal window in which more guys are leaving than they have guys coming in.”

The Big 10 allows teams to take in a maximum of 105 players in their roster, but with the position Penn State is currently in, it would take more than 5 players to address those gaps. Consider Penn State’s receiver room, which faced significant issues in the previous season and may face even more this year. Moreover, there is attrition for Penn State, too, overall in the squad.

The first player to jump into the portal was JB Nelson (OT), then came Jon Mitchell’s decision to do the same, and lastly came Beckham Dee’s decision to transfer the list. All these players, although backups, do tell one story about James Franklin: the head coach has a war to fight this season on several fronts.