Penn State QB1 Drew Allar burned a lot of bridges that fateful evening at the Orange Bowl. Whatever credence he’d built up in State College dissipated in real time down at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. We witnessed the dichotomy of a college quarterback who’s got all the tools in their repertoire but still hasn’t pieced together the full picture between that game and the B1G Championship. Alas, Allar can’t afford to sulk and be miserable for how his ‘24 season ended. James Franklin has managed to assimilate a Natty-contending roster for 2025, and Allar’s at the epicenter of it. However, the transfer portal is steadily chipping away at this roster. 

James Franklin was as surprised as anyone when the two-headed monster of RBs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton returned to college for another season. This CFB variant of Sonic and Knuckles doesn’t just afford him a good running game. It allows him to keep his offensive core intact, with Drew Allar completing this trifecta in the backfield. That said, certain sports stereotypes have stood the test of time and become cliches because of how true they are. “Defense wins championships.” While Penn State look in decent shape offensively, the other side of the football has now got a dark cloud looming over it.

On3’s Pete Nakos reports EDGE Joseph Mupoyi has entered the transfer portal. Entering his redshirt sophomore season, former 4-star Mupoyi could’ve been a contributor. He’d appeared in two games last season. It would appear he wasn’t trending towards a significant role in new DC Jim Knowles’ front 7 and decided it’s best to jump ship. With 3 years of eligibility left, Mupoyi couldn’t have afforded to waste a year without much playing time. But let’s focus on this from a PSU perspective. Conceded, this doesn’t seem like that big a blow in isolation. Not every edge rusher in State College can live up to the standards of St1x C1ty. However, when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, Joseph Mupoyi is one of multiple dominoes to fall. And each one escalates the pressure on Drew Allar.

This revelation around Mupoyi follows on from two other defensive players hitting the portal. Except, these ones were more integral parts of Penn State’s roster. Not just for ’25, but beyond. Coach Franklin has lost the services of linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson and cornerback Jon Mitchell. To contextualize how much of a setback this is, Robinson played in 14 games last season as a redshirt freshman and recorded 11 tackles. You’d think he was about to ascend to the next level in Year 3, but it won’t be at PSU. Mitchell, on the other hand, featured 6 times last year as a true freshman. He was a Top-100 recruit in his class. Somebody projected to be a lynchpin for the defense, now gone abruptly and prematurely.

The defense losing pieces, in theory, will have an inverse effect on the offense and by extension Drew Allar. He’s not got to shoulder even more burden than he already did. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. But even if Allar is able to take that step and connect the dots, he’ll need help from his supporting cast. Penn State have lost both their top 2 receivers in Harrison Wallace and Omari Evans earlier this off-season. Plus, Allar’s no.1 target and their best offensive weapon Tyler Warren is moving on to the NFL. While the spine in the backfield has remained the same, there are gaps to plug for James Franklin. He sure is trying to.

James Franklin is looking to add help for Drew Allar in the pass offense

“If you wanna make $2M at wide receiver, that’s the lil homie at Ohio State [Jeremiah Smith]. Ain’t nobody else making that money. I’m not giving no wide receiver $2 million in college,” said Syracuse HC Fran Brown in the aftermath of his top wideout Trebor Pena entering the transfer portal. Whether he really was talking about Pena in particular or just making a generic statement is up for conjecture. But that hasn’t deterred James Franklin and the Nittany Lions from entering the sweepstakes.

Trebor Pena visited State College last week as PSU hopes to add him to their depleted receiving corps. Pena put up 941 yards on 84 receptions last season, and took it to the endzone 9 times. Given he played 80% of his snaps as a slot receiver, those touchdown numbers are even better than they seem. Now entering his final year of college eligibility, he has 1,309 total receiving yards for the Orange.

Penn State’s route to landing Pena is far from linear. There are a host of adversaries vying for him. Which includes their B1G contemporaries USC and UCLA, the latter of which is a much more enticing proposition today than it was a week ago. Drew Allar will hope they can fend off the competition and land Pena. If this offense really is going to need to pick up more slack, they need hands on deck.