Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] took to the podium on Wednesday, the second day of the Big Ten football media day event in Indianapolis, and stressed how optimistic he is about what the Nittany Lions will look like on offense this fall. The key theme for the offensive side of the ball was depth, and Franklin could not have been more excited about what he feels his program has to offer this upcoming season with the football.
“One of the things that probably stands out about our team right now is I love our overall depth,” Franklin said in his opening remarks at his press conference at Big Ten media day. “I think our overall depth is as good as it’s been in a number of years. I think a couple of the things that have factored into that is obviously we had a very well-regarded recruiting class coming in, a combination of some transfer student-athletes, not a lot, and a junior college player.”
Penn State signed a consensus top 10 recruiting class in the Class of 2022, one of the best in program history to date, for a good mix of some talented freshmen to look forward to. Penn State also plugged some key holes on the roster with additions through the transfer portal, including wide receiver [autotag]Mitchell Tinsley[/autotag] from Western Kentucky and [autotag]Hunter Nourzad[/autotag] from Cornell, one of the top offensive linemen in the transfer portal this offseason.
“In this class, what we’ve been able to evaluate since they’ve been on campus, is there’s probably a larger number of those young men that we feel like are going to be able to impact our program and our organization earlier in their careers than probably normal, in our normal recruiting classes,” Franklin said. “So we’re excited about that.”
Franklin notes improved depth at quarterback in 2022
One of the biggest detriments to the Penn State roster was the lack of depth at the quarterback position. The transfer of Will Levis to Kentukcy hurt Penn State on the depth chart and the pursuit of a coveted quarterback transfer ultimately came up empty, leaving Penn State with a lack of experience behind Sean Clifford. That came back to bite Penn State in a big way most notably in the first loss of the season at Iowa.
But this year could be a different story, according to Franklin.
“Kind of going through our roster, you look at the quarterback position, obviously returning an experienced player at the quarterback position, a starter, a guy who’s been a captain for three years,” Franklin said, referring to Clifford coming back for a sixth year of eligibility. “But this year our depth at the quarterback position with four quarterbacks that we feel very, very strong about, we feel great about the competition in that room.”
Backing up Clifford is [autotag]Christian Veilleux[/autotag], who got some playing time in last season in place of an injured Clifford late in the year. Penn State also adds one of the top passers in the Class of 2022, [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag]. Allar is expected by many to be the next in line to be Penn State’s full-time starter when Clifford leaves the program, but Veilleux is not about to fade away just yet either.
Of course, it may not matter who is playing quarterback if the offensive line still struggles in the fall.