‘They all fit in well.’ How Penn State football’s transfers are acclimating with the team
The world of college football has been in a major state of flux in recent years with rule changes, realignment possibilities and talk of playoff expansion. The on-field product will be affected by every change, whether it’s through recruiting or scheduling or any other side effect of these alterations.
Not the least of which is the addition of the transfer portal in recent years and the latest change made to it — the allowance for players to transfer one time without sitting out for a season.
Penn State head coach James Franklin knows he must adapt as the landscape around him shifts.
“We embrace all the rules,” Franklin said last week at Big Ten media days. “If you don’t embrace all the rules, you’re gonna struggle. So when a rule is made, you educate yourself on the rule, you find the best way to use that rule in your organization, in your program’s best interest, and you embrace it and you move forward. The people that are frustrated and don’t like it and are grumpy and moaning about it, they’re gonna struggle. This is how college football is constructed right now. Embrace it, maximize it and use it to the best of your ability.”
And embracing it is exactly what he’s done this offseason.
The Nittany Lions have brought in a group of six transfers who all played for different Division I schools at their last stop, including five at the FBS level. Johnny Dixon came from South Carolina, A.J. Lytton was at Florida State, Arnold Ebiketie was at Temple, John Lovett was at Baylor, Derrick Tangelo was at Duke and Eric Wilson was at Harvard.
Six transfers is far more than usual for a program that usually doesn’t add many in any given offseason. It’s not as if the group won’t be contributors, either. Ebiketie, Tangelo and Wilson could all reasonably start for the Nittany Lions, while Lytton, Dixon and Lovett should all get playing time.
Bringing in that much veteran talent could impact a locker room that prides itself on its family feel, but senior cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields — one of the eldest Nittany Lions — say that hasn’t been an issue.
“All the new additions, they all fit in well,” Castro-Fields said. “We all just play our roles. They lead their room, I lead my room, but we also lead as a team. I think they fit pretty well.”
Bringing in players who would be able to fit in well with the team is important to Franklin and his staff when they evaluate whether or not to take a player. He often stresses publicly that it’s not just about the level of talent players have, but it’s also about how they’ll interact with their teammates and how they handle the culture in place.
A wrong decision can sow distrust in any given position group, but the right decision on a player can elevate even the best players that are already entrenched at a position.
“Me and Derrick have sort of had a lot of competition this summer,” Mustipher said of the fellow defensive tackle. “We’ll lift together. We’ll talk trash. It’s all fun stuff but that’s that type of stuff that’s going to make me and him better, so we’re doing that.”
The additions should have a relatively quick impact for Penn State when it comes to production, which is important, because most of them were brought in at positions of need. Tangelo and Ebiketie are joining a defensive line that needs to replace every starter from last season except Mustipher and Wilson steps into the interior of an offensive line that needs two starters to step up. That’s three of nine starters in the trenches that should come in and play right away.
That strategy to transfers — using them to fill needs with veterans — should prove fruitful for the Nittany Lions and already is along the defensive line.
“It’s actually crazy to see how well they fit in,” Mustipher said. “They’ve got that mindset where they gel well with the guys but at the same time they like to work. ... You can’t coach experience. They’ve played a lot of football. (Ebiketie and Tangelo) are two guys who have played extremely good football. When looking at their careers at Temple and at Duke, they did a lot of great things. And that’s just what we want them to do at Penn State. Don’t do nothing different. Keep being you, keeping wreaking havoc and let’s be dominant together.”
Time will tell if the on-field impact is as expected, but Franklin and his staff’s first extensive foray into the transfer portal could bear fruits that have a major effect on how the team builds its roster in the future.
If that effect is as positive as it’s being portrayed, the portal may be the permanent place Franklin searches to put the finishing touches on his roster year in and year out.
