The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Where does Penn State football stand after 2024 season?
Penn State’s 2024 season has come to a disappointing close with a loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl.
Now it’s time to turn the page and look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the current state of Penn State football.
Good
Drew Allar’s development: There is no more important piece of the program than what happens with Allar moving forward. The Nittany Lion quarterback will dictate just how far the team can go, much like he did this season, and the good news is that he’s already taken substantial steps forward as a passer and runner — with plenty more room to grow.
The Penn State offense looked drastically different in 2024 thanks to Allar’s willingness to be a major contributor rather than a bystander. He made big-time throws this season that he didn’t even attempt in 2023, and as his confidence has grown, so has his ability. There are few quarterbacks in college football even willing to try some of the things he does — for better and for worse — but his ability to complete those passes is part of what makes him a special player. And for the offense to be maximized moving forward, Allar has to do the things that separate him from the rest of the college football world. That next step will be the deciding factor in how much the team’s ceiling rises next year.
Running it back: It’ll help that Allar will be getting his two backfield mates back with him for the 2025 season. Running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen announced they would be back for their final seasons of eligibility, giving Penn State one of the best running back tandems in the country — if not the best. Singleton and Allen both eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards this season and were at the forefront of Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s dynamic rushing attack. And, importantly, when one had a bad game, the other was there to pick up the slack.
That dynamic allowed the Nittany Lions to keep a steady rushing baseline on offense, with one back usually performing at a high enough level to keep the entire thing afloat even in its worst games. And when both had it rolling, they were one of the most unstoppable running offenses in the country. With both back, that should be the case once again and Allar should be free to continue being a playmaker as a passer thanks to his reliable support on the ground.
Kotelnicki’s return: And the reason all of that should work harmoniously is because the mastermind behind Penn State’s top-10 offense is expected to be back for 2025 as well. Kotelnicki announced that he’d return shortly after the team’s Big Ten title game loss to Oregon, and has set the offense up to succeed in a way it otherwise may not have without him. He’s arguably the best offensive coordinator that head coach James Franklin has hired in his time at Penn State, and he did more with the tools he had at his disposal than he reasonably could have been expected to.
Kotelnicki maximized an elite tight end in Tyler Warren and turned him into one of the best receiving threats in the country, while giving Allar the leeway to make plays with his arm and his legs. Sure, you can complain about the lack of involvement at wide receiver, but I tend to believe that was a byproduct of Kotelnicki leaning into his best players rather than not including a position group based on the shape of his offense. Regardless of how the rest of the offseason goes, the offense will be better positioned moving forward thanks to having its playcaller back next season.
Elite returning defenders: There will be questions about the defense moving forward — and rightfully so — but there should be very few when it comes to the pass defense specifically. Penn State is set to reload once again in key spots and should have one of the best pass defenses in the country in 2025. That starts with two of the best players at their respective positions in the country, cornerback A.J. Harris and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton.
Harris is a do-it-all cornerback who was able to lock down opposing high end receivers this season, and cornerbacks generally don’t regress under the tutelage of position coach Terry Smith. Harris should be able to take another step forward in his second season with the program — after transferring in from Georgia following his freshman year — and capitalize with a big year.
Dennis-Sutton was nothing short of dominant in the College Football Playoff for Penn State and will return as one of the best pass rushers in the nation. He racked up 4.5 sacks in three playoff games, along with an interception and a forced fumble against Notre Dame in the semifinal. He won’t have Abdul Carter to draw attention away from him next season, but that shouldn’t matter. He’s going to be a force for Penn State again and open up the inside for defensive tackle Zane Durant, who also returns and should be an impact pass rusher from the middle of the field.
Bad
Wide receiver: There isn’t a more questionable position on the roster for Penn State moving forward than wide receiver, and that’s after clearing out the room and adding in two productive players from the transfer portal. Gone are Tre Wallace and Omari Evans, the team’s top two wide receivers from last season, and in their place are former USC receiver Kyron Hudson and former Troy receiver Devonte Ross. And that’s likely not the end of the turnover at the spot, with plenty of other players in flux heading into the spring and the opportunity existing for Penn State to add another player on the outside when the portal re-opens after spring ball.
For the time being, Ross and Hudson will have to do. Ross is a true burner who can fly by any defense and do damage with his speed. The best example of that is his three-touchdown performance against Iowa, when he caught five passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns while also housing a punt return. Hudson does more of his damage in the intermediate areas of the field, relying on his physicality, route-running and hands to get the job done. Those two are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to receiver play, but both will have to produce for Penn State in 2025. Otherwise the Nittany Lions could take a step back at a position where things couldn’t get much worse following a zero reception performance in the Orange Bowl.
Defensive questions: Penn State getting plenty of returning production back on defense will help, but there is now a cloud swirling above the group that was not anticipated when the season came to a close. That’s when Tom Allen was set to be back for year two with the program as its defensive coordinator but less than a week later he was in South Carolina, wearing a purple Clemson hoodie and taking over one of the better defenses in the ACC. Now Franklin is left to pick the correct replacement in what could be one of the biggest years of his tenure.
And that’s not to say he won’t hire a good candidate — in fact, he probably will. Franklin has done an excellent job of hiring defensive coordinators and having elite defenses for Penn State. But right now that’s in limbo and that’s not a good place to be when the pool of candidates is shrinking ever so slightly as the college coaching carousel has begun to stop spinning. More names will pop up — and there is an excellent internal candidate in co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter — but right now there isn’t a clear-cut favorite for a job that should be one of the most desirable in the country. That will inevitably lead to questions about the group and its future, and just how high its ceiling will be next season.
Ugly
Missed opportunity: This is what it’s all really about. Penn State had everything it wanted right in front of it in Hard Rock Stadium, and it blew it. The Nittany Lions were unable to close out a 10-point lead for the second time this season and now it will be Notre Dame taking on the other team PSU couldn’t close a 10-point lead on — Ohio State — with the national title on the line. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the athletic department or in the Lasch Football Building that thinks this is an appealing scenario. Instead, Penn State is back at the drawing board, trying to figure out where it all went wrong and how it can get better.
The good news is the roster retention has been top-notch thus far in the offseason and even the defensive coordinator search dragging out a little bit shouldn’t dampen the heightened expectations that will come with next season. But there is no denying the reality that there probably shouldn’t have been a need for all of this. Dennis-Sutton, Allar, Singleton, Allen and others could have moved on after winning a national title. Instead they’ll all be fighting to make up for the unfinished business left on the field at the Orange Bowl.
