The 3 biggest questions facing Penn State as the Nittany Lions enter the 2024 season
In a lot of ways, for Penn State, the 2024 season will be more of the same. James Franklin is back in Happy Valley for his 11th season and his team was picked to finish third in a loaded Big Ten. Sure, it’s Oregon alongside Ohio State as the conference favorite with Michigan sliding back after winning it all last year, but it’s still a familiar place for the Nittany Lions.
On the roster, Drew Allar is back at quarterback flanked by the Lawn Boyz who will lead the rushing attack for the third-straight season, and the defense should once again be a top-10 unit in the country.
However, even with so much familiarity, this team has two new coordinators, a reworked wide receiver room, and its best defensive player in a new position. Beyond that, a familiar result in 2024 with a 10 or 11-win regular season, could yield a College Football Playoff berth for the first time.
There are big questions surrounding Franklin’s group and with kickoff approaching on Saturday in Morgantown, these three will start to be answered.
3. Can the transfers hold down the secondary?
Regardless of what Andy Kotelnicki’s new offense looks like at Penn State, it’s abundantly clear that the identity of this team, and in recent years of this program, starts on the defensive side of the ball.
Up front, Tom Allen’s unit will be great with Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton potentially comprising the best pass-rush duo in the country. Still, heading into Week 1, the secondary presents uncertainty. Kevin Winston Jr. and Jayleen Reed are mainstays at safety, and Zakee Wheatley is a trustworthy third when Reed slides down into the slot, however, at cornerback, Penn State is relying on a few new faces.
After Kalen King, Johnny Dixon, and Daequan Hardy left for the NFL, Franklin recognized that the cupboard was bare at cornerback. So, he added AJ Harris from Georgia and Jalen Kimber from Florida through the transfer portal and prioritized the position in the 2025 recruiting class, landing commitments from four-stars Daryus Dixson and Jahmir Joseph.
In his freshman season at Georgia, Harris played just 89 defensive snaps, but he could be counted on to be CB1 for the Nittany Lions. Kimber has much more experience and a track record as a sure-tackler in the SEC, but in 2023, he allowed 18.5 yards per reception which ranked 476th among the 519 cornerbacks who played at least 100 coverage snaps.
Cam Miller will also be relied on in that rotation, but if Franklin went 0-2 in the transfer portal, then Penn State’s secondary is in trouble. If Harris blossoms into a star and Kimber can be a steadying force as a veteran, however, then the Nittany Lions could have another top 5 defense.
2. Can Harrison Wallace III stay healthy?
Ultimately, one of the scariest things about Penn State’s season is that Kotelnicki and the Nittany Lions offense are relying on Trey Wallace, a redshirt junior with just 38 career catches for 501 yards and two touchdowns to be the No. 1 outside target. Wallace began last season with 15 catches across six of the team’s first eight games before suffering a season-ending injury.
In 2022, Wallace played 13 games, but only 211 snaps and was targeted just 35 times by Sean Clifford. Wallace has the talent to be a reliable field stretcher, but in the Peach Bowl, he looked outmatched athletically by the Ole Miss secondary and didn’t begin to produce until garbage time.
Even when he has been healthy, Wallace has never produced even 1.50 yards per route run over a significant stretch, a mark that would still only rank 32nd among the 70 Big Ten receivers that saw at least 10 targets in 2023. At his 1.41, he ranked 37th, only three spots better than Dante Cephas.
It appears that Wallace and Liam Clifford will be Allar’s go-to-guys at wide receiver, and that can’t instil much faith in a fanbase starved for an elite playmaker, but if the injury-prone Wallace misses time in 2024, it’s unclear if Penn State has enough offensive firepower to overcome it.
1. Is Drew Allar the guy?
As far as a Big Ten title and the College Football Playoff are concerned, none of the other questions about this team matter if the answer to this one is no. The former five-star quarterback has to take a significant step forward in 2024, especially in the biggest games on the schedule.
Last season, he began his career as a starter with 325 passing yards and three touchdowns against West Virginia, but never eclipsed 300 yards again. Without trustworthy weapons at wide receiver, Allar was hesitant to take chances down the field. That mindset resulted in a stellar 25-2 TD-INT ratio but also landed Penn State 109th in the country with only 30 passing plays over 20 yards.
A good quarterback can win 11 games with this Penn State roster, a great one can push Ohio State at Beaver Stadium on November, 2, and an elite QB, the type of player that Allar was projected to be coming out of high school, can elevate the surrounding talent on offense and have the Nittany Lions in the mix for the national championship.
If Penn State finishes 10-2 and misses the 12-team CFB or flames out in round 1 of the playoff, it doesn’t mean that Allar is a bust or that Beau Pribula should get a shot to win the starting job if both QBs return for 2025. It does mean that Allar hasn’t yet lived up to the hype because those are the types of expectations you carry as the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country.
