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Less than 11 weeks after Penn State ended its 2024-25 football season with a last-second loss to Notre Dame in the national semifinals in the Orange Bowl, the Nittany Lions began spring practice Tuesday.
Penn State is well-positioned to make another run in the College Football Playoff in the fall after Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zane Durant and Zakee Wheatley decided to return.
Coach James Franklin addressed the media a few hours before the Lions’ first practice. Here are five takeaways from that press conference:
1. Drew Allar needs to take another step
Allar will begin his third season as the starting quarterback with a veteran offensive line in front of him and one of the best running back tandems behind him.
He completed 66.5% of his passes last season, the second-best percentage in school history, for 3,327 yards and 24 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He ranked 13th nationally in efficiency, but Franklin said he can be better.
“He needs to take another step this year,” Franklin said. “He’s done that every single year that he’s been here. He needs to take another step when it comes to his mobility, his leadership, his completion percentage, his touchdown-to-interception ratio. It’s really all of it.
“The exciting thing is that Drew may be 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, but he’s still got a lot of growth and development (ahead of him). He’s a young kid.”
2. Two new pieces at wide receiver
Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans, Penn State’s top two wide receivers last season, transferred shortly after the Orange Bowl, Wallace to Mississippi and Evans to Washington.
For whatever reason, Wallace and Evans were not as productive as they could have been the last two seasons.
Allar and the Lions hope Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross can improve the production there after…
Source link : https://www.readingeagle.com/2025/03/25/penn-states-james-franklin-talks-drew-allar-wide-receivers-as-spring-practice-starts/
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Publish date : 2025-03-26 03:50:00
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