21 Quotes That Explain Penn State Football’s Crazy 2022 Offseason

Penn State football officially begins practice for the 2022 season on Monday.

It’s been 211 days since the Nittany Lions lost 24-10 to Arkansas in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022.

Penn State’s offseason since then has been…um, interesting.

Using quotes from the main characters, here’s a quick look back at the daze since the new year started for James Franklin& Co. — knowing the turmoil and changes that have been the lead-up to the 2022 season really began in December 2021.

The good news? It’s only 32 days until the Thursday night season-opener on Sept. 1 at Purdue.

1. PRY TO VIRGINA TECH
“Thank you to Coach Franklin. James is like a brother to me. 12 years. I wasn’t sure I’d ever step out and do my own thing, and it took this place to do it. It took what Coach (Frank Beamer) built and Bud (Foster) and so many others to be the right place for me, and it was the right time. I thank James Franklin, and I thank Penn State.”
— Brent Pry, new Virginia Tech head coach, after eight seasons at Penn State as linebackers coach and defensive coordinator, on Dec. 2, 2021

2. DIAZ THE NEW DC
“He is the predator.”
— Safety Ji’Ayir Brown on new PSU defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who was hired on Dec. 11, 2021

3. FIVE-STARS ALLAR AND SINGLETON 
“(Drew Allar) is a big kid who can stand in the pocket and deliver the ball. I think people underestimated his athleticism as well. He does a great job making some of the plays that maybe aren’t in the playbook in terms of extending plays and off-balance throws with unbelievable accuracy. …I don’t know if there is a better running back class signed in the country, and Nick (Singleton) being named Gatorade National Player of the Year is pretty cool.”
—Franklin on the stars of his Class of 2022, on Dec. 15, 2021

4. TINSLEY TRANSFERS IN
“I still got some goals I gotta check off before I scram.”
—Western Kentucky wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley, quoting J. Cole, on Twitter on Dec. 24, 2021, announcing his transfer to Penn State. Tinsley had 87 catches for 1,402 yards and 14 TD’s in 2021.

5. CAIN TRAIN TO LSU
“Say my prayers, so I’m protected as soon as I walk in. #GeauxTigers”
— Running back Noah Cain Tweets that he is transferring to LSU on Jan. 13, 2022

6. HUNTER TARGETS PSU
“Thank you to everyone who recruited me during this process! I’ve decided to commit to @PennStateFball to continue my football career! #WeAre @CoachTrautFB”
— Cornell offensive lineman Hunter Nourzad Tweeted his transfer to Penn State on Feb. 2, 2022

7. GALT RETIRES
“I think the strongest bind between James and myself is trust. It’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen with shaking someone’s hand, looking them in the eye and saying you can count on me. I mean, you have to prove that day after day, month after month, year after year. And we’ve been together for so long, it was just complete trust that we were going to be honest with each other, that we were going to support each other’s decisions…”
— Dwight Galt, strength coach, who had worked 22 seasons with Franklin before retiring on Feb. 4, 2021

8. BARBOUR CUT SHORT
“I really determined and decided that not only was it the best decision for me, the right time for me, but it was probably a pretty good time for Penn State, and so that’s where my decision came from.” 
— Penn State VP for intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour, who announced her retirement on March 16, 2021, over a year before her contract was to end

9. SUCCESS WITH HONOR
“Through Success With Honor, Penn State student-athletes can access the tools and resources to maximize both educational and NIL opportunities while maintaining a full commitment to excellence in their academic and athletic careers. Contrary to public perception, the vast majority of Penn State student-athletes receive partial or no scholarship money while competing for the Nittany Lions. Recognizing that reality, the goal of Success With Honor is to create opportunities for student-athletes in all 31 sports.”
— Press release by SWH on March 23, 2022, the day the collective launched

10. CLIFF STARTS LIMITLESS
“It’s the agency that I was looking for that I couldn’t find. It’s for the players, by the players. I wanted to do something to leave even more of a legacy than just on the field. And I thought that this was kind of the way that I wanted to go.”
— PSU QB Sean Clifford, on the launching of his new NIL agency, Limitless, on April 10, 2022

11. DOM DELUCA PICKS 2
“It shows that I’m here to play and I’m not going to have that walk-on mentality that everyone says. I mean, hopefully that put my name on the coach’s list and on everyone else’s list. I’m just gonna wait for my opportunity. When it comes, I’ll be ready for it.”
— Linebacker Dom DeLuca on his two interceptions in the Blue-White Game on April 23, 2022

12. BENDAPUDI BEGINS
“Increasingly, if you look at what’s happening in the marketplace, (athletic director) is a very key role. Whether it’s student engagement, whether it’s the economic impact of Penn State — how many people come up and say, ‘We’re looking forward to football because my little store gets so many more people who visit.’ It’s not just that. It’s the 31 sports that we have. These athletes, every one of those teams, wants the leadership to do what they need to do.”
— Neeli Bendapudi, Penn State’s 19th president, officially started on May 9, 2022

13. LASCH RENO SOON DONE
“I’m excited to get our weight room back. Obviously, I love to be able to go in there. I’m excited. I didn’t even know we were going to have glass to just look out on the field. It’s going to be really nice.”
— Offensive tackle Landon Tengwall’s May 22, 2022, take on Lasch Building renovations, slated to be finished this summer

14. CHOP SHOPS FOR PSU
“Best decision I made in my life.”
— Edge rusher Demeioun Robinson on Twitter three days after his June 4, 2022 transfer from Maryland to Penn State. Chop was a 2021 ESPN Midseason True Freshman All-American

15. FRANKLIN’S NIL RANT
“More than the numbers you’ve heard. If we want to compete with the schools that you guys all write articles about us competing with, why wouldn’t our number be the same as others? If School X has a number and we’re supposed to be competing with School X, why would our number be different? …If you guys want to message me, send me a message on why our numbers would be different than the people we’re supposed to compete with. Explain that to me. I don’t get it.”
— Franklin’s June 8, 2022, rant when asked about a reported $13 million in Ohio State NIL money

16. USC AND UCLA JOIN THE BIG TEN
“This is another big step in the ever-changing college football landscape and we embrace the change. USC and UCLA are two institutions with a long-standing tradition of academic and athletic success. They will only strengthen our already very strong Big Ten Conference.”
— Franklin on June 30, 2022

17. KRAFT IS DIRECT(OR) 
“NIL is a problem right now. A lot of our facilities stink right now and we’re doing a disservice to our student-athletes. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix (our mental health support). We’ve got to be budget-conscious and understand our budget constraints. There’s no reason to hide. That’s who we are. And I know the only way we can attack those is if the Penn State community comes together because when they come together, now that’s powerful, and we’ve seen that… We’re behind (with NIL), just candidly. But I will tell you this, we’ll have it fixed in three to four weeks.”
—Pat Kraft, Penn State’s new athletic director, as of July 1, 2022

18. LABOR IN LASCH
“We hid it. We hid it all. (The players) literally smuggled me into this facility at 7:30 in the morning to do an all-day presentation when there were no coaches around. The only reason this leaked out, the last five minutes of the presentation, the strength and training coach walked in the room.”
— College football labor organizer Jason Stahl, on his July 14, 2022 meeting with Penn State football players in the Lasch Building

19. SEXUAL EXTORTION
“Nearly three dozen videos and photos were sent to the woman, including videos of group sex involving multiple males and a female and 19 recorded in the Penn State football locker room showing athletes in varying states of undress.”
— Search warrants unsealed on July 15, 2022, and filed by police in a September 2021 sexual extortion case involving two Penn State student-athletes, who were identified as victims 1 and 2.

20. KRAFTY PRAISE
“Pat (Kraft) is pounding that drum. So, in years past, I would feel like I would have to maybe say some of these things to maybe create some pressure or to create some dialogue that needed to happen. I don’t have to. You can come talk to me about the left guard right now, and I’m jacked about talking about the left guard and having somebody else pound the drum on the importance of NIL… Having somebody who’s a fighter — everybody needs that across every campus and every aspect, and again, I want this to come off specifically to Pat because total respect for the regime that we had previously, but Pat’s fighting some battles that maybe hadn’t been fought in the past, just like the provost is fighting battles that’s in the best interests of the university from an academic perspective and just like the dean of the education school’s got to fight their battles, and I think that’s been apparent so far.”
— James Franklin on his new boss at Big Ten Media Days, July 27, 2022

21. CLASS OF 2023 IS NO. 8
Penn State’s Class of 2023 is eighth in the nation, right after No. 7 Clemson, and second in the Big Ten Conference, after No. 4 Ohio State.
— 2023 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings, according to On3.com, on July 31, 2022