A “high point catch” in football is when a receiver leaps to catch a pass at the highest point it reaches, rather than waiting for it to come down to them — or into the arms of an opposing safety.
The high point of Penn State’s practice under the hot August sun on Tuesday? When the Nittany Lion wide receivers were fighting off a defender trying to catch high point-bound balls tossed into the air by their coach Marques Hagans.
Some folks call that a contested catch. Or a 50/50 ball. Not Hagans, who is in his third year at Penn State.
“We say 90/10 — and the 10% is reserved for the ones that we don’t touch,” Hagans said. “If the ball is thrown out of bounds or hits the ground, that’s the 10%. But balls in the air belong to us. That’s 90% — I think that’s where the guys can exhibit that they have arrogant hands.”
Arrogant hands, Hagans says, belong to receivers who want the ball in tight spaces, against man-to-man coverage and in a tangled mess of defenders’ arms and elbows and hands and fingers.
“Our guys have the ability for quarterbacks to be able to throw it up and say, ‘Go, make me right,’” said Hagans, a quarterback at Virginia and a wide receiver in the NFL. “Those guys, they have an opportunity to really move our team forward and win big games. I think that’s what we’re working to become on a consistent basis…So, I’m excited for that. I would say arrogant hands is what separates guys.”
The drill was full of other messages, subtle and otherwise:
1.) It was an homage of sorts for the audience on hand, namely former Nittany Lion legendary receiver Allen Robinson.
2.) There is a deep need for Penn State’s wide receivers to make plays in 2025, given the departure of tight end Tyler Warren.
3.) It continued the focus on the trio of new faces at wide receiver who were brought aboard via the transfer portal to make those plays — Trebor Pena, Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross.
4.) And it was a reminder of how historically poor the old PSU WR corps was in 2024; it did not have a single reception vs. Notre Dame the CFP semifinals.
1. THE JUMP BALL KING — Robinson, who played 11 years in the NFL, returned to Happy Valley in part to see his old Supa Six teammate and current PSU D-line coach Deion Barnes. ARob was at practice wearing sweatpants, a hoodie and ballcap, despite the 93-degree heat. He stood on the sidelines as his old position went through drills.
Robinson holds the Penn State record for receiving yards (1,432) in a season, in 2013. The high point of that season? Robinson’s amazing 36-yard sideline reception of a Christian Hackenberg bomb he brought down on the 1-yard line to set up a touchdown that paved the way to Penn State’s 43-40 four-overtime victory over Michigan in Beaver Stadium.
During the high point drill on Tuesday, with Robinson inches away, coach James Franklin pointed to ARob and shouted to the current Nittany Lion wide receivers: “The Jump Ball King right there!”
Later, in his post-practice media scrum, Franklin gave big props to Robinson: “Allen had a tremendous career here, and then in the NFL. He is a guy that just was unbelievable in terms of high pointing the ball, specifically in traffic.”
2. PLAYMAKER S.O.S. — Franklin has had Robinson on his mind. The Penn State coach was a recent guest on the “Ross Tucker Football Podcast.” Tucker asked Franklin about the development of senior quarterback Drew Allar.
Franklin came to the defense of QB1. Franklin noted the Nittany Lions’ success in 2025 could hinge more on Allar’s receivers than the quarterback himself:
“This is not only critical for Drew, but for our team — we got to make more plays around him. How many times do you see in a college or NFL game when the quarterback throws the ball into double coverage and the receiver goes up and snatches it like Allen Robinson used to do forever here and like Tyler Warren did for us last year? And the announcer goes, ‘What an unbelievable throw!’
“And,” Franklin continued, “it was not an unbelievable throw. The receiver made a play for them. And that’s what we need more of. Last year we got it with Tyler Warren. We need more players doing that. I think in some areas Drew took some criticism for that. To be honest with you, that responsibility is spread throughout our entire team. We need more playmakers for him. And obviously those things show up in the biggest games.”
3. THOSE PORTAL PLAYMAKERS — After wide receivers Trey Wallace went to Ole Miss and Omari Evans to Washington over the winter, Franklin went all-out to get some top-notch receivers for Allar and went all-in on adding to the Penn State payroll.
Franklin came up with three veterans and two former team captains (Pena at Syracuse, Hudson at USC).
Counting Ross (Troy), the three new wide receivers have already played 119 college football games, have made 310 catches for 3,637 yards and have scored 32 touchdowns. The incumbent Penn State wide receiving corps had just 42 career receptions. Total. And 39 of those, for 505 yards a TD, were courtesy of Liam Clifford.
The Penn State wide receiver room has faced a mass exodus in recent years, having lost at least seven players to the portal in the past three seasons, including Harrison, Evans, KeAndre Lambert-Smith (Auburn), Dante Cephas (Kansas State), Malik McClain (Arizona State), Malick Meiga (Coastal Carolina), Cristian Driver (Minnesota) and Jaden Dottin (Toledo).
On Tuesday, Franklin had this to say about Pena: “He’s more explosive. He’s done a really good job embracing our strength program. He’s gotten stronger. He’s gotten more explosive. All his numbers are up – his speed numbers are up, his quickness numbers are up, his jumping numbers are up. And then on the field, he’s just super mature, really consistent, a very good route runner, sudden and quick. So a lot of the things that you saw on tape from a production standpoint, we’ve seen it. But I think he’s gotten faster and more explosive, so he’s been really good. He doesn’t say a whole lot. Very mature, has fit in really well culturally, and we’re very pleased with him.”
Franklin also had praise for Hudson: “Very similar to Pena. I think a kind of important point there is they were both captains at their last schools. So, very mature, very consistent. Totally different body type. Big, strong, physical, contested-catch guy. You saw that on film [a highlight catch vs. LSU in 2024]. We’ve seen that all camp. He’s more sudden than I thought he was going to be as a route runner. And just a savvy vet that we’re very, very glad to have. He’s wearing the No. 1. He’s earned that.”
Here is what Franklin had to say earlier this year about Ross, who had 142 receiving yards, two TDS and returned a punt for a score in Troy’s 38-21 loss at Iowa in 2024: “For him to do it against that type of opponent on that stage gave me a lot of confidence that it could translate to us. That game carried a lot of weight with us, because we just have so much respect for [what Iowa does] on special teams and what they do on defense. And he had a ton of production in that game.”
4. DWINDLING WIDE RECEIVER PRODUCTION — Hagans is Franklin’s fifth wide receivers coach in the last eight seasons. Overall, in order they have been: Josh Gattis (2014-17), David Corley (2018), Gerad Parker (2019), Taylor Stubblefield (2020-2022) and Hagans (2023-25).
Here is a look at the overall statistics, season by season, compiled by wide receivers in Franklin’s tenure at Penn State (receptions by tight ends, running backs and quarterbacks not included); 2020 was a covid season, with only nine games:
