Penn State’s season ended on Saturday at 10-3, far from a bad year but far from one as fulfilling as many fans were hoping for. The offseason is never short on things needing to get done, but here are six things to consider on Penn State’s to-do list.
Sell, Sell, Sell: Despite how it might feel, Penn State fans won’t be annoyed by the Nittany Lions’ loss in the Peach Bowl forever. That said, many of the overarching issues that led the program to this point will still need to be addressed.
How is Penn State going to fix the receiver room? How is it going to get Drew Allar back on track? What exactly is Andy Kotelnicki’s approach to fixing some of these issues? How will Penn State try to navigate a historically challenging schedule? How will it prepare for an expanded playoff and a not unreasonable likelihood that it will be in that field? Franklin doesn’t need to spill the beans entirely but there’s nothing wrong with selling a plan of attack as college football changes and Penn State looks to keep pace with the pack. Especially after giving fans a sour taste to close out 2023.
Retention: Penn State can’t really afford to lose anymore major piece to its staff or roster this offseason and that means making sure to win back anyone on the fringe of entering the portal or joining another program. There’s no indication that big names are leaning towards going, but nothing would set Penn State back quite like losing one or both of its running backs or another assistant, not to mention most all of the returning parts of Penn State’s defense. James Franklin and his staff have done a good job with retention in the past, can that continue this offseason?
Portal Hunting: This will always be an offseason requirement, but Penn State pretty clearly has some areas in need of bolstering. Receiver might be the biggest one, but corner, safety and both trenches could use a boost as well. Which areas to attack first will have a lot to do with the market and who jumps in once the transfer portal opens up again on April 15th.
Up To Speed: Penn State will welcome 16 early enrollees to campus to start off the new year and while freshmen generally aren’t going to show up on campus and save the day, the quicker this group gets up to speed the better Penn State will be. Liam Andrews, Antoine Belgrave-Shorter, Eagan Boyer, Josiah Brown, De’Andre Cook, Cooper Cousins, T.A. Cunningham, Xavier Gilliam, Ethan Grunkemeyer, Jaylen Harvey, Kari Jackson, Quinton Martin, Jon Mitchell, Luke Reynolds, Garrett Sexton and Vaboue Toure will all call State College home soon. Some of them will end up impacting Penn State’s 2024 season. That journey starts soon.
Tough Convos: Not that these sorts of conversations aren’t happening during the rest of the year, but Penn State is going to need to have a healthy dose of self evaluating this offseason to figure out what happens next. This is always a part of the offseason schedule, and the introduction of two new coordinators pretty much forces the issue, but enough things went wrong all season long that you can only flush so much of that down the drain simply because there are incoming coaching changes. Things are only going to get harder, may as well take a good long look under the hood.
Get Out There: This won’t be the first time this has come up, but James Franklin pretty much disappears in the offseason, and while there’s no question the guy could probably use a nap, he could also probably go kiss a few babies too. It’s not so much that the head coach of Penn State football owes State College some number of community service hours, but the longer his tenure goes on, and the harder things get – or the longer he doesn’t get to where fans want him to go – the more he could use some degree of goodwill. It’s easier to root for someone if you like them. That’s not to say Franklin is disliked, but for a guy who is so committed to relationship building he doesn’t always seem to have much of one with a town that isn’t all that big.
