Penn State football in ideal spot heading into Week 1

After an offseason filled with splashy personnel additions and months of national hype, Penn State football will kick off the 2025 season one week from today inside Beaver Stadium. The most anticipated Nittany Lions year in recent memory, the title talk has not slowed down around Happy Valley throughout August.

Closing out fall camp earlier this week, James Franklin is pleased with the state of his program heading into the first week of game preparations. 

“I feel really good about it,” he said Tuesday. “We’ve had a ton of reps. I don’t know if I said this to you guys before. It’s interesting. The old ball coaches, you talk about the days of the two-a-days, are gone. In college, we did three-a-days the entire time. I wouldn’t go back if I could. I think the morning walk-through and the afternoon practice is enough. We get a ton out of it, especially the way we are walking through. Guys are doing a really good job being detail-oriented—footwork, pad level, all of it. So I think it’s been really good.

“I think we’re in a good place. Obviously, it’s very different in year two with Andy [Kotelnicki] and very different in year two with Stig [Justin Lustig]. Everything’s about putting our defense and putting Jim [Knowles] in the best position as well, so that we can come out from game one and play championship-level football. So I like where we’re at. We still got some work to do, but the good thing is, we still have time to get there.”

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Penn State remains in a good place with injuries heading into the regular season

The Nittany Lions got several major pieces of their roster back this month after missing the spring with injuries. After highlighting his team’s “unusual” (in a good way) injury situation earlier in August, Franklin remains optimistic about roster health for the start of the regular season. 

“I mean, this time of year, you’re going to have it. But I think the coaches have done a really good job,” he said. “Nelly [Andrew Nelson] has done a really good job of making suggestions. We’re down—I want to say, it may not sound significant—but we’re down like 127 minutes from last year’s camp. We’re down a significant number of reps.

“And specifically when you talk about the proven commodities. Dani [Dennis-Sutton] needs to get better, but we got to be smart with him because we know who Dani is. Same with Zane [Durant]. So guys like that. [Nicholas] Singleton and Fat [Kaytron Allen], guys like that, we’ve modified their reps even more so. And we’ve done that every year, but I think the combination of overall being a little bit more strategic with our reps and with time on feet, and then having specific plans for the guys that are proven commodities—that made a choice to come back and didn’t have to—being really smart and strategic with those guys. Very similar to what we did with Olu [Fashanu] a few years ago.”

September start allows staff time to evaluate Nittany Lion newcomers

Lavar Arrington II. © Heather Weikel / Basic Blues Nation, 2025.

Last week, Franklin highlighted a trio of true freshmen who are already on track to burn their redshirts. Now with real football on its way, we’ll soon have our first opportunity to see the newest Nittany Lions in action. 

While most around Nittany Nation are already looking ahead to September 27’s colossal showdown with Oregon, Penn State has four weeks to gear up for its Big Ten Championship rematch. With a light non-conference slate and the first of two bye weeks, the Nittany Lions staff will have plenty of time to build its young depth before the Ducks come to town. 

“I think there’s the aspect that there’s guys right now we think are going to be ready by game one. But then there’s also guys that we think may not be ready by game one, but we think they’re going to be ready by game four or five,” said Franklin. “And that should change. And we’ve had that every year—guys that were yellow at the end of camp, but then by game four or five, they turn to green. We’ve had guys that we thought were going to be green, and then slowed them down because they didn’t play as well as we thought they were going to.

“So we’ll have a better idea of where we’re at after game three. We have a bye week as well, so that’ll be helpful too, to kind of look at our roster and which of those guys that played in the first three games will continue to play, or which guys are we going to shut down and save their fourth game for later in the season when we need it? So we’ll know more. But we’re in a pretty good place.”

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