Penn State football touted among winners of 2025 offseason

The offseason may be just a little more than halfway over, but the national media is already starting to take stock of the  college football landscape heading into the summer. Penn State football is riding a wave of positive press in recent weeks, spurred by several headline-grabbing additions to the program.

As the dust settles on spring practices across the country, the Nittany Lions are garnering praise as one of the winners of the college football offseason. Recently, ESPN ranked how each team in the Power Four conferences fared since the conclusion of the 2024 season. Penn State football came in at No. 3 nationally and as the top-ranked team from the Big Ten.

“Not every great offseason stems from heavy portal additions,” the article stated. “Penn State improved its roster, especially at a lagging wide receiver spot with Trebor Pena and others, but it also kept NFL prospects Drew Allar, Nicholas Singleton, and Kaytron Allen in the backfield and made the top coordinator hire of the winter in Jim Knowles from Ohio State.”

While losing several notable pieces to the NFL Draft and the transfer portal, the Nittany Lions were viewed as more than compensating with the additions of Pena, Devonte Ross, Kyron Hudson, and Amare Campbell. Despite losing Tom Allen to Clemson, the hiring of Knowles was widely acclaimed as one of the best offseason coaching moves in the country.

“Typically having to hire your fourth defensive coordinator in five years isn’t great, especially when you also lose three starters from a dynamite front seven,” ESPN college football reporter Bill Connelly added. “But pilfering your rival’s awesome defensive coordinator and keeping all of your offensive stars (while using the portal for receiver upgrades) is a good way to nail the offseason.”

Expectations are high in Happy Valley as the Nittany Lions have already taken the top spot in several recent post-spring top 25 rankings. The program last earned a preseason No. 1 ranking in 1997. Penn State hasn’t been ranked inside the top five of the AP Poll to start the year since 1999.

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