Penn State didn’t wait long to turn the page on the 2024 season, offering up some good news for those already looking to 2025 as Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen and Dani Dennis-Sutton all announced their intentions to return for a final year.
It’s honestly a bit of a shocker considering most everyone assumed one - or all - of these players would opt to enter the NFL Draft. Age is not the friend of NFL hopefuls and all three have shown themselves capable of taking that next step. It appeared to be a foregone conclusion that at least one of them would give it a go.
That’s not what happened.
To some extent Penn State’s talent on the depth chart at both running back and defensive end - and a history of reloading both position with relative ease - doesn’t make these returns something that fundamentally changes the Nittany Lions outlook in 2025, but it does erase a few questions off the “need to answer” list. There’s value in that.
Zoomed out even further, in my twisted and demented mind, it does remind me a bit of how Penn State men’s basketball has historically found success. In a conference that has been full of players leaving after a year or two or three, Penn State has had its best seasons on the backs of experienced, veteran squads. The Nittany Lions haven’t always been more talented, but they have often been older and made up for any skill gap with general IQ. That has only become more powerful as Penn State’s skill gap closes even further.
Shifting away from basketball, I know Tom Brady’s entrance into color-commentary has been met with mixed reviews, but he did make a point on Sunday that is obvious but also stuck with me: The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t sign Saquon Barkley to win them games in October, they signed him to win games in January and beyond.
That’s sort of what this move feels like as well. Penn State can probably win a lot of games without any of these three players and might very well make the playoffs without them. But all three are the kind of players who can make the difference in the biggest games of the year when it’s time to ‘survive and advance.’
A transitional thought from Lane Kiffin from the Peach Bowl last year.
“Ideally, the traditional model is the best if you can do that. If you can sign great high school players, 25 of them, and build that way, but I also don't know that's going to work quite as well as I think us coaches would all like it to work because of the transfer and because of the kind of five-star syndrome,” Kiffin said.
“So now those guys signing the top classes that are celebrating on signing day, I don't think that celebration is quite as much as it used to be, at least down in our area. Like I said, James has done the best job of keeping players probably of anybody in the country, but a lot of these others, as you look at the classes the last two years, these five-star guys aren't paying off. They're getting them into their program. Let's be honest, they're paying a lot of money for them. And when it doesn't go exactly right, they're in the portal and going to someone else. So I think there is no exact way to do it, and you've got to do it different depending on where you're at.”
In a roundabout way, the thought of winning in a transfer portal world by way of retention over bulk acquisition speaks a bit to what is going on here and a bit to the Penn State basketball model. Recruit players, keep players, keep them as long as possible and then send them on their way. Penn State will have the ability to deal with areas of need through the portal, but some of its biggest needs might simply be answered by hanging on to its best players for as long as possible.
Will these three - and Drew Allar - be the difference in 2025? Time will tell. But history has already told us that old, experienced and talented teams, win a lot of games that matter.
This has the same vibe as Michigan after 2022 and Ohio State after 2023. These guys really think they make a run next year. NIL sure helps too.