MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — James Franklin stood outside Penn State’s locker room with his arm around his daughter. In the minutes after Penn State’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Notre Dame, streams of dejected Nittany Lions players trudged past the head coach and into the locker room, where the sting of this season’s abrupt end set in.
Wide receivers coach Marques Hagans sat at a locker stall with a blank stare. What does one say after a game in which no Penn State wideout caught a pass? Omari Evans and Harrison Wallace III, receivers who have since entered the transfer portal, slipped off their uniforms one last time. The stunned looks on their faces matched that of their position coach.
As Penn State’s players and coaches sat with the pain of coming one game short of playing for a national championship, Franklin wanted them to remember this moment. This night, as painful as it was for Penn State, might also be pivotal for the 2025 season.
“They’ve gotten a taste of what this feels like and what it looks like and what it smells like,” Franklin said. “We’ll all be better for it, including myself. We’ll be better from this experience because there are so many guys in that locker room that have a chance to come back and use this as fuel.”
With quarterback Drew Allar, running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton and defensive tackle Zane Durant among the impact players returning, Penn State can build on this Playoff run. It’s also committed to retooling a receiving corps that hasn’t been talented enough to punch up and succeed against the likes of Ohio State for the past two seasons. Penn State will also need a new defensive coordinator after Tom Allen left this week to take the same job at Clemson, positioning himself closer to his family.
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Even with those changes, Penn State’s window to compete for a national championship is open, just as much as it was this season. The desire to run it back in 2025 will set high expectations — the highest of any of Franklin’s Penn State teams. If the realistic expectation for 2024 was to make the Playoff and host a game — which Penn State exceeded — getting back to Hard Rock Stadium next January, the site of the national championship, is the next benchmark.
“The beauty of it, we got a lot of kids coming back, especially up front, so we got a lot of makings to be as good, if not better, next year,” running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said.
Drew Allar and Kaytron Allen helped lead Penn State to its first College Football Playoff appearance. (CFP / Getty Images)
Penn State’s name, image and likeness collective, Happy Valley United, has a transfer portal campaign through which fans pledged money and often left messages with the hope they would be earmarked for the team’s biggest need: a wide receiver. Phrases like “Go get a Jeremiah Smith” and “Wide receiver 1, please” have littered a campaign that has raised over $226,000.
Penn State’s ability to retain much of its roster and supplement it with a collective that invested between $10 million and $15 million this past season is notable. Happy Valley United saw an uptick in fan support in 2024, particularly after the October loss to Ohio State, said Rich Stankewicz, director of operations for the collective.
“Everyone had heard the stories of Ohio State’s 20-something million dollar budget, and we came so close. The players played so hard that game, and people realized, to be cliche, it’s a game of inches,” Stankewicz said. “One player here, one player there. We had people come out of the woodwork after that game. Some significant donors came out following that loss and just kind of put their foot down and said, ‘We’re sick of this happening.’”
Many of the returning headliners could have different ways of being compensated beyond the collective. Singleton, as part of an endorsement deal, was on a Gatorade banner that draped over a building in downtown State College in the fall. Abdul Carter, a projected top-five NFL Draft pick who will not return next season, was part of agent Drew Rosenhaus’ Rosenhaus Sports Representation, where Carter’s family told The Athletic it creatively worked to find ways for Carter to be compensated.
Still, the support from Happy Valley United is critical.
“Everyone’s finally getting it now,” Stankewicz said. “Winning is a cure-all. People have seen the success on the field, they’re now seeing our success with retention of players, and NIL is a small part of player retention. We wouldn’t be retaining players at the rate we are without them all being in it for each other and for the locker room.”
There’s a desire from those in the locker room to build on 2024. It was apparent after the Orange Bowl loss how much coming up short ate at the team’s stars.
Singleton stormed out of the locker room in Miami after a loud sound was heard from behind the door. For all that the quiet, reserved running back often doesn’t say in front of cameras, Singleton doesn’t have a poker face. He and Allen will run behind an offensive line that returns four of five starters for 2025, including center Nick Dawkins, a team captain, who announced this week he will be back for a sixth season.
“We had a great season this year, but there is still unfinished business,” Dawkins said in his statement.
Linebacker Dom DeLuca, well positioned to be a three-time team captain, will be back for a fifth year. And all of Penn State’s specialists announced together that they, too, are giving it one more go around.
Dennis-Sutton, the defensive end who is one of the team’s emotional leaders and best players, cited “unfinished business” and a desire “to chase that elusive championship” as reasons he’s returning.
Retaining Allar, the quarterback who will remain one of the most intriguing draft prospects in the next cycle, should make Penn State a preseason favorite to win it all and an attractive spot for transfer wide receivers. The starting quarterback from Ohio seems tired of losing to Ohio State too. Between tears after the Orange Bowl, Allar vowed to be better next season, his third as the starter. His interception late in the fourth quarter against Notre Dame isn’t the kind of play Penn State fans will soon forget, but Allar’s coaches and teammates are adamant he will learn from the loss. He will have one more chance to beat Ohio State, something Penn State hasn’t done since 2016.
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Surrounding Allar with more talent in the receiving corps has to be the top priority. Stankewicz saw the fan comments that went along with their donations. The spring transfer portal window will be crucial.
“Just looking forward to continuing to grow, learn more about myself, get better in any way I can,” Allar said. “Definitely going to learn from this and move on and take it on the chin right now.”
Penn State showed against Notre Dame, much like it did in losses to Ohio State and Oregon this season, that it isn’t far from beating premier teams. That’s the agonizing — but exciting — thing about this program. Franklin said his team learned this year that it “can play with anybody.” Sure, it capitalized on a favorable Playoff path with wins against SMU and Boise State, but Penn State showed all season and in blowing out SMU and Boise State that it belongs.
It led Ohio State and Notre Dame by 10 points, details fans will surely think about Monday night during the CFP national championship game. Penn State couldn’t close out either time, which will be a point of emphasis this offseason, but in spurts, this team showed the potential required to win a national championship. Fans saw it, players tasted it, and the next several months will be spent building on this foundation, hoping next season ends differently in Miami.
“There are about 128 teams that would give their right arm to have the season that we just had this year,” Franklin said. “It doesn’t feel that way right now, but there’s a ton to be proud of.”
(Top photo of James Franklin: Megan Briggs / Getty Image)
