Predicting Penn State Football’s Top 3 Position Battles of Fall Camp (and the Winner of Each)
Penn State Football is now one month away from returning to the field to start the 2025 season against Nevada. With a large cohort of starting talent returning this fall, much of Penn State’s lineup is already written in pen ahead of the pivotal season for the Nittany Lions and James Franklin.
However, there are still a few starting positions that need to be decided before the Nittany Lions enter conference play against Oregon in late September.
While some of these may be decided before the Nittany Lions kick off the season on August 30th against Nevada in Beaver Stadium, others could drag out into the first three games of the season.
Here are the three most intriguing position battles for Penn State Football ahead of the 2025 season:
Right Tackle/ Right Guard
Penn State returns five players that started on the offensive line for the Nittany Lions in 2024, left tackle Drew Shelton, guard Vega Ioane, center Nick Dawkins, and right tackles Nolan Rucci and Anthony Donkoh.
While the Nittany Lions saw the departures of 2024 starter Sal Wormley and swing lineman JB Nelson this offseason, the unit looks to be in even better shape in 2025 than it was in 2024.
A late-season injury to starting right tackle Anthony Donkoh forced backup right tackle Nolan Rucci to play a major part for the Penn State offensive line into the postseason last year.
Rucci absolutely made the most of Donkoh’s injury, becoming one of Penn State’s best and most consistent offensive lineman during the Nittany Lions college football playoff run to the national semifinals. Now heading into 2025, with both Rucci and Donkoh back, Penn State offensive line coach Phil Trautwein has a good problem on his hands, picking a starting right tackle out of two excellent options.
I have included right guard on this position battle because there is a possibility that Trautwein could slide Anthony Donkoh back inside to right guard (where he began his Penn State career) and start both Rucci and Donkoh this fall.
With JB Nelson’s departure to the transfer portal earlier this offseason, a starting position at right guard seemingly opened for sophomore Cooper Cousins.
However, Trautwein could decide that Donkoh and Rucci are too valuable to leave one on the sideline this fall and keep Cousins as the 6th offensive lineman swing guard and backup center this fall.
Penn State boasts one of the deepest offensive lines in the nation on paper heading into the 2025 season. Whether we see a true competition between Donkoh and Rucci in camp and possibly into the first three non-conference games this fall remains to be seen. Either way, the right side of the offensive line is certainly a position to keep an eye on heading into fall camp.
Prediction: Nolan Rucci to start at Right Tackle, Anthony Donkoh to slide inside to Right Guard.
Safety
Penn State lost two stellar safeties this offseason, Jaylen Reed and KJ Winston.
The Nittany Lions got a head start on replacing Winston, as he did not play after week two last season with a partially torn ACL. This allowed true freshman Dejuan Lane to get valuable reps early on in his Penn State career, operating as Penn State’s third safety last fall.
Heading into 2025, Lane will now have the opportunity to compete for the second starting safety position opposite returning senior Zakee Wheatley.
On the other side of this position battle, Penn State brought back King Mack after a season away from Happy Valley at Alabama. Mack was not competing during spring practice because of an injury, so this position battle will truly start when fall camp opens if Mack is healthy enough to return to the practice field.
One wrench to throw into this battle is the possibility that King Mack could also compete for the fifth defensive back slot in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ defense, allowing both Mack and Lane to potentially see the field at the same time this fall.
Prediction: Dejuan Lane earns the starting position heading into game one
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Wide Receiver
Perhaps the most intriguing position battle this fall is at wide receiver for the Nittany Lions.
After Penn State’s wide receivers failed to catch a single pass in Penn State’s loss to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl last January, James Franklin and the Nittany Lions were highly aggressive in the transfer portal, bringing in three starters from other programs this offseason.
While it is expected that transfer receivers Trebor Pena, Kyron Hudson, and Devonte Ross will earn the three starting nods at the position this fall, the question remains how each will fit into Andy Kotelnicki’s offense and how many targets each can earn from starting quarterback Drew Allar.
Behind the three transfers, rising sophomore Tyseer Denmark and redshirt senior Liam Clifford, among others, will push the three newcomers for reps this fall. In order to reach the very lofty expectations set for the Nittany Lions this fall, Drew Allar, James Franklin, and Andy Kotelnicki will need the production from the wide receiver room to be much improved from 2024.
The pieces are there for this to be Allar’s most talented wide receiver corps in his Penn State career, but Allar and the receivers will need to build a rapport before the reigning Big Ten champion Oregon Ducks come to town in September.
Prediction: All three transfers will start for the Nittany Lions. Pena will lead the Nittany Lions in catches but Ross will lead the Nittany Lions in touchdown catches from the wide receiver room.
2025 is set to be one of the most anticipated seasons for the Nittany Lions.
“The best combined personnel [he thinks] we’ve ever had at Penn State,” Franklin noted during Big Ten Media Days. “Talking about players and staff.”
If the Nittany Lions want to get the most out of the 2025 season before a large cadre of stars from Penn State’s elite 2022 class leave for the NFL draft, Franklin and company will have to sort through a few position battles before conference play begins in around two months.
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