Penn State Football capped off a 10-2 season Friday with a 42-0 shutout of the Michigan State Spartans at Ford Field in Detroit.
With a few days remaining before Selection Sunday when Penn State will find out its postseason bowl destination, all eyes have turned to two searches, Penn State’s offensive coordinator search and the transfer portal.
As soon as the regular season officially closed Saturday night, players from around the country flooded into the transfer portal to find new teams to play for next season.
While Penn State Football has yet to have a player enter the portal or declare for the draft, it is not too early to look at five wide receiver targets for Penn State in the portal to provide Drew Allar and whoever the Nittany Lions selects as its new offensive coordinator with as many weapons as possible entering 2024.
Top-5 WR Transfer Portal Targets for Penn State Football
1. Deion Burks Purdue
Deion Burks could have entered the NFL draft this offseason, and was projected by some to be a top 100 player in the upcoming draft according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Instead, Burks entered the portal after catching 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns this season.
Burks averaged 13.4 yards per catch in 2023 and caught a touchdown pass against both Ohio State and Michigan this season.
THANK YOU PURDUE
FOREVER A BOILERMAKER 🖤 pic.twitter.com/6JErgcHWop— 𝐃𝐞𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐬 (@deionkburks) November 28, 2023
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2. Kris Mitchell FIU
Kris Mitchell is the older brother of Penn State commit Jon Mitchell from Jacksonville, Florida.
In addition to his family’s familiarity with Penn State, Mitchell put up impressive numbers in 2023 for Florida International, catching 64 passes for 1,118 yards and seven touchdowns this season, including a season long 80 yard touchdown.
In his four-year career for the Panthers, Mitchell has caught 100 passes for 1,663 yards and 12 touchdowns. While there is certainly a difference in playing in Conference USA vs the Big Ten, Mitchell racked up 157 yards and a touchdown on six catches against Arkansas this season.
𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄💕 pic.twitter.com/5VprRE6tB8
— Kris Mitchell (@KrisMitch10) November 29, 2023
3. Chris Tyree Notre Dame
Penn State Football was involved in Chris Tyree’s recruitment all the way back in 2020 as a running back, with current interim co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider as his main recruiter.
Could the Nittany Lions come full circle and grab Chris Tyree out of the transfer portal now as a wide receiver?
Tyree caught 82 passes for 945 yards and seven touchdowns in his career at Notre Dame, while adding 1,161 yards rushing and eight touchdowns. Focusing solely on wide receiver in 2023, Tyree averaged 18.6 yards per catch with a long of 76 yards and could have the electric home-run ability that could boost Penn State’s offense in 2024.
Thank you, ND.
Love thee ☘️ pic.twitter.com/zmRswpRGbH
— Chris Tyree (@chris_tyree4) November 27, 2023
4. Ja’Mori Maclin North Texas
Ja’Mori Maclin was an extremely productive wide receiver this season for North Texas, catching 57 passes for 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns.
On the year, Maclin averaged 17.6 yards per catch with a long of 80 yards. Maclin showed big play ability against power five competition recording four catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns against California in September and also caught 8 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown against a ranked Tulane team in October.
Maclin caught a pass over 30 yards in seven out of 12 games this season.
Thank you UNT 💚 @jgpvisuals pic.twitter.com/4xJvGtHQFK
— Ja’Mori Maclin (@routerunner9) November 28, 2023
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5. Raymond Cottrell Texas A&M
Penn State had already been expressing interest in Raymond Cottrell before most of the players on this list could enter the portal (because Cottrell was able to enter early with Jimbo Fisher’s firing at Texas A&M).
Still listed as one of the best wide receivers in the transfer portal, Cottrell was the number 39 overall wide receiver in the 2023 class.
Thank You God he’s been so good to me 🖤 I couldn’t do anything without him.. as of now I am in the portal with 3 years of eligibility left✝️ #Goddid thank you to everyone who was with me on my journey… pic.twitter.com/7nnmRmFhIM
— Raymond Cottrell (@RaymondCottre14) November 12, 2023
With Penn State Football looking to stock talent in the wide receiver room for 2024 to make a run at the 12 team playoff in what could be Drew Allar’s last year at Penn State, Penn State could pursue many different targets in the transfer portal at wide receiver.
I would expect to see at least one, but maybe a few transfers in at the position as Penn State looks to sure up the wide receiver room that saw flashes but largely underwhelmed in 2023.
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Education: Saint Vincent College, Penn State Law School
Location: Washington, DC
Experience:Robert Casturo has covered Penn State football for NittanyCentral since 2022. Casturo previously covered Penn State football through a social media presence (@PSU_FB_Thoughts on X) since 2019. Casturo earned his bachelor's degree from Saint Vincent College in 2015, where he was a punter for 1 season on the Saint Vincent College football team and worked in the athletic department for 2 years as a student manager. Casturo earned his JD from Penn State Law in 2018 where he was a senior editor of the Penn State Law Review.
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