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Penn State

Urban Meyer questions if Penn State's wide receivers will hold Nittany Lions back

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•07/20/25
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Penn State quarterback Drew Allar (Photo credit: Steve Manuel/BWI)

Penn State is one of a handful of teams that has the makeup of a potential national championship contender heading into 2025. There are so many strong areas on the team, starting at quarterback.

Veteran Drew Allar is back as one of the nation’s best signal callers, and he’ll key an offense that has plenty of power in the backfield. Former coach Urban Meyer is impressed by Allar’s development, but not enough to completely put the stamp of approval on the Penn State offense just yet.

“I think night and day. (I was) very concerned about Drew Allar,” Meyer said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “He was actually from Ohio and I saw high school tape on him, and then we covered him his sophomore year and he struggled. Last year he was much better fundamentally.

“But the question I have for Penn State, they have two great running backs, they have one of the best offensive lines in the country, certainly the Big Ten — do they have the skill on the outside? Last year they did not.”

Of course, last year Penn State was able to work around the issue at receiver because it had the best tight end in the game in Tyler Warren. He made a lot of things right offensively.

He’ll be gone now, though, and it’s on the receivers outside to step up and pick up the slack. And they’ll be mostly new in 2025.

The team’s top two wideouts last year — Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans — both transferred out this offseason. That’s a combined 1,135 yards and nine touchdowns worth of production gone from the 2024 squad.

Meyer isn’t sure if Penn State has replaced well enough. Transfers Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross and Trebor Pena are going to be counted on, but how seamless the transition is remains to be seen.

“That was not a typical Penn State receiving corps, and I don’t know if they made it better,” Meyer said. “I keep trying to research that and we’ll see them early in the season, but I’m hoping they have better skill on the outside. I think everything about Penn State is a national championship contender. My question is do they have NFL Draft picks on the outside like they used to?”