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Penn State

Penn State among CFB's best with 10 Senior Bowl Top 300 picks

nate-mug-10.12.14by: Nate Bauer08/20/25NateBauerBWI
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Penn State quarterback Drew Allar. (Greg Pickel/BWI)

Joining Josh Pate from the Lasch Building balcony outside his office Tuesday afternoon, Penn State head coach James Franklin checked all the boxes. With the Nittany Lions just days away from kicking off the highly anticipated 2025 season against Nevada on Aug. 30, optimism runs deep in Happy Valley.

And it touches every facet of the program.

“We’re going into year two with Andy Kotelnicki. I think that’s going to be significant for the players and for him. Same thing with Justin Lustig, our special teams coordinator,” Franklin said. “The challenge obviously is with Coach Knowles – arguably the best defensive coordinator in college football over the last couple of years – but it’s year one. So how do we speed up that maturation process?

“What I’ve seen so far, I think we’re ahead on offense and special teams, as you would imagine. The question everybody’s talking about is wideout. The three guys we brought in from the transfer portal, plus the ones already in the program – I think we’ve improved there. We should have one of the better O-lines in the country. We should have the best quarterback in college football. We’ve got an argument for the best running back room in the country.

“And you could go through the defense and say the same thing with Zane Durant and Dani [Dennis-Sutton] on the defensive line, Tony Rojas, Dom DeLuca, Zakee [Wheatley], A.J. Harris in the defensive backfield. We’ve got a lot of pieces. The thing no one wants to talk about – the holder, the snapper, the kicker, the punter – they’re all back. So there’s just a lot of experienced guys that understand what it takes to win at this level.”

Experience matters

Experience matters in college football, and Penn State is banking on it as it pushes to return to – and surpass – last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal appearance.

That point was reinforced Wednesday with the release of the Senior Bowl Top 300, an annual preseason list spotlighting the top upperclassmen in the sport. Penn State landed 10 selections across both sides of the ball, further proof of the program’s veteran presence.

Headlining the group is quarterback Drew Allar, joined on offense by running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, receivers Devonte Ross and Trebor Pena, and offensive linemen Drew Shelton and Vega Ioane. On defense, Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant were recognized up front, while fifth-year safety Zakee Wheatley rounded out the Lions’ contingent.

With 10 selections, Penn State sits in elite company. LSU led all programs with 14, edging Alabama’s 13, followed by a three-way tie between Penn State, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma at 10 each.

The Senior Bowl list features 53 underclassmen, and all picks must be draft-eligible to qualify.

ESPN has three Nittany Lions going in 2026 first round

Penn State’s NFL prospects were further highlighted this week in ESPN’s latest 2026 mock draft from analyst Field Yates. Allar leads the way, projected to the Indianapolis Colts at No. 11 overall. Dennis-Sutton is slotted to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 22, while Harris is pegged for the Baltimore Ravens at No. 28.

Should that trio all land in the first round, it would mark the program’s first three-player opening round since 2003, when a program-record four Nittany Lions were selected.

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