Penn State to host former USC DL Bear Alexender for official visit
Penn State is hosting former USC and Georgia defensive lineman Bear Alexander for an official visit this weekend. BWI publisher Sean Fitz first reported on the trip in Wednesday’s ‘S’ Zone. Alexander will be in State College fresh off an official visit to the Nittany Lions’ College Football Playoff first round foe, SMU. The Mustangs, Nittany Lions, and Oregon are the three teams standing out early to the Denton, Tex., native, according to On3’s Hayes Fawcett.
Alexander, who stands 6-foot-3, 315 pounds, has had an interesting college career to date. In his first two years, which featured one season in Athens and one in Los Angeles, he had 57 tackles, (9.5 for loss), 3.5 sacks), 16 quarterback hurries, six pass breakups over 25 games and 12 starts). However, 2024 hardly went as planned. After amassing four tackles and a quarterback hurry over the first three games, Alexander left the Trojans in September and then entered the portal as promised when it opened for undergraduates back on Monday. He reportedly moved on to preserve eligibility since he was in a backup role.
Penn State is also hosting Louisana Tech defensive tackle David Blay this weekend.
Penn State will have playing time available at defensive tackle next year
Alexander, should he come to Penn State, would have to earn his reps. But, the opportunity to start will certainly be there for the taking. The same goes for Blay, of course. Dvon J-Thomas and Coziah Izzard are out of eligibility. And, Zane Durant has the option to leave for the NFL. Ty Blanding and Xavier Gilliam return for bigger roles no matter what Durant decides to do.
Either way, the chance to play a significant number of snaps will be there in State College for any defensive tackle who chooses the Lions out of the transfer portal. But, any of them who do will not be guaranteed a role and instead will have to do it. The Lions have plenty to sell both defensive tackles on during this weekend’s visit.
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The Lions are taking an aggressive approach to the portal
“We’re moving, and I’m pushing my staff to be very aggressive,” James Franklin said Sunday when asked about his program’s portal approach. “The challenge that I don’t think a lot of people think about is, typically when your season ends, and you’re in that time getting ready for a bowl game, you have time to sit down with all of your players and find out what’s going on, who’s coming back, who’s considering going into the transfer portal, who is going into the transfer portal. And a lot of those things impact your decision-making on who you’re going to try to go out and get to replace those guys with.
“It’s hard to totally know what you want to do in the portal until you know exactly what’s going on with your current roster for next year. But I’ve asked our staff to be aggressive and move and make some decisions in positions that we think we’re going to have some needs. So, we’ll have a better idea this week.”
