Pennsylvania native is Penn State's first offer in the Transfer Portal
Penn State’s search for defensive linemen in the Transfer Portal has led the Nittany Lions to Louisiana. Deion Barnes extended his first offer of the newly-opened portal cycle to Louisiana Tech defensive tackle David Blay.
The 6-foot-4, 304-pound Blay was just named First-Team All-Conference USA on Tuesday after posting 10.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks for the Bulldogs this fall. He started all 12 games and piled up 46 total tackles. His tackles for loss and sack totals were tops on the team and both were third in Conference USA, respectively.
The added layer here is that Blay is a Pennsylvania native. He’s a graduate of Harry S. Truman High School in Levittown, just northeast of Philadelphia. Out of high school, he attended West Chester, where he redshirted in 2021 and played in 11 games as a redshirt freshman in 2022. He put up 13 tackles for loss and five sacks in his only season in the PSAC.
Blay transferred to Louisiana Tech in 2023
Blay hit the Transfer Portal ahead of the 2023 season and landed in Ruston, La. He appeared in 10 games as a redshirt sophomore at Louisiana Tech and registered 16 tackles. This past season, despite not landing on any of the first four All-Conference USA preseason teams, Blay wound up as one of the conference’s top overall defenders. In his final game with the Bulldogs in November, Blay finished with five tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack against SEC opponent Arkansas.
Penn State hoping to be aggressive in the Transfer Portal
The college football transfer portal officially opened for undergraduates on Monday. Penn State is one of 12 schools dealing with it while also chasing a College Football Playoff title. Because of what is still on the line, the Nittany Lions are not expected to lose many players immediately. But, some are already moving on. Others will in the days ahead. And, head coach James Franklin and his staff will be looking for additions, as well.
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“We’re moving, and I’m pushing my staff to be very aggressive,” Franklin said Sunday. “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.
“So it’s hard to come up with a plan. We’ll do that this week. But we’re probably a week behind other programs. I didn’t really want to be having those conversations last week when we were getting ready for Oregon. So, that’s a little bit of a challenge. 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.”
Blue-White Illustrated will keep you up to date with the latest transfer portal news throughout the month.
