Who has Penn State picked up and lost this offseason, from coaches to recruiters and players?

Penn State coach James Franklin stated the obvious at his first news conference of the 2025 offseason back on Feb. 11: While right now might technically be a part of the calendar year when things are slower than usual, there’s still a lot going on. At that moment in time, the now 12th-year leader of the Nittany Lions had recently hired a new defensive coordinator but also learned that he’d need a new running backs coach. And, his players, fresh off a 16-game 2024 season, were gearing up to start prep for next fall’s slate of games.

“This time of year, we’re busy,” he said. “We’ve gotten back into the weight room—I think we talked about this before—the players had about two weeks off after the season; long season. So I had two weeks off. We’re getting back into workouts now.

“We’ll get ready to get started with winter workouts here pretty soon, which is our morning mat workouts, I think most of you guys know that we typically have anywhere between eight to 10. Again, based on the schedule, we’ll probably have six of those this year. We have to make modifications based on the calendar and how long we played into the season.”

In case you’ve lost track or just need a refresher, here’s a roundup of all the program personnel movement that has taken place so far this year as of Feb. 18.

Penn State transfer portal losses

The Nittany Lions saw nine players who were on the 2024 roster leave for the portal. The last one of that group, former safety turned receiver Mehki Flowers, is now with Akron. Here’s where the full group ended up:

S Tyrece Mills: UCONN
CB Cam Miller: Rutgers
TE Jerry Cross: Memphis
WR Trey Wallace: Ole Miss
WR Omari Evans: Washington
DT T.A. Cunningham: Garden City Community College
QB Beau Pribula: Missouri
WR Mehki Flowers: Akron
WR Tyler Johnson: East Carolina

In addition to those nine, it’s worth noting that two specialists with eligibility left, kicker Sander Sahaydak and punter Mitchell Groh, are no longer with the program, as well.

Nittany Lion portal pickups

Penn State brought six newcomers in via the portal this offseason. Each now has his first jersey number in State College. The list, plus where each came from, is as follows:

No. 5: WR Devonte Ross (from Troy)

#11: WR Kyron Hudson (USC)

No. 16: S King Mack (Alabama)

No. 34: DT Owen Wafle (Michigan)

#45: DE Enai White (Texas A&M)

No. 54: T.J. Shanahan (Texas A&M)

Penn State assistant coaching staff changes

The lines are blurred in this category because of the fact that analysts and support staffers can have on-field roles. But, for the purposes of this conversation, we are talking about the 10 assistant coaches under James Franklin. That does not include Danny O’Brien, who the program lists as its quarterbacks coach even though he is employed as an analyst.

At any rate, eight of the 10 return, which means two moved on. Defensive coordinator Tom Allen left the Lions for Clemson. Penn State pried Jim Knowles away from the defending national champs, Ohio State, to replace him. And, running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider moved on after seven seasons to take a job at Notre Dame. Former Temple head coach Stan Drayton is replacing him.

Other departures

Penn State has so far lost one member of its recruiting staff. Khalil Ahmad is now the associate general manager at Temple, per his Twitter bio. Franklin touched on his departure earlier this month.

“We lost Khalil [Ahmad] to Temple for an advancement in his career from a from a title perspective and a responsibility perspective,” Franklin said. “Khalil did a really good job for us as well, so we wish him well, but that creates a ton of work as well. The interview process, being as thorough as we possibly can with that, while also understanding in today’s college football, the timing of it is really important as well. There’s a lot of uneasiness and uncertainty from our current roster, as well as recruits. So we want to be sensitive to that as well, but not to the point where we don’t do a great job and we’re not thorough with our process.”

As of Feb. 18, Penn State still seeks Ahmad’s replacement.

There has also been turnover in the analyst department. Three support staffers who came to Penn State with Allen — his son Thomas Allen plus Zach Terrill and Jeff McInerney — are all gone. Additionally, former analyst Robb Smith is now the co-defensive coordinator and play caller on that side of the ball at Rutgers.

As for new additions at Penn State, Shane Eachus and Brent Zdebski are both here after working previously with Knowles. The Lions also hired two new defensive line helpers. Letterman Greg Gattuso is back in town after 11 seasons as Albany’s head coach. And, former Penn State graduate assistant Andrew Jackson is back after a stint at West Virginia. Other additions are likely coming this offseason, as well.