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Will Penn State star Tyler Warren be named a Heisman Trophy finalist today?: Newsstand

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•12/09/24•

GregPickel

Tyler-Warren-Penn-State-Football-White-Out
Penn State tight end Tyler Warren fights for more yardage against Washington. (Photo by Frank Hyatt, BWI)

Penn State news, notes, and updates for Dec. 9 include a look at Tyler Warren’s Heisman candidacy, CFP rankings fall out, and more. It’s time to dive into Monday’s top tweets and headlines about the Nittany Lions and college athletics.

Penn State tweets of the day

The Nittany Lions have not had a finalist for college football’s top individual honor since 2002. That could change by the end of today. Penn State is pushing Heisman Trophy voters to give its star tight end Tyler Warren a seat in New York at Saturday’s award ceremony. If he gets there, he will be the first PSU player to do so since 2002. The senior won’t win the honor either way. Colorado two-way standout Travis Hunter is a massive favorite in the betting markets, followed by Boise State running back, Ashton Jeanty.

Whether or not Warren heads to the Big Apple will likely depend on how many players the Heisman Trophy committee invites. If it’s three, he’ll probably be on the outside looking in. Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who starred in the Ducks’ Big Ten title game win over the Nittany Lions, is likely to claim the third spot. A number of players, including Warren, could be in line for the fourth if the Heisman brings that many to New York. It did so last year for the first time since 2020. It also had four finalists in 2019, five in 2016, and six in 2013. So, anything is possible. But, with Hunter a likely runaway winner, a large group of attendees feels unlikely.

Our gut feeling is that Warren will not receive an invite. But, time will tell. Voting closes at 5 p.m. ET. Finalists will be announced sometime after that. Making or not will take nothing away from Warren’s sensational season. He set Big Ten marks for receiving yards (1,062) and receptions by a tight end (88). He is only the fifth Nittany Lion to ever top the 1,000-yard receiving mark in a single season.

Headlines of the day

How will Penn State approach the transfer portal amid a College Football Playoff run?: Pickel, BWI

Can Penn State host recruits for College Football Playoff game against SMU?: Snyder, BWI

KJ Winston Jr., injury update: What’s the latest on the star Penn State safety before the postseason?: Pickel, BWI

Penn State ‘wins’ jersey scouting path to CFP semifinals: Bauer, BWI

Scouting SMU: 3 early thoughts on the team Penn State faces in Round 1 of the College Football Playoff: Pickel, BWI

Quote of the day

“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.”

–PSU coach James Franklin on his program’s plan for dealing with the transfer portal, which opens today.

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