James Franklin: Transfer portal addition will help to spark ‘heated’ position battle for Penn State football

Penn State football is moving through the penultimate week of spring practice, meaning it’s soon time to shift focus and begin looking ahead to the fall. There’s plenty of new around Happy Valley in 2024, especially along the offensive front, where the Nittany Lions are set to replace three of five starters from a year ago. This week, James Franklin previewed what he expects to be a “heated battle” at offensive tackle heading into fall camp, including how transfer portal addition Nolan Rucci could push for a starter’s role in his first offseason in the program.

James Franklin: Nolan Rucci expected to factor into “heated” competition at tackle during fall camp

In a winter of rekindling past connections from the recruiting trail, James Franklin and Penn State football brought in former five-star recruit and Wisconsin Badger Nolan Rucci from the transfer portal in January. The top prospect out of Pennsylvania in 2021, the Litiz native and Nittany Lion legacy is already making himself at home in State College.

Rucci has added 15 pounds to his 6-8 frame in a little over two months, now weighing in at a lean 315 pounds. Furthermore, the transfer portal addition is a natural fit as a Nittany Lion.

“As we all know, in terms of athleticism and body type and all those types of things, intelligence, he checks a lot of boxes,” James Franklin said of Nolan Rucci following spring practice on Tuesday evening. “From my understanding, our guys love him. He’s fit in really well in the room. I think he’s really been excited about the development that he’s gotten so far in a brief period of time.”

Rucci’s arrival adds to the depth that Penn State football has amassed at the offensive tackle position. That depth will be needed now more than ever, losing veteran starters Olu Fashanu and Caeden Wallace to the NFL Draft this offseason.

James Franklin expects Nolan Rucci and the rest of the room to push each other through the remainder of spring camp and into the summer, noting that he expects both tackle positions to be up for grabs in fall camp.

“That will be, I think, a pretty heated battle, competition in training camp,” he said. “I think we’ll have a really competitive battle at both left tackle and right tackle in training camp. And we expect him [Rucci] to be a big part of that.”

Who are the most likely contenders at tackle for Penn State football?

Nolan Rucci will be just one of a handful of Nittany Lions vying for the starting roles at tackle for Penn State in 2024.

The feeling going into spring practice was that redshirt freshman Anthony Donkoh had put himself in good position to start on the right side after a strong performance in December’s Peach Bowl. That’s likely still the case. But, according to James Franklin, the slot is still up for grabs.

The left side is a bit more congested. Junior Drew Shelton is the clear frontrunner to take over for Fashanu, filling in for the All-American for five games as a true freshman in 2022 and serving as one of the first to rotate in on the offensive front last fall. But Shelton has been sidelined during spring practice, undergoing surgery at the end of the 2023 season.

Putting in the work behind the scenes is former five-star J’ven Williams. Appearing in three games as a redshirt in 2023, Williams has the size and the potential to be a future star along the Penn State offensive front in his own right.

We’ll get a much better picture of where things stand coming out of spring practice next week when Penn State football takes the field for the annual Blue-White Game. From there, we’ll have our eyes fixed on the position battles to come in August.