{"id":33383,"date":"2025-07-02T19:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33383\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T19:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:36:10","slug":"urban-meyer-puts-b1g-powerhouses-on-notice-as-he-reveals-james-franklins-quiet-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33383\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Meyer Puts B1G Powerhouses on Notice as He Reveals James Franklin\u2019s Quiet Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State<\/strong> has consistently been on top of preseason lists all this time, even with just 2 months left to its first kickoff. The vibe at Happy Valley is energetic and focused on one thing: to finally lift the National trophy. Some say that the Nittany Lions have never looked this good, and James Franklin<\/strong> has a clear shot at the playoffs and even the National Championship. They are easily returning as one of the strongest teams in college football. Veteran coach Urban Meyer<\/strong> singled out a key trait of the team that is Franklin\u2019s biggest advantage over other big-name programs.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions\u2019 2025 team is stacked on both sides of the ball. On offense, Drew Allar<\/strong> returns for his last CFB season and is looking significantly better than his 2024 version. Also returning are Nicholas Singleton<\/strong> and Kaytron Allen<\/strong>\u2013the country\u2019s best rushing attack at the moment. On the defense, Franklin is armed with Jim Knowles<\/strong> as his DC. Knowles comes to Penn State as a National Championship-winning DC. It\u2019s all lining up for the Nittany Lions to break free of their past woes and at least appear at the National Championship game. Urban Meyer included the Nittany Lions among his top 3 best rosters in college football.<\/p>\n

The other teams are Ohio State<\/strong> and Texas<\/strong>, who are emerging as the only worthy competitors for Penn State. But, Franklin\u2019s roster has an edge over the two. Meyer said in a July 1 appearance on CFB ON FOX<\/a>, \u201cThey have more seniors. Think about this\u2026 the difference between a fourth-year player and a rookie or a freshman is night and day. You\u2019re coaching grown a\u2013 men. That\u2019s a men\u2019s locker room compared to a young person. So watch out for Penn State, man.\u201d Penn State is returning with 14 starters. On the offensive side, 7 of the 9 starters are seniors. And on Defense, 3 of the 5 are returning seniors. The Buckeyes and Longhorns, this time, are going to be led by Julian Sayin and Arch Manning, who are both playing as sophomores.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\"article-image\"\/<\/p>\n

The most important change-makers for Penn State are in this equally important category. Drew Allar isn\u2019t just returning as a talented QB. He\u2019s returning as a seasoned, experienced starting QB. And so are Allen and Singleton. They\u2019ve been on the grind for 3 years now, and are arguably in the best spot in their careers to unleash their might. James Franklin has a good chance of seeing multiple players from this lot go as top-round draft picks next year. The HC has built a culture that enables these crucial players to continue their belief in PSU football and forgo their chances of development anywhere else.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

James Franklin is high on developing NFL-worthy talents as Penn State\u2019s own<\/p>\n

Transfer portals call for shakedowns in college football every year \u2013 that too twice. Penn State lost 15 players to the portal. But the damage was not very problematic for Franklin. His WR room needed immediate retooling, for which he went to the portal and got Kyron Hudson<\/strong>, Devonte Ross<\/strong>, and Trebor Pena<\/strong><\/a>. In fact, these additions have added stability to the WR room, which was a disaster last season. But James Franklin\u2019s biggest win is that he managed to keep his most important players with him at Penn State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud,\u201d the HC told Big Ten Football,<\/a> when asked about his success at retaining Allar, Allen, and Singleton. \u201cI\u00a0also think they recognize, you know, we\u2019re a program. We don\u2019t live in the portal\u2026 We\u2019re going to invest in our own. We\u2019re going to invest in the retention of our own roster. And I think there\u2019s also an aspect that those guys see the value of that\u2026 We have two guys again drafted in the first round in back-to-back years. And both of those guys were recruited to Penn State, stayed, and were developed at Penn State the entire time,\u201d Franklin said about the culture in his team.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Bill Connelly ranked Penn State\u2019s returning production as 6 in the Big 10. The low ranking is\u00a0in light of the weight of the departures of Abdul Carter<\/strong> and Tyler Warren<\/strong>. The quality of the returning offense, however, was calculated to be at 72%. Allar is entering his 3 season as QB1 for Penn State, and is a player worth watching out for<\/a> in the 2025 season. He also has high odds to end up as a top draft pick by the time he wraps up his collegiate career.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions in 2025 are coming as experienced men, in sharp contrast with those that have rookies or juniors leading their fronts. Can this one factor stand as James Franklin\u2019s trump card, that will finally lead him to achieve his long-awaited dream this year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State has consistently been on top of preseason lists all this time, even with just 2 months…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1444,1641,1637,27836,27491,1638,1318,27839,27493,2941,27838,2942,2943,27837,1317,1315,1316,1619,1647,6140,1618,1645,2955,62,27833,2959,1648,67,132,27835,68,1646,2352,27834,1615],"class_list":{"0":"post-33383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-1444","9":"tag-am","10":"tag-an","11":"tag-beschallung","12":"tag-blau","13":"tag-der","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-franklins","16":"tag-fruhling","17":"tag-fusball","18":"tag-jakobus","19":"tag-kopf","20":"tag-kutsche","21":"tag-lowen","22":"tag-ncaa","23":"tag-ncaa-football","24":"tag-ncaafootball","25":"tag-npstrans","26":"tag-nur","27":"tag-parkanlage","28":"tag-quer","29":"tag-redaktionelle","30":"tag-spiel","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-staat","33":"tag-stadion","34":"tag-toppic","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-universitat","38":"tag-us","39":"tag-verwendung","40":"tag-vorheriger","41":"tag-weis","42":"tag-x0x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114785326453155392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}