UNIVERSITY PARK – No. 2/3 Penn State begins the 2025 season hosting the Nevada Wolf Pack at West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on CBS.

SERIES HISTORY: Penn State meets Nevada for the first time in program history. The Nittany Lions are 6-0 against current members of the Mountain West. Penn State’s last matchup against a Mountain West member came in the Fiesta Bowl last season, a 35-21 win over Boise State.

STARTING OFF RIGHT: Penn State has won 20 of its last 23 season-opening contests and eight of its last nine. The Nittany Lions are 114-22-2 all-time in season openers and 121-13-1 all-time in home openers.

YEAR 12 FOR FRANKLIN: Head coach James Franklin enters his 12th season leading the Nittany Lions. He reached 100 wins at Penn State in 2024, becoming one of seven active FBS head coaches with 100 or more wins at their current school. Franklin reached the 100 wins at Penn State in just 141 games, making him the third-fastest among the seven active FBS coaches to do so.

UNDER CENTER: Senior quarterback Drew Allar enters his third season as Penn State’s starting signal-caller, having played in 39 career games with 29 starts. Entering the 2025 season, he is one of nine returning FBS quarterbacks with 6,300+ passing yards and 53+ passing touchdowns in their career.

DYNAMIC DUO: Senior running backs Nicholas Singleton (2,828) and Kaytron Allen (2,877) are the second set of Penn State teammates to each have 2,000 career rushing yards, joining Lydell Mitchell (1969-71; 2,934 yards) and Franco Harris (1969-71; 2,002 yards). Singleton (2nd) and Allen (3rd) enter the 2025 season in the top 3 nationally of active leading rushers. Singleton owns the most career rushing touchdowns (32) and all-purpose yards (4,673) among returning FBS players.

CREATING HAVOC: Senior defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton returns for the Nittany Lions, finishing with 13 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks a year ago. He finished tied for fifth in the Big Ten in tackles for loss (13.0) and tied for sixth in sacks (8.5).

THE OPPOSITION: The Wolf Pack finished 3-10 overall and an 0-7 mark in Mountain West play last season. Under first-year head coach Jeff Choate, Nevada earned wins over Troy, Eastern Washington and Oregon State. The Wolf Pack’s red zone efficiency saw a significant uptick, scoring touchdowns on 76.3% of their red zone appearances (29-of-38), a notable improvement from the previous year’s 45.7%.

BY THE NUMBERS

139 – Penn State begins its 139th football season.

34 – Penn State has collected 34 wins over the last three seasons (2022-24), the most wins in any three-year span in program history.

7 – In the last nine seasons, Penn State is one of four teams to rank in the Top 12 of the CFP final rankings at least seven times.

3+6 – The Nittany Lions has currently posted three consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time since 1980-82 and six 10-win seasons in the last nine years for the first time since 1978-86.

KNOWLES RETURNS TO HOME STATE

Jim Knowles enters his first season in Happy Valley as defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions.

Knowles, a native of Philadelphia and an alum of St. Joseph’s Prep, joins the Nittany Lions after spending three seasons as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator.

He played a key role in Ohio State’s 2024 National Championship run, as he led a defense that ranked first nationally in total defense and scoring defense.

Knowles is a 37-year college football coaching veteran.

A native of Philadelphia, Knowles brings 17 years of experience as a defensive coordinator.

He brings six years of head coaching experience (all at Cornell) and has made defensive coordinator stops at Ohio State (2022-24), Oklahoma State (2018-21), Duke (2011-17) and Western Michigan (1997-2002).

Knowles led Ohio State’s defense the last three seasons, winning a National Championship with the Buckeyes this past season where his defense ranked first nationally in scoring defense, total defense, yards allowed per play, touchdowns allowed per play and opponents touchdowns scored in the red zone.

Ohio State’s defense also ranked second in sacks, passing touchdowns allowed per game and opponent red zone score percentage, and third in rushing defense, passing defense and sacks per game.

DRAYTON JOINS STAFF AS RB COACH

Penn State Football added Stan Drayton as the program’s new running backs coach this offseason.

Drayton, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, joins the Nittany Lions after spending three seasons as the head coach at Temple.

He is a 32-year coaching veteran with 25 years of experience coaching running backs. Drayton has been a part of two national championship coaching staffs and brings five years of NFL coaching experience.

During his coaching career, Drayton has tutored prominent running backs, including Brian Westbrook, Jerious Norwood, Carlos Hyde, Ezekiel Elliott, Bijan Robinson, Matt Forte and Jordan Howard.

He has coached seven 1,000-yard rushers, five NFL Draft picks and two All-Americans.

Prior to Temple, Drayton was the associate head coach, running backs coach and run game coordinator at Texas for five seasons under Tom Herman (2017-20) and Steve Sarkisian (2021).

Prior to Texas, Drayton served as running backs coach for the Chicago Bears from 2015-16, where he led rooms consisting of Jordan Howard, Matt Forte and Jeremy Lanford.

Before joining the Bears, Drayton coached at Ohio State where he won the 2014 National Championship. He joined OSU as a wide receivers coach in 2011, before leading the running backs for the next three seasons.

Drayton spent the 2010 season as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida for his second stint with the Gators, while also making stops at Syracuse (2009) and Tennessee (2008).

NITTANY LIONS ON WATCH LISTS

Multiple Nittany Lions are represented on preseason award watch lists in 2025.

Senior QB Drew Allar was named to the Davey O’Brien Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Manning Award, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year Award watch lists.

Senior RB Kaytron Allen was tabbed to the Doak Walker Award and Maxwell Award watch lists.

Sophomore OL Cooper Cousins is a member of the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy watch list and is an Allstate Good Works Team nominee.

Senior DE Dani Dennis-Sutton was named to the Bednarik Award watch list.

Senior DT Zane Durant is a member of the Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Lombardi Trophy and Outland Trophy watch lists.

Redshirt senior LS Tyler Duzansky is on the Patrick Mannelly Award watch list.

Junior CB A.J. Harris was selected for the Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Lott IMPACT Trophy watch lists.

Redshirt junior OL Olaivavega Ioane was tabbed to the Lombardi Award, Outland Trophy and Polynesian Player of the Year Award watch lists.

Redshirt senior+ WR Trebor Peña is on the Biletnikoff Award and Paul Hornung Award watch lists.

Senior WR Devonte Ross is on the Biletnikoff Award watch list.

Senior RB Nicholas Singleton is a member of the Doak Walker Award, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year Award watch lists.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS

Multiple Nittany Lions have earned Preseason All-America recognition.

Senior DT Zane Durant was tabbed Preseason All-America by the Associated Press (first team), The Sporting News, Walter Camp Football Foundation, The Athletic (first team) and CBS (first team).

Redshirt junior OL Olaivavega Ioane was named Preseason All-America by the Associated Press (first team), The Sporting News, Walter Camp Football Foundation, The Athletic (first team), CBS (first team) and ESPN (first team).

Senior RB Nicholas Singleton was selected Preseason All-America by the Associated Press (first team), The Sporting News, Walter Camp Football Foundation, The Athletic (first team), CBS (first team) and ESPN (first team).

Senior RB Kaytron Allen garnered Preseason All-America second team honors by the Associated Press and ESPN, while redshirt senior+ OL Nick Dawkins picked up Preseason All-America second team honors by CBS.

NITTANY LIONS NAME TEAM CAPTAINS

Penn State selected five team captains ahead of the 2025 season.

Redshirt senior LB Dominic DeLuca was voted as a captain for the third-straight season and will again wear No. 0 as the special teams leader.

Senior QB Drew Allar and redshirt senior+ OL Nick Dawkins were tabbed as captains for the second-consecutive season.

Redshirt senior LS Tyler Duzansky was selected as a captain for the first time in his career.