PSU WR Kyron Hudson

With the lack of production from wide receivers at Penn State last season, receivers who entered the transfer portal must have looked at the Nittany Lions as an attractive option.

Enter Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross.

Hudson, a transfer from USC, and Ross, a former Troy player, are getting their first chances starting Tuesday in impressing James Franklin with the start of spring practice.

The two bring a couple more possibilities in the Penn State offense that was in dire need of a playmaker in the passing game last season outside of superstar tight end Tyler Warren.

Hudson was a factor in the Trojans’ pass game last season, hauling in 38 catches for 462 yards and three touchdowns.

“Whoever you talk to from his high school, his previous institution, and on our team, everyone just loves the guy,” Franklin said at his spring press conference Tuesday.

Ross comes from a different situation after Troy went 4-8 out of the Sun Belt last season. Ross caught Franklin’s attention with his stellar performance against Iowa last season. The Trojans lost to the Hawkeyes, 38-21, last September, but Ross was spectacular with 142 yards on five catches with two touchdowns. He also had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown.

“For him to do it against that type of opponent on that stage, it gave me a lot of confidence that can translate to us,” Franklin said. “I think that game carried a lot of weight with us.”

The hard reality for Penn State is they have to replace Warren’s production, which amounted to 104 catches and 1,233 yards. There’s a lot to go around for the receivers and tight ends that largely struggled outside of Warren.

“I look at it as an exciting time,” Franklin said.

Spring game future

There are 19 current programs in major college football that have canceled spring games so far for this season.

Spring football has become a way for other college coaches to get a look at younger talent to recruit into other programs. It’s already a glorified practice played with fans in stadiums, and schools such as Nebraska and Iowa in the Big Ten will not hold a spring game. Ohio State has said it will not hold a spring game this year due to the length of last season’s national championship run.

Franklin said Tuesday that the impact that the Blue-White Game has on the community will make it important to continue on with the annual tradition.

“The university schedules a ton of fundraising events around the spring game. For a lot of people in town, it’s like a homecoming in the spring type of deal,” Franklin said.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes to the game. For instance, the game will not be televised this year. Franklin also said they are looking at not doing a halftime where many fans flocked back to the parking lots for tailgating after the completion of the first half.

“There’s been years we’ll have 75,000 people out there and we’ll do halftime for 20 minutes and the parking lot becomes more attractive than the second half.

“I know we have some real football people in our fan base that want to watch and evaluate our roster. For all those reasons we’ll still do (the game), but it will probably be a little less plays and it will probably be a little shorter amount of time.”

Injuries

Linebacker Tony Rojas, tight end Andrew Rappleyea, and offensive tackle Anthony Donkoh are all unavailable to start spring practice.

Rappleyea and Donkoh were both injured during the regular season last year. Rojas was spotted with his arm in a sling after the season was over.

Cutdown to 105

It won’t happen right now, but by the start of fall, NCAA football roster sizes will have to be reduced to 105 players. Essentially, there will be players this spring trying to make the team in the fall.

Penn State has a total of 120 players currently on the spring roster on its athletics website.

NFL roster sizes on game day are at 53 players, but the total number of players in an NFL organization is normally over 100 with practice squad players.

“With us not being able to replace players on your roster, that’s where it’s going to get interesting. Guys are going to have to understand we may be doing some offense servicing the defense, the defense servicing the offense,” Franklin said. “Essentially there are guys that are going to need to be on scout teams that haven’t been on scout teams in two years.”

Franklin said the Lions lost 16 players to injury last season, and those numbers can’t be replaced any longer.

“You have to embrace the new rules, and part of that is getting our players to understand this is going to be a different season than they’re used to,” Franklin said. “Everyone needs to embrace that and understand it. This season will look and feel differently.”