CFB analyst JD Pickell urges Penn State to 'throw their entire wallet' at this offense position

The Penn State Nittany Lions had a great campaign under head coach James Franklin last season. They competed for the Big Ten championship and also qualified for the 12-team college football playoffs. Despite a promising performance, their hopes of winning a national championship came crashing down after losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl semifinal.

As always, Penn State's defense had been at the top of their game on the gridiron last season. For James Franklin, the major cause of concern will be to improve the team's offense this year. QB Drew Allar is heading into his final collegiate campaign. Franklin needs to ensure he has reliable targets to make plays in the field.

CFB analyst, JD Pickell, highlighted the urgency of improving Penn State's offense. On Thursday's episode of 'Hard Count,' Pickell highlighted the need for a better wide-receiving group to assist the offense.

"You played in the semifinals, and had the game that close, with your entire wide receiving corps getting four quarters of cardio. Not recording a single catch. And still you were that close. Now Tyler Warren is gone. Drew Allar, like I mentioned is back. Running back room is back. You are probably in a good position on defense."

"Like lets have a sense of urgency here," Pickell added. "Like the first wide receiver that I see that jumps in the spring portal, if I'm James Franklin and company, I'm going, 'Okay, let's haggle. What's it going to take here? What do you need?" Pickell said while emptying money from his wallet. "What it's going to take? That's what I need to see from Penn State man like we got to get the wallet out and go to work. I don't care what it cost....Let's got get it done man, cause the window is right now."

The wide receiver department suffered from inconsistency during the 2024 season. Harrison Wallace, Omari Evans, Liam Clifford, and Julian Fleming together only mustered 11 touchdowns on the field.

During their CFP semifinal against Notre Dame, Penn State relied heavily on running back Nicholas Singleton. He put up three rushing touchdowns to give them a 25-17 lead in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, the wide receivers failed to make any impact on the game and record any catches. This resulted in Marcus Freeman's team securing the victory with a 27-24 final score.

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Penn State has already made some changes to their wide receiver room

The WR corps was one of the major reasons for their downfall in the playoffs. However, just two months after the loss, Franklin and the Nittany Lions have made a few changes. Leading WRs Omari Evans and Harrison Wallace have already departed from the program.

To fill the void left by their departure, Penn State brought in Kyron Hudson from USC and Devonte Ross from Troy. Apart from this, they added three high school recruits as a part of the class of 2025. Tyser Denmark and Peter Gonzalez are players to watch out for in their second year with the team.

Penn State has a chance to further bolster its WR room during the spring transfer portal in April. But James Franklin wants his team to take a cautious approach and get players who will fit the culture of their program.