Penn State's Offensive Line Finally Gets Some Recognition

The Nittany Lions return one of the nation's most experienced lines, which will front an offense guided by three of college football's top skill-position players.

Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar calls a play against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki calls quarterback the most important player in college football and offensive line the most important position. Kotelnicki has assets at both spots this season, with quarterback Drew Allar returning behind perhaps Penn State's best offensive line in three decades.

Penn State received only an honorable mention on Pro Football Focus' breakdown of the top 10 offensive lines in college football, which seemed a bit undervalued. The Nittany Lions return five linemen with starting experience from a group that helped the offense lead the Big Ten in both average yards rushing per game (202.31) and per carry (5.26).

Penn State has another potential left-side star in guard Vega Ioane, who could give the Nittany Lions their second first-round NFL Draft pick (with Olu Fashanu) in three years. It returns starters at left tackle (Drew Shelton), center (Nick Dawkins) and right tackle, where Anthony Donkoh and Nolan Rucci both have started games. And sophomore right guard Cooper Cousins, who replaces multi-year starter Sal Wormley, might have the highest ceiling among all linemen.

According to PFF, those five returning starters all played at least 400 snaps last season, while Cousins, the nation's second-ranked interior lineman of the 2024 recruiting class, played 174. Penn State's line is skilled, experienced, athletic and cohesive. It's the kind of line Penn State coach James Franklin had promised for years before finally establishing over the past two.

Penn State set the foundation for this offensive line in 2023, when Fashanu anchored the team's most draft-productive front since 1995. Fashanu, the first offensive tackle drafted in the Franklin era, led a group of three linemen drafted by going No. 11 overall to the New York Jets. Caeden Wallace was a third-round pick, and Hunter Nourzad went in the fifth round.

The draft marked Penn State's first with three linemen selected since 1996, when four Nittany Lions offensive linemen were drafted. Jeff Hartings and Andre Johnson were first-rounders, Keith Conlin and Marco Rivera were sixth-round picks and center Bucky Greeley signed a free-agent deal.

Those 1994-95 Penn State lines were some of the best in program history, and the 2023 group helped revive their legacy. The group followed a string of uneven lines that Franklin's teams had produced under multiple position coaches since 2014. But through years of recruiting successes and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein's developmental chops, Penn State has turned a once-negative into a positive.

"When I got here, I think there was kind of an NFL philosophy dealing with how to handle the sanctions and reduced numbers [on the offensive line] and really took an NFL model where we had five starters and a couple of swing guys, and we barely had that," Franklin said. "I think for a lot of us, whether it's your profession or mine, you get scarred by those experiences. This was pre-portal so couldn't solve problems quickly.

"I'm a big believer that you have to develop and recruit up front on the O-line and D-line, and you really don't ever want to come short in recruiting of those positions. Those positions take time. We’ve talked about it. The closer you are to the ball, it's a man's game in there. Age, strength and size is a major factor. We worked very hard at building those numbers, and [Trautwein] has done a phenomenal job."

This season, Trautwein has his deepest collection of talent to coach. In addition to the six returning veterans, Penn State has talent floruishing behind them. Chief among them is redshirt freshman J'ven Williams, who trained at tackle and guard during spring drills and will get rotational snaps at right guard.

According to PFF, Penn State is the only program in college football with top-11 position room at quarterback, running back and offensive line. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen lead PFF's top-ranked running backs room, while Allar fronts the seventh-ranked QB room. And with a top-3 offensive line in the Big Ten, Penn State is putting together the kind of offense that wins championships.