If you’ve got one of the best backfields in college football, don’t be surprised when the vultures start circling. The transfer portal opened like a revolving door, and Penn State’s running back corps barely got a chance to take a breath before the poaching began. Rival programs reportedly made aggressive plays for depth pieces in the Nittany Lions’ backfield, leaving players, coaches, and supporters on edge about how stable the position group really is heading into 2025.

Last season, the Nittany Lions rolled out one of college football’s most prolific ground games. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen combined for over 2,400 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns, helping lift Penn State to a 13-3 finish and a Big Ten title appearance. With that kind of production, you’d think the backfield depth would be solid, but somehow the portal drama painted a very different picture. As soon as the portal door cracked open, schools across the country tried sliding into the DMs and inboxes of some young recruits.

One of them was young running back Kemon Spell, who’s been getting interest from schools that would make most recruits jump. But Spell didn’t even blink. “It will take a lot for any school to change me,” he told Rivals. “Just everything about the school [Penn State],” Even before he got an offer, Spell said he felt the love from Happy Valley. “Even before I got the offer, they showed good love, so that means something to me, and when I got the offer, it just felt like home.” When a high school sophomore’s talking like that, you know it’s different.

But with visits set with Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Tennessee, he also has positive thoughts for other schools. Speaking of Notre Dame, he said, “The relationship I’ve built with Coach Seider talked with Coach Freeman a couple of times. Great football, great academics.” The timing couldn’t have been worse for Penn State. Depth at RB has been tricky. Last year, Singleton and Allen combined for over 2,400 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns, but behind them, things got murky. Several backs left through the portal, and James Franklin himself admitted, “It would not surprise me to see a couple of guys test the portal.” In a room expected to carry eight backs this fall, the battles are real, and schools know who’s buried and who might be swayed.

Franklin’s recruiting battles take a hit in the 2027 chase

And while Franklin did preserve his RB room intact, his hold on the future now appears a bit tenuous. Penn State’s 2027 recruiting class just suffered an injury with 4-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller, very likely to go elsewhere. Even as a Blue Chip OL target, Hiller has cooled on the Nittany Lions, and it’s not difficult to understand why. As told to hiring insider Brian Smith, Hiller’s childhood loyalty is coming into play big time. “He grew up a Clemson fan, and they are recruiting him. He’s a diehard Clemson guy,” Smith said on Locked On Nittany Lions. “So, I mean, he could go to Penn State, but… to my face, he said Clemson was the school he rooted for.”

That’s not the kind of thing fans want to hear, especially with Penn State just barely missing out on a top-10 recruiting class last cycle. Add that to Franklin’s well-documented struggles against ranked opponents (just 3–19 vs. Top 10 teams during his tenure), and it raises questions about whether the momentum he’s building can actually hold.

Nevertheless, credit where credit is due, Franklin has been able to maintain a skilled running back unit from breaking apart under pressure, and that’s no easy task in present-day college football. The 2025 campaign promises to be a defining one, with great expectations on the field and fresh fights off of it. At least for now, Penn State fans can rest easy in the knowledge that the RBs valued loyalty over hype. But if Franklin is going to continue climbing, he’ll have to do more than defend his current core; he needs to win the wars for the future, as well.