Penn State’s 2026 roster makeover is going to force a lot of new faces into major roles, and the Nittany Lions don’t have the luxury of easing into it. More than 60 players are gone through the portal and eligibility, including eight NFL Draft picks, so the job now is simple: replace production fast.
That starts up front, where the left side of the offensive line looks completely different. Shelton, a two-year starter at left tackle, is off to the Dallas Cowboys as a fourth-round pick, and Penn State appears ready to hand the job to redshirt freshman Malachi Goodman.
Goodman didn’t take a snap last season, but the upside is obvious. Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser called Godman “one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen with my two eyes.”
The former 5-star prospect finally gets his chance in a starting role, and the buzz around him is already building.
At left guard, Penn State is leaning on Buhr to help stabilize that rebuilt side. The Nittany Lions can’t replace what Ioane gave them - a first-round pick who anchored the left side - but Buhr arrives with real credentials.
He earned All-Big 12 honorable mention honors last season despite starting only six games, and the redshirt junior was ranked No. 20 among interior offensive linemen in 247Sports’ transfer portal rankings as a 3-star player. He’ll be the veteran presence on a brand-new left side.
The biggest defensive hole in the middle comes from Campbell’s exit. He led Penn State with 29 tackles last season and left through the transfer portal after following former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to Tennessee.
The replacement is Bacon, whom head coach Matt Campbell brought in to start next to Tony Rojas. Bacon was a priority portal target for Penn State after posting 68 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks last season at Iowa State while serving as a team co-captain.
Together, Bacon and Rojas give Penn State a linebacker pairing that should be among the Big Ten’s better ones.
Penn State also has to find edge production after Dennis-Sutton moved on. He led the team with 8.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss last season, and Chaz Coleman would have been the natural answer before transferring to Tennessee and leaving the roster.
That puts the focus on Yvan Kemajou, a 4-star defensive line recruit ranked No. 33 in the 2025 class. Kemajou flashed late last season, finishing his freshman year with 13 tackles, five for loss, and 1.5 sacks while seeing the field on several key downs.
Max Granville, who is working back from an ACL injury, is also in the mix for those edge spots.
The backfield lost two record-setters, and that’s not the kind of production you just patch over. Allen broke Evan Royster’s career rushing mark with 4,180 yards and became Penn State’s main source of offense by midseason in 2025.
The portal didn’t offer a true star to replace him, but Hansen looks like the closest fit. He should handle the bulk of the carries after finishing last season with five straight 100-yard games and 952 rushing yards with six touchdowns at Iowa State.
Singleton’s departure may be even harder to duplicate. He set Penn State records last season by breaking Saquon Barkley’s all-time rushing and total touchdown marks, finishing with 45 rushing touchdowns and 54 total.
The closest match on the roster is Peoples, the Ohio State transfer listed at 5-10 and 210 pounds. He brings burst, speed - he’s the fastest player in Penn State’s backfield - and the kind of passing-game value that made Singleton so dangerous.
Hansen and Peoples won’t recreate Allen and Singleton, but they’re the best bets to take on those roles.
At safety, Penn State is replacing another ballhawk in Wheatley, who went to the Carolina Panthers as a fifth-round pick. The likely answer there is Jeremiah Cooper, though fans haven’t really seen him yet.
Cooper missed spring practice while recovering from a 2025 ACL tear at Iowa State. Before that injury, he had played cornerback for the Cyclones, and he was a two-time all-Big 12 safety before that.
The fifth-year senior has made 36 career starts at two positions, and paired with Marcus Neal Jr., he gives Penn State a chance to be even better on the back end this season.
In Other News...
James Franklin Just Reopened Penn States Messiest Breakup Debate
James Franklins first public reflections on his 2025 firing at Penn State have only added another layer to a breakup that already felt complicated. After nearly 12 years in State College, he is moving quickly into the next chapter at Virginia Tech, where he says he plans to take the lessons from his Penn State run and apply them in Blacksburg. For a fan base that watched the relationship unravel over time, the timing of his comments only sharpens the sense that this was more than a simple end to a tenure.
Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft has already framed the decision as one driven by the programs broader trajectory, not just a short losing stretch, which matters because it suggests the split was about bigger concerns than one bad week. Franklins new landing spot has come with plenty of support, too, giving this story a very different feel on the other side of the breakup. Even so, the way he is talking now makes it clear the Penn State chapter is still being processed, and maybe not quite finished. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Just Got A Crucial Max Granville Development
Max Granvilles path back has quietly become one of the more encouraging developments around Penn States defensive front. The defensive end has added good weight to his frame, now listed at 252 pounds, and the early signs point to him being ready to matter in a big way when the Nittany Lions build toward 2026. For a program that always needs disruptive edge play, getting a young lineman trending the right way after a long rehab is the kind of update that can change the outlook of a position group.
Penn States strength and conditioning staff has noticed the work, too, with director Reid Kagy praising Granvilles effort and the progress he has made along the way. The bigger question now is how quickly that growth turns into production once the season arrives, because the expectation inside the program is that Granville can step into a starting role and become a significant piece of the defensive line rotation. [Read more 🡒]
James Armstrong Could Change How Penn State Fans See Campbell
James Bobo Armstrongs commitment gives Penn State a jolt at a position that always carries outsized weight in the fan base, and it arrives at a useful time for a program trying to steady its recruiting momentum. The Hopewell, Pennsylvania, quarterback is a four-star prospect, and his decision adds a local name with real buzz to a class that needed a lift.
For Matt Campbell, landing Armstrong is about more than one pledge. Penn State has spent recent weeks dealing with a few recruiting setbacks, and this one offers a chance to show the staff can still close on elite talent and keep building belief around the programs future. Whether it becomes the kind of domino that changes the tone of the cycle is the next question, but it is the sort of commitment the Nittany Lions have been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]