On Saturday, Penn State Football held its annual Blue-White spring game. While on the surface it may have looked like years past, 2025's game was very different.
Firstly, the game was not televised this year. In a time when the college football season is going later than ever, and other teams around the country are canceling spring games altogether, James Franklin decided not to have the game televised.
Secondly, with the press box torn down on the west side of Beaver Stadium, no fans were permitted to sit on that side of the stadium. The open side of the stadium and the lack of attendance did not make it feel like Penn State football was back.
Thirdly, the format of the game was different this year. To start, each team had six "skelly" plays of 7-on-7. Then the game started with a kickoff contest where a touchback was a point. The first half was "thud" meaning there was contact but no tackling. The second half was "live" meaning full tackling (minus the quarterbacks, of course). The game had 11-minute quarters with a running clock, except within two minutes where clock rules were normal. Finally, after the game, there was a kicking competition in the South endzone.
Despite the Blue team being filled with mostly starters, the White team won the game 10-8. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from 2025's unique Blue-White game.
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DARYUS DIXSON IS THE REAL DEAL....
Ever since he has stepped on campus as an early enrollee, Daryus Dixson has looked every bit the part of his top 100 rating. Dixson is a long, physical corner who plays a lot like Sauce Gardner, using his large wingspan and natural speed to play the ball.
Dixson played almost every snap for the White team defense, covering guys like Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross. Despite the true freshman being behind some other talented corners on the depth chart, Dixson was all over Penn State's revamped receiver corps.
Dixson had a nice pass breakup and on another play, a huge hit on wide receiver Josiah Brown. Dixson's legal hit of Brown knocked his helmet off sending the crowd into a frenzy. Look for the Mater Dei product to see a significant amount of playing time as a true freshman.
DREW ALLAR'S CHEMISTRY WITH THE NEW WIDEOUTS...
It is no secret that Penn State's wide receiver room is going to look a lot different in 2025. Omari Evans and Trey Wallace transferred, and Julian Fleming graduated. Transfers Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross both got significant starting reps in the Blue-White Game. Noticeably, new transfer WR Trebor Peña was in attendance at the game, but was obviously not suited up.
Allar struggled with his chemistry with his new wide receivers. Allar missed Devonte Ross on a go ball down the field where he was wide open. In addition, Allar and Hudson were out of sync on some passes over the middle of the field.
Despite this, Hudson had a couple of good catches that showed off his hands. To be fair, it looked like Drew was more in rhythm Ross despite missing him on the go ball. The Troy transfer ran a couple of good corner routes that Drew put right on the money. So far it seems like Ross could be a go-to target for Allar.
GABRIEL NWOSU HAS A HUGE LEG....
Not many people talk about Penn State's kickoff specialist, Gabe Nwosu. Nwosu, listed at 6-foot-6, 282-pounds, had 60 touchbacks on 97 kickoffs last season. To start the game, Nwosu scored two points for the Blue team via two touchbacks.
Later in the game, Nwosu took a rep at punter, where he kicked a 70-yard punt from his own endzone into the wind. While Riley Thompson will still be the starting punter with his eligibility extended for two more years by the NCAA, Nwosu could be a good option to flip the field if needed.
OTHER SMALL TAKEAWAYS....
With Tyler Warren being gone, there are going to be touches to go around. Liam Clifford had a few plays schemed up for him by Andy Kotelnicki.
Penn State ran a couple of wildcat plays with Kaytron Allen at QB and Nick Singleton at RB. We could see this in the red zone like PSU did with Warren.
Koby Howard had a few short passes thrown to him. He looked good with the ball in space.
The QB2 battle between Jaxon Smolik and Ethan Grunkemeyer is real. Both looked good on the run.
Drew Allar threw a bad INT to Vaboue Toure that was nowhere near the receiver.
Lyrick Samuel's hype has been well publicized. He had a long TD from Smolik but was wide open from blown coverage.
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