Penn State adds tight end Gabe Burkle from Iowa State
Penn State has picked up a commitment from former Iowa State tight end Gabe Burkle. Nittany Lion fans, learn more right here!
'25 (in-season) - '26 CFB Portal Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
It’s still shocks me that Indiana has become this powerhouse.
Very true as well. Overall, looks like we’re in a complete and total rebuild at this point. It looks like we’re merging what Campbell feels is the best of two rosters as a base and supplementing with portal talent as needed over the next couple weeks. Definitely Campbell and in my opinion Gilliam hurt the most (from an emotional standpoint I would include Grunk but from a practical standpoint at worst Becht is an even exchange who knows the system that will be run.) We’ll see what happens in the end after portal season and how the team develops over the course of the 2026 season.
14 or 15 of Indiana’s starters are portal acquisitions- how many are from Alabama or Georgia? We’re cherry picking Iowa State’s best players, but that’s not good enough? There was serious rot in the locker room this season, which resulted in the disaster Coach Smith miraculously cleaned up, but we don’t want any of the players (some of which were likely part part of the problem) to leave now? There’s some awfully fickle fanatics among us. 
Imagine you can time travel.
Now imagine you can time travel backward to Bloomington, Indiana—basically any time in the last 130 or so years. You walk up to a bunch of nice people in Hoosiers sweatshirts and you make the following, startling announcement:
Howdy! I’m from the future. I’m here to tell you that on New Year’s Day, 2026, Indiana’s No. 1 ranked Hoosiers—fresh off beating Ohio State to win the Big Ten Championship—will be 14-0 after defeating Alabama in the Rose Bowl and are now two wins away from the national college football playoff championship.
Do they laugh and say: “That’s hilarious—good one”? Or do they scream and run away?
Do they call the police and report that there’s a stranger on campus wearing something called “athleisure,” telling people that Indiana has a No. 1 ranked college football team?
(And what’s the national college football playoff, anyway? And what on earth is Alabama doing in the Rose Bowl?)
I think you’d freak out the good people of Bloomington----- JASON GAY, WSJ
There's 4,500 FBS Pro Minor-League football players in the Free Agent Market - I'm guessing AC is far from irreplaceable in the FA Market. LMAO.
With 1/3 of all college football players in the portal, it sounds like a buyers market. What happens when all the musical chairs are gone and no one is offering what they thing they're worth?
Sucks for me. Indiana used to be a game where I was guaranteed to get a good ticket to see PSU play relatively close to home. Been to games there where the announced “attendance” was 29,000 and there were maybe 10,000 folks in the stands. You could buy a ticket for any seat in the stadium and move on down to a good seat fairly early in the game. Now it is going to be a much harder ticket to get at a cheap price.
I saw a breakdown of the resolution of all portal transfers last year and only about 15% upgraded their situation (FCS to FBS usually) while 75% made a pretty much lateral move. The rest were left without a scholarship anywhere. That doesn't take into account NIL situations which could make some “lateral” moves in fact a step up.
Wouldn’t mind adding Rico Scott to the WR room….
Maybe he’ll take a hometown discount?
Maybe he’ll take a hometown discount?
Exactly, this twit thinks his OPINION really matters. His OPINION doesn't matter one iota.... squat.... zippity do dah day.... Not only are his absurd viewpoints completely irrelevant to anything, but they're separated from reality at their birth.
Last edited:
When we saw the twitter post from Rojas DM'ing the guy from Cal....you could see this coming.
Don't underestimate two hands in the bush
I just checked the portal list. Maybe Caleb Bacon, the number 12 portal LB, 6'3", 240 lbs., from Iowa State? Listed as 100% to PSU.
Maybe not exactly the same, but a lot of world class athletes like MJ and Kobe spent their careers making up “disses” to keep them motivatedIf you don’t want a lot of diss/respect culture on your team, then I’m afraid your team might not have as many players as you need. That type of culture is pervasive with kids and actually helps some guys stay motivated. How many times do you hear a player on a championship team say that the haters didn’t believe in them—even when it’s not generally true? Happens all over.
Makes me think, would offices be more productive if workers had that mindset? You successfully complete a big-time project, turn it over to your boss before the billable hours expired, and boast about how all the haters out there didn’t believe you can do it.
Yep...He is better than Mack....so everyone worrying about guys leaving, which is happening at EVERY program just slow down and let Coach Campbell and his team work and lets see where we are in a couple weeks. Just like IMO ....Becht and Manske are better than just having Grunk.
Yeah, it's not all of the same. Some of it is productive, other times it's for malcontents that damage everyone and everything. I've seen it at work. Somebody motivated by a slight to better things vs the constant complainer.
We probably should just fire Coach Campbell and the new staff now. I’m sure after the first loss or two there will be some knuckleheads calling for his head.
We actually have 3 GM's, so that group has to be working OT right now figuring all this out. I think that was a pretty good coup getting all 3 guys to come in and work together. Derek Hoodger came from ISU with coach Campbell to be the GM then they added the GM from Cincinati and UConn...the UConn guy was supposed to be GM for Mora at Colorado St. but instead came to PSU for assistant GM role. All 3 of those programs have done more with a lot less the past few years...so I think we will be just fine with them running the show.
Nice story - as a former walk-on (when walk-ons were still a thing).
That said, has not been nearly as productive as A Campbell.
Quarterback Alex Manske reunites with Matt Campbell following Penn State transfer
Penn State coach Matt Campbell and his staff have added quarterback Alex Manske to the 2026 roster. Learn more on the newest Nittany Lion.
Former Iowa State QB Rocco Becht will follow Matt Campbell to Penn State
Penn State is adding former Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht to its roster via the NCAA transfer portal.
IDK If all the guys listed are a go, if not they are probably shopping it.
I feel bad for that Freshman QB who actually committed here. Hes going to get pushed aside.
Too mush ISU.
Too mush ISU.
Whoa … we got a line backer named Cael?? Gotta love that
Penn State Nittany Cyclones or Penn State Cyclone Lions
And here is what doesn’t make sense with some of you dolts. If Bob Chesney would have been hired he would have been bringing a bunch of JMU players and some of you complaining would be lapping it up.
This was going to be happening no matter who was hired. And say for example the Bama coach was coming, not many Bama players would be following him and almost every need would have to be via the portal and likely would not have all the $$ needed to meet all our needs.
Give the fn man a chance. He knows way more than any of us. Holy F!!!!
And here is what doesn’t make sense with some of you dolts. If Bob Chesney would have been hired he would have been bringing a bunch of JMU players and some of you complaining would be lapping it up.
This was going to be happening no matter who was hired. And say for example the Bama coach was coming, not many Bama players would be following him and almost every need would have to be via the portal and likely would not have all the $$ needed to meet all our needs.
Give the fn man a chance. He knows way more than any of us. Holy F!!!!
Me too. The guy must be a genius. I expect some falloff though. I think his this is to win with veterans and not young ones.
Just curious.....do we really know any of this? Is it public what the roster gets? I really dont know.......
They'll get more than sufficient production from him, especially teamed with Rojas. NIL money needs to be spread throughout the whole team, not just one player. They need to field the best possible team, not the best possible LB position. We don't know all the financial deals going on. They made Campbell an offer and he declined.
You're saying it wasn't his choiceYou argue just to argue.... I'm literally agreeing with you and you're arguing with me about it.
It absolutely was