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BWI Live: Penn State Practice Open Update #4 | Defense shines in competitive periods

Headshot 5x7 reduced qualityby: Thomas Frank Carr04/16/25ThomasFrankCarr
Jim Knowles Penn State Football On3
Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. (Photo: Thomas Frank Carr/BWI)

The Penn State Football team held open practice on Tuesday evening for the fourth week of spring football. The event was just hours before the spring transfer portal opened and discussions were tense around the topic with head coach James Franklin after practice. On today’s BWI Live show, we’re discussing what we saw and heard during the open portion of practice and our conversations afterward.

Join the show live at 10 a.m. on YouTube to discuss the latest news from the program and ask questions of the show! Be sure to subscribe to the Blue-White Illustrated YouTube Channel and enable notifications so you don’t miss any breaking news, discussions, or live shows on the channel. If you do, you’ll be entered to win a free subscription to the site. We’re picking five winners from fans who subscribe between now and the Blue White game to win a year’s worth of access to BWI!

Penn State practice Update and Transfer portal primer

The transfer portal is officially open for college football players to enter their names and teams to begin contacting them about joining their squads for the upcoming season. We’ll give you the latest on what we know about Penn State’s situation and the strain it puts on the program with the potential roster limit rules in the future.

Next, we’ll discuss what we saw and heard at practice last night. Reporter Greg Pickel will discuss his conversation with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and get his thoughts about what open practice looked like on Tuesday evening.

The event featured more competitive portions of practice than normal, which we chronicled last night for members of Blue White Illustrated.

Between the Lines

Next, we’ll discuss what Franklin had to say when he spoke for roughly ten minutes with reporters after practice. What sort of comments did he have about the transfer portal, and what did he leave unsaid? We’ll break it down in our weekly segment “Between the Lines.”

Today, we’ll discuss the portal, Franklin’s thoughts on the Penn State offense evolving in year two, plus a long-awaited update on offensive lineman Alex Birchmeier.

BWI Mailbag and Vibes Check

Finally, we’ll end the show with a familiar segment plus a brand-new one. We’ll open the BWI Mailbag for our weekly discussion with Penn State fans about the team and then we’ll do a Vibes Check on the program by discussing various topics. We’re not giving you hard news; we’re discussing our opinion about different aspects of the team and our impression of how things are going. Join the show to find out!

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