Penn State adds former Tulsa kicker Chase Meyer via transfer portal
Penn State has picked up another incoming player in the transfer portal, as former Tulsa kicker Chase Meyer announced Sunday that he’ll be joining the Nittany Lions as a preferred walk-on. Meyer earned a scholarship offer from San Diego State and took an unofficial visit to Oklahoma on Dec. 9. However, following his unofficial visit to Penn State on Dec. 14, he knew where he wanted to be.
“They honestly blew my mind,” Meyer said. “Out of high school, I had some big visits. I had visited Georgia, I had visited UCLA, I had visited USC. This time around, I had just visited Oklahoma the week before. So, I kind of had an idea of what I was looking for, but the moment I stepped on campus, it just felt different at Penn State.
“Just the attention to detail that they have there, and the culture that they’re building there. Coach [James] Franklin is incredible with what he does with the program. He keeps it basic on the field. You see the basic uniforms. You have the black cleats, which I really like. I think that’s a tradition that helps us all feel together on the field.”
Growing up in Costa Mesa, Calif., Meyer attended powerhouse Mater Dei High School, earning various awards, including two-time Trinity League Most Valuable Kicker.
He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania ahead of the 2022 season. Meyer focused exclusively on kickoffs his first collegiate season, totaling 36 kicks for 1,881 yards and one touchback. He averaged 52.3 yards per kick.
Meyer entered his name into the transfer portal in Nov. 2022. It wasn’t until about a week before preseason camp began that he joined Tulsa’s program as a late walk-on addition. Despite that, he won the starting job, playing in all 12 games for the Golden Hurricanes.
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Meyer started the season converting all nine of his field goal attempts in his first eight games. He finished the season 17 of 20. Meyer’s longest make was from 47 yards against Tulane on Nov. 11.
His biggest kicks of the season came in the final few games. Against Charlotte on Nov. 4, Meyer converted a game-tying kick from 27 yards with just five seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. However, Tulsa wasn’t able to match the 49er’s touchdown and ultimately lost 33-26. Meyer then kicked a game-winner from 37 yards in Tulsa’s 29-27 win over East Carolina in the season finale. Before that, he made two other kicks from 28 and 26 yards to keep his team in the game.
Now, as he gets set to enroll at Penn State in January, Meyer will compete with Sander Sahaydak and Ryan Barker to handle field goals and extra points next season. They’ll be replacing Alex Felkins, who transferred into Penn State from Columbia for one final season. Felkins finished the year 10 of 13 with a long of 49 yards. Felkins spoke highly of Barker when BWI’s Sean Fitz asked about him at the end of November.
“Barker’s a stud,” Felkins said. “He’s been doing really, really good this year. I’m excited to see what he ends up doing in his career. Obviously, he’s young; he has some stuff to work on. You don’t really know how a guy is going to perform until he’s in that game situation, but I have 100 percent faith in him. He’s been really good in practice this year.”
Penn State has now added two players in the transfer portal. Offensive tackle Alan Herron committed to the Nittany Lions last Monday, Dec. 11.
