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Penn State football starts James Franklin’s 12th preseason camp in State College today

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel07/30/25GregPickel
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Penn State coach James Franklin oversees practice. (Photo credit: Sean Fitz/BWI)

Happy opening day of preseason camp, Penn State fans. The Nittany Lions start their 12th set of summer practices before a new season in the James Franklin era on Wednesday. The team is the pick of two media polls to win the Big Ten. Some believe it is the No. 1 team in the country this preseason. And, everyone has it in their top five. However, as Franklin and some of his players pointed out at Big Ten Media Days, the July chatter means nothing once the pads come on, first on the practice field and eventually on the game field when the Lions open their 139th season in program history on Aug. 30 opposite Nevada.

“Let’s also be honest,” Franklin said. “It’s a great conversation, but who really cares about preseason rankings? They mean nothing. It’s a good argument to have and everybody has fun with it, but the only rankings that matter are the ones that happen at the end of the season, and that’s what we’re concerned about. The only way we’ll do that is by handling our business today.”

Added center Nick Dawkins:

“There’s more noise about us than there was in the past, but that’s all it is. It’s noise. Acknowledging it is awesome. It’s awesome we’re getting this kind of love and stuff like that, but I don’t really tune into it much.”

“Some guys like it. Some guys need it. Some guys need that stuff, like bulletin board material. It just depends on how you react to it. But at the end of the day, don’t believe the hype, especially preseason. We’re all just guessing.”

Penn State preseason camp content catchup

If you’ve been spending the last few weeks checking off some items on your summer bucket list and not spending as much time focusing on Penn State football as you will in the fall, we get it. It’s why we put together some of our top preview content that you may have missed below.

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Without any further ado, the promised links are below:

Three under-the-radar storylines for Penn State football heading into training camp

What are the top 5 things we learned about Penn State this offseason? A key injury, transfer changes, a big hire, and more

Jim Knowles isn’t rebuilding at Penn State – he’s finishing the job

How Andy Kotelnicki’s return fueled Penn State’s 2025 hopes

Which Penn State position group that ‘no one wants to talk about’ could be a sneaky differentiator this fall?

Penn State roster and staff update: 4 Lions have a new number, and a letterman has a new title

Projecting Penn State Football’s preseason camp position battles: Nickel

Projecting Penn State Football’s preseason camp position battles: Backup Quarterback


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