Who won Penn State football position battles at safety, kick returner, and more?

Penn State has picked some position battle winners ahead of its 2025 opener with Nevada on Saturday. Head coach James Franklin was asked about who the starter would be at safety opposite Zakee Wheatley, and also who the returners would be. during his first news conference of game week on Monday.

Our breakdown of his comments starts on defense. Redshirt freshman Antoine Belgrave-Shorter will be the other starting safety. He entered camp as a dark horse candidate to take the job. The battle was seemingly led by sophomore Dejuan Lane and junior King Mack. Both will still play plenty. But, Belgrave-Shorter’s summer of consistency earned him the job in the end.

“Those other two safeties we plan on playing a lot,” Franklin said. “We feel like we got four safeties we can win with. Belgrave is probably a guy that there wasn’t a lot of conversations going on [about] outside of the Lasch Building, but led us in interceptions and turnovers in training camp.

“Been very, very consistent about how he’s gone about his business. So, you know, he earned that spot. But the other two guys will will play a lot, and we need them to play a lot.”

Who will Penn State roll with as kick returner?

Let’s start with kick returner. After years of putting their third running back back deep, Penn State will take a different approach at that position in 2025. Franklin says that senior running back Nick Singleton and junior safety King Mack will man those spots. He did not explain why. But it’s easy to figure out, considering the speed both bring to the field.

Two winners aren’t yet out for the Lions

As for punt returner, the Lions feel good about three players in that role. They are Zion Tracy, Trebor Pena, and Devonte Ross. And, competiton between them continues.

“Those three guys, we’ll see how that goes,” Franklin said. “But I see all those guys getting touches and getting opportunities.”

So, we’ll learn more about that on Saturday. The same goes for the backup quarterback situation. All indications are that redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer will win the job over redshirt sophomore Jaxon Smolik. But, Franklin was not ready to reveal the winner of that battle on Monday.

“We are planning on sitting down with those guys [on Monday], and have not had that conversation with them yet, so I’d like to do that first,” Franklin said. “I don’t think it is a clear-cut, wide margin, so I think it will continue to be a battle all year long. And then I think we all have seen, whether it’s at Penn State or other places, there’s also times where those guys get in the game and play really well, or don’t play as well as you would like. So, you know, this isn’t; I wouldn’t describe this as something that’s completely decided. But, we have decided for game one kind of where we’re at, and we’ll have that conversation today.”