Report: Redshirt Freshman DL Davon Townley Returning To Penn State From Transfer Portal

Penn State received some good transfer portal news on Friday as redshirt freshman defensive lineman Davon Townley is reportedly coming back to Penn State after a stint in the transfer portal, according to Allen Trieu of 247Sports.

Townley entered the portal back on December 7, and received some serious Power 5 and Group 5 interest, landing offers from Kentucky, Ole Miss, Colorado, Houston, and USF. But after a little over the month looking at other schools, Townley had a “change of heart” and is back at Penn State — albeit, at a new position: defensive tackle, according to Trieu and Penn State’s website.

The move from the edge to the inside makes sense on a couple of levels.

1. Penn State is stacked at defensive end. As we’ve talked about a couple times over the last couple of weeks, the Nittany Lions currently have a three-deep of Adisa Isaac, Chop Robinson, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Amin Vanover, Smith Vilbert, and Zuriah Fisher. Provided that no one transfers post spring, that’s an unbelievably deep room that will be tough to make headway in.
2. Penn State wanted more defensive tackle depth. The Nittany Lions were after a couple different defensive tackles in the portal — Braden Fiske, Rondell Bothroyd, and Davond Sears — so it was clear that Penn State wanted some help on the interior. As currently constructed, Penn State was returning just six scholarship DTs — Hakeem Beamon, Coziah Izzard, Dvon Ellies, Zane Durant, Jordan van den Berg, and Kaleb Artis — and has just one incoming prospect (Tyriq Blanding) set for the position.
3. Townley is big. At 267 pounds already and having a massive 6-foot-6 frame, it shouldn’t take too much time for Townley to reach the 290-300-pound area. Of course you don’t want it to be all bad weight, but getting to 280-285 by the spring and 290-295 by the fall shouldn’t be much of an issue.