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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.
DL Davon Townley is returning to Penn State.
— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) January 13, 2023
Former four-star had entered the portal but is now back with the Nittany Lions. https://t.co/1xBKYd3n2y pic.twitter.com/qEkpvU1z75
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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