Penn State football is less than a week away from facing off against Mountain West foe Nevada in the season and home opener of 2025. With that comes the finalization of the roster and the first look at potential breakout players for the Nittany Lions in the new year.

In James Franklin’s first game-week press conference of the season, the Nittany Lions head coach listed four potential true freshmen who could make plays for the blue and white this season.

The first of these players, defensive end Chaz Coleman, has garnered a significant amount of hype throughout summer training camp from those able to attend the viewing periods and the coaches themselves.

“Chaz Coleman will be a 1st round pick. Watched him at practice yesterday, and my god, he made the starters look silly,” former Penn State offensive lineman Landon Tengwell said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Warren, Ohio, native was a three-year letterman for Warren G. Harding High School. In his last season of high school ball, Coleman was named the 2024 Trumbull County Player of the Year after recording seven tackles for loss, four sacks, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries, and two defensive touchdowns.

That was just on the defensive end. Coleman also played quarterback for his team, throwing for 749 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 751 yards on 154 carries for seven touchdowns.

The freak athlete has done nothing but impress the coaches since arriving on campus this summer, at a position where depth has been a concern.

“Everybody is talking about him. It’s early, but he’s flashed, and there’s a lot of excitement about his abilities,” Franklin said after a summer practice. “He’s got up to 250 pounds in a very, very short period of time. He’s gained like 25 pounds since being on campus, and he’s still skinny, which is the exciting thing.”

During Franklin’s press conference, he was asked about the defensive line depth and listed Coleman amongst Dani Denis Sutton, Mylahci Williams, Zuriah Fisher, and Jaylen Harvey as players ready to make an impact this season.

Another name that came up in the position was Yvan Kemajou, another true freshman who made noise in the summer.

Kemanjou played his last season of high school at Paint Branch High School in Maryland. The 6’3″ 250-pounder registered 40 tackles, five sacks, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery to go with four touchdowns in his senior season.

While he has not been given the full green light yet, a relatively simple start to the season for the Nittany Lions will give Franklin and the rest of the staff time to get a good look at the freshman.

“The other guy that is kind of right on that bubble of green lighting that most likely will play these first couple games as if he’s going to play all year long is Yvan,” Franklin said. ” He’s really had a really, really good spring and then had a really good camp.”

Moving away from the defensive line, Daryus Dixson has stood out in a loaded secondary and is expected to be given a full green light this season, burning his redshirt.

Dixson was the No. 11 cornerback in the class of 2025, per 247Sports, playing for elite California high school Mater Dei. While with the Monarchs, the 6’0″ 191-pound defensive back got to practice every day against five-star receiver Chris Henry Jr, five-star tight end Mark Bowman, four-star receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, and three-star receiver Marcus Harris, who plays for Washington.

All of this elite practice has helped Dixson adapt to the difficulties of college football as quickly as possible.

“Just two guys that have been very, very consistent, physically, mentally, and emotionally,” Franklin said about Coleman and Dixson.

The final player Franklin mentioned, and the only offensive player, on potentially on pace to burn their redshirt as a true freshman, was wide receiver Koby Howard. The Pensacola, Florida, native went viral on TikTok for his spring camp highlight reel.

Special: Penn State freshman WR Koby Howard has gone viral for his insane highlight reel

This kid will be UNSTOPPABLE. pic.twitter.com/FwyxswCovt

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 2, 2025

Franklin mentioned Howard as the potential No. 2 in the depth chart for the position USC transfer Kyron Hudson will play in. This would effectively make him the No. 4 or 5 receiver on the depth chart behind Hudson, Trebor Pena, Devonte Ross, and Liam Clifford.

Penn State’s head coach did say, though, that before he feels comfortable giving Howard the green light, he needs to see more out of him on special teams.

“I think that’s one of the challenges culturally that everybody deals with, right, is receivers in high school pretty much are just returning punts,” Franklin said. “They’re not blocking on special teams and tackling on special teams. Getting that group to have a bigger impact on special teams, I think, is important for their development.”

Howard also played at a college football factory, Chaminade-Madonna Prep, where he was limited in his senior year due to a season-ending injury early in the season. Despite this, he was still able to snag 18 catches for 293 yards and four touchdowns.

Regardless of Franklin only listing four players from the freshman class that could burn their red shirts early, expect to hear more and more about others as the season goes on, and the players start to grow in college football and learn what it takes mentally.

“We got some guys that I think could play for us this year, physically, but they’ve shown too much immaturity or mentally, have had too many, you know, missed assignments and mistakes,” Franklin said. “So those things kind of have to continue to evolve. There’s other guys that could be in the green situation, you know, after these first three games, that’ll be part of the evaluation process.”