Day one of the spring edition of the college football transfer portal had some movement from two Nittany Lion defenders, as linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson and cornerback Jon Mitchell are opting to continue their college careers elsewhere.
Let’s take this one at a time, starting with Robinson. The rising redshirt sophomore got a lot of run this spring with Tony Rojas recovering from his shoulder injury. While he didn’t necessarily project as a starting linebacker — especially with Penn State continuing to go with more 4-2-5 formations — it seemed like Robinson was right in that other tier with the likes of Keon Wylie and Anthony Speca, vying for LB3. While we don’t know the real reason Robinson is entering the portal, one would imagine that he is looking for more than rotational snaps he was likely to see in Happy Valley this coming season. One would imagine that Robinson, even without a spring practice, could potentially start right away at schools like Virginia Tech, NC State, or West Virginia.
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As for Mitchell, he was a Top 150 prospect who just enrolled 15 months ago in January 2024. He redshirted last season, eventually working his way into some special teams reps during the playoffs, but it didn’t appear his role was going to increase much more in 2025. To be frank, Penn State’s cornerback room is rather stacked, with AJ Harris, Elliot Washington, Audavion Collins, and Zion Tracy all ahead of him. We’ll see what ends up happening, but Mitchell can likely move back toward his home state of Florida and have a cleaner path toward rotational snaps in 2025.
Looking at both Robinson and Mitchell, this is the reality of the portal. Two talented players who really had just scratched the surface of what they could be in Happy Valley, but likely have more playing time elsewhere.
It can be instinctual as a Penn State fan to sit on our soapbox and lament the new generation of players for not being patient and sticking things out. I think back to someone like Amani Oruwariye who didn’t do much of anything his first two years on campus and then broke through with a very strong redshirt sophomore season in 2016. I wonder how Oruwariye’s career would have played out had the transfer portal existed through the 2010s. Being a native of Tampa, Florida, would he have packed up and went back down south in search of more playing time?
At the same time, I’m reminded of the aforementioned AJ Harris, a five-star prospect who signed with Georgia and split after just one season because he wanted more playing time. Penn State benefitted in a massive way due to that line of thinking. So for as easy as it can be for fans to scoff at what’s happening with player movement in the college game, sometimes it’s as simple as these guys are football players who want to, you know, actually play the game and not just drill Sunday through Friday.
