Penn State football coach James Franklin used a question Monday about tight ends coach Ty Howle to make a thinly veiled recruiting pitch for Southern Lehigh senior Andrew Olesh.
Olesh is a four-star tight end prospect who committed to Michigan in July. He and his family attended the Nittany Lions’ 20-13 loss to Ohio State earlier this month at Beaver Stadium.
“If you’re a great tight end in the country, and specifically in the state of Pennsylvania, I don’t know how you couldn’t come here,” Franklin said during his weekly press conference. “There’s just too much history, there’s too much data and there are too many things saying you don’t need to go anywhere else.
“You can stay at home and get everything you want in terms of your college career and setting you up for your future.”
The 6-5, 215-pound Olesh caught 53 passes for 973 yards and 10 touchdowns last year as a junior. He’s rated the No. 3 tight end in the 2025 recruiting class. This year he’s caught 58 passes for 857 yards and seven touchdowns.
Penn State has four tight ends playing in the NFL: Mike Gesicki (Cincinnati), Pat Freiermuth (Pittsburgh), Brenton Strange (Jacksonville) and Theo Johnson (New York Giants).
Lions senior Tyler Warren is the favorite to win the John Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end.
Howle has guided Strange, Johnson and Warren.
“There’s no program in the country that is doing what we’re doing with tight ends now and really over the last 10 years,” Franklin said. “Ty Howle has come into that position as a Penn State letterman and I think has taken it to a whole other level.”
Warren recognized: Warren was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Penn State’s 49-10 victory at Purdue.
Warren caught eight passes for 127 yards and one touchdown and carried three times for 63 yards and one score.
He’s a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, presented to the nation’s outstanding versatile player, and a semifinalist for the Mackey Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year award.
He leads Penn State with 67 receptions for 808 yards and five touchdowns, has 16 rushes for 157 yards and four scores and has thrown a touchdown pass.
Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck, whose Golden Gophers face the visiting Lions Saturday at 3:30 (TV-CBS), praised Warren Monday.
“He’s a really, really good player,” Fleck said. “We’ve got our hands full, put it that way. It’s the versatility to do so many things.”
Maryland time set: Penn State’s regular season home finale Nov. 30 against Maryland has been scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on BTN, it was announced Monday.
If the Lions don’t have a home game in the College Football Playoff, it will be the final game at Beaver Stadium before a massive renovation project kicks into high gear.
