Meet Penn State football’s 2024 season captains

Penn State football has picked its captains ahead of the 2024 season. The Nittany Lions needed almost an entirely new list of player leaders this fall after five of the six captains from a year ago moved on following the 2023 season. Redshirt junior and special teams ace Dominic DeLuca is the only returning captain, and he will carry the title for the second year in a row. While it may feel like the selections are arriving late, this is a fairly standard announcement time. It’s true that, in years past, a select group of players earned the honor of being a captain coming out of spring practice before the full list was released around this time. This year is different, however.

“We did a vote [a couple of weeks ago], and a lot of times, we do that vote right before the summer starts because we would like to go in to the summer with some of that leadership,” head coach James Franklin said in June. “But, we only make the decision if there’s clear and obvious guys in terms of the vote. Like, if there was one guy dramatically on defense, one guy dramatically on offense that got enough votes, or on special teams to make that decision now, [we would]. And, it wasn’t.

“[Not naming any captains yet] will give us an opportunity to continue to evaluate, give the players more time to earn that from their teammates and from the staff, and then we’ll vote obviously probably a couple of weeks in the camp like we traditionally have.”

Here’s who has earned that opportunity.

Penn State captains on offense

Penn State junior quarterback Drew Allar is one of the Nittany Lions’ captains on offense. Center Nick Dawkins is the other. Allar enters his second season as the starter. Dawkins will be a first-team member for the first time.

“I think that, through the first 11 or 12 practices, that we’re getting a lot more consistent,” Allar said. “I think as an offense, we’re learning how to bounce back quicker. Obviously, sometimes the defense is going to get us because they’re just that talented. But, I think we’re doing a really good job on offensive building that leadership and just learning how to bounce back quicker. But I think we’re in a really good spot as an offense.”

Nittany Lion captains on defense

Middle linebacker Kobe King will be the leader of the Nittany Lions’ defense. He is a first-time captain along with safety KJ Winston Jr.

Who are the special teams captains?

DeLuca is the only returning captain. He’s joined on special teams by second-year punter Riley Thompson.

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