Devonte Ross injury update: Will the Penn State receiver be ready to go against Nevada?

All three of the transfer portal pickups Penn State made at receiver this offseason will be in action on Saturday when the Nittany Lions open the 2025 season opposite Nevada. There had been some uncertainty regarding whether or not Devonte Ross would be ready to roll after fighting through some offseason injuries, after spring ball, and then during the summer. But, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Georgia native is set for game action, even though he may be limited some.

“He had some bumps and bruises this summer that we were dealing with that impacted how involved he could be late in the summer and then also early in training camp,” Penn State coach James Franklin said Monday. “But he’s ready to go. We’ll probably rotate him a little bit more, just because he hasn’t had the full training camp and he hasn’t had the full summer.

“But, he’s ready to go, and has looked really good the last week or so. So we’re expecting good things out of him. But, I think him and Liam Clifford will both rotate and both play significant reps.”

Clifford is the top returner from a statistical perspective in the Lions’ receivers room, of course. Ross is joined by fellow transfers Kyron Hudson and Trebor Pena. They make up the top four in third-year position coach Marques Hagans’ room.

“I think it’s going to be really important coming out of the first three games that we feel like we really know what we have with those three guys and how we could use them,” Franklin said Aug. 19. So just like Andy [Kotelnicki] knows our team better, we know those guys too. But we’ll have a much better idea of who they are – who those guys are as well – after the first three games.”

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Penn State is hoping its receivers room is better this fall after having plenty of well-documented issues with it a year ago. That’s why they went and got transfers. And, they are also hoping that a redshirt freshman and/or freshman can step up and play meaningful snaps.

“When you look at that young class of Lyrick [Samuel] and Koby [Howard], Jeff Exinor is a big, physical guy who ran extremely well when he showed up, and Matt Outten,” Franklin said on Aug. 7. “So it’s a good group of young guys that we’re excited about. I think a couple of them will end up playing this year, we’ll see.

“Koby has been the guy that I think has gotten a lot of buzz early on. But there’s been other guys that have stepped up, and I think have earned a ton of respect as well. So it’s going to be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out.”