Penn State football has picked its team captains for the 2025 season, and many of the names are familiar ones.
Penn State football has picked its team captains for the 2025 season, and many of the names are familiar ones. Quarterback Drew Allar, center Nick Dawkins, and linebacker Dominic DeLuca are back in the program’s top player leadership group after serving in it a year ago. Joining them for this fall are long snapper Tyler Duzansky and defensive tackle Zane Durant. The news was announced on social media Saturday.
DeLuca is the Lions’ second three-time captain in the James Franklin era. He joins fellow special teams ace and linebacker Jonathan Sutherland in that exclusive company.
While Penn State will only have so many players with a ‘C’ on their uniform, the 2025 version of the Lions should have as much player leadership as any one that came before it, considering how old and experienced the roster is.
“It has been good because a lot of the guys that have been significant leaders are back,” Franklin said after the Blue-White game. “Nick Dawkins is as good of a leader by example as any that I’ve been around in my 30 years. When your starting quarterback is back and has started for three years, Drew is taking significant steps there.
“On the defensive side, Zane Durant has been that type of leader for us for a while. Zakee Wheatley is stepping into that role as well, so is Dani Dennis-Sutton. Dominic DeLuca has been a captain for like seven years now, so we did lose some significant leadership, but we have a lot of guys that have been a part of that role as well.”
Can you name every Penn State captain in the James Franklin era?
With apologies for those who played this game when we first posted it back in May, we’re bringing it back for those who missed it. Penn State now has its 12th list of captains in the Franklin era. Can you name the players who made up each of the 11 before them? We’ll add some extra spacing to give you time to think before seeing the answers.
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2014: 7 (Mike Hull, CJ Olaniyan, Miles Dieffenbach, Christian Hackenberg, Jesse Della Valle, Ryan Keiser, and Sam Ficken)
2015: 5 (Christian Hackenberg, Jordan Lucas, Angelo Mangiro, Von Walker, and Anthony Zettel)
2016: 3 (Brandon Bell, Brian Gaia, and Von Walker)
2017: 3 (Trace McSorley, Jason Cabinda, and Nick Scott)
2018: 3 (Trace McSorley, Nick Scott, Blake Gillikin)
2019: 8 (Cam Brown, Blake Gillikin, Jan Johnson, Garrett Taylor, Michal Menet, Sean Clifford, Pat Freiermuth, and Jonathan Sutherland
2020: 8 (Michal Menet, Shaka Toney, Lamont Wade, Sean Clifford, Jonathan Sutherland, Pat Freiermuth, Jesse Luketa, and Jordan Stout)
2021: 6 (Jaquan Brisker, PJ Mustipher, Sean Clifford, Jordan Stout, Jonathan Sutherland, and Rasheed Walker)
2022: 6 (Ji’Ayir Brown, Sean Clifford, PJ Mustipher, Juice Scruggs, Chris Stoll, and Jonathan Sutherland)
2023: 6 (Keaton Ellis, Olu Fashanu, Dominic DeLuca, Theo Johnson, Adisa Isaac, Malick Meiga.)
2024: 6 (Drew Allar, Nick Dawkins, Dominic DeLuca, Kobe King, Riley Thompson, and Kevin Winston Jr.)
Category: General Sports
