Welcome back into the Lions 24-7 podcast.

I am Tyler Donny, who he is Tyler Calvaruso.

We're going to get you started here with an interesting episode of the Lions 24-7 podcast.

It'll be an opportunity for us and you to learn more about several new Nittany Lions.

We're going to focus in on the freshman class with Tyler in just a moment. He covered this group. I would normally say for months and years, but much of this group wasn't on our radar until December, and they followed over this new staff. And so we got a lot of things to kind of bob and weave our way through with this recruiting classes. Tyler has some superlatives to share.

We're going to talk about guys who are maybe primed to make an early impact from the freshman

class, most important flips from that Ohio State group, who has the highest ceiling,

who's the wild card sleeper, what position group improved the most from this class.

We've got some categories to get into.

And then a little bit later, we'll switch out Tyler for Patrick Murphy, who does a great job covering Ohio State for our 24-7 sports network. You've heard from him before on this podcast. We're going to pick his brain on new Nittany Lions running back James Peoples, arrived on campus last year after spending a couple seasons with the Ohio State Buckeyes, ran for more than

300 yards last season, averaged more than 5.5 yards per carry as a sophomore, but he wasn't

their primary back. He was a backup there. Going to try to take on a bigger load here. He's one of

two transfer pickups for Penn State at the running back position. We'll dive into that conversation

a little bit later here with Patrick Murphy. But first things first, Tyler, welcome back to the show. Hopefully people followed your

great recruiting coverage earlier last time you were on. And now we're going to shift gears to the

newest Nittany Lions and a freshman class that in many ways came together at a frantic pace in a period

of chaos. It's weird doing superlatives because like you said, I mean, we usually know these kids for years, going back to when they're underclassmen as recruits. And we just didn't have that this cycle. But still a good group. There was a lot to sort through when doing the superlatives. Some decisions were, I'd say, a little bit more difficult than others because there's a bunch of talent in this class. But it's always a fun exercise. And I'm looking forward to getting into it with you here today. We got some categories to go through. Before we do that, I want to tease our second segment of the podcast a little bit more when Patrick talks about James Peoples. And I know it's going to be in depth. He covered him as a recruit coming to Ohio State. He covered him closer to the last couple of years. Just remind our listeners and our viewers what you think about that pickup. Carson Hanson is more established at the college level. The senior who comes in from Iowa State, I think he had five straight 100-yard rushing games to finish the Cyclone season in 2025. But People's is someone that Matt Campbell, the head coach,

Savon Huggins, the running backs coach just last week,

really emphasized how excited they are about him and how they see this as of now on the

calendar as a very one-two punch kind of combination.

So remind us how you feel about the People's pickup.

Give Penn State a really good duo in the backfield. People's has the talent to be your lead back, be that RB1. But I've said it time and time again, if you look back at Iowa State's offenses, the way they utilize the running back position, there are going to be several guys getting touches. Peoples is going to be one of them. Carson Hanson's scheme familiarity is a big deal.

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