Penn State All 105: The Hunter

All 105 is a Nittany Sports Now series profiling each Penn State football player. This edition will look at sixth-year OL Hunter Nourzad.

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 315 pounds

Hometown: Marietta, Georgia

Before Penn State

Cornell: Nourzad transferred to Penn State in the 2022 offseason after four years playing Ivy League football at Cornell.

After not getting any playing time as a freshman, Nourzad became a full-time starter in 2019 and earned second-team all-conference honors. Nourzad wasn’t able to build on that success in 2020 due to the Ivy League cancelling its season, but came back the next season to earn first-team all-Ivy League. Nourzad also received All-America accolades from the AFCA (second-team) and Phil Steele (third-team). Steele also picked Nourzad as his Ivy League Offensive Lineman of the Year.

Nourzad entered the transfer portal in late last November and picked Penn State in early February.

2022: Nourzad came into the season as a player who was supposed to get “starter reps,” in the words of coach James Franklin, without being an official starter. Well, Nourzad’s role increased in Penn State’s sixth game of the season at Michigan. The team’s starting left guard, Landon Tengwall, suffered a season ending injury during pregame warmups. Nourzad ended up starting that game and the rest of the year, more than holding his own as Penn State’s line continued to improve. Eventually, Penn State finished 11-2 and No. 7 in the country for a season capped off with a Rose Bowl win over Utah.

Where he stands: Every key piece of Penn State’s line is coming back expect center Juice Scruggs, who’s now a Houston Texan. Nourzad, capable of playing pretty much anywhere on the line, is expected to succeed Scruggs at center. Losing Scruggs’s talent and leadership hurts, but Nourzad has similar capabilities, so Penn State should be just fine on the line.

A quote by Nourzad: “I didn’t want to go anywhere where I wouldn’t grow as an offensive lineman technically, and football IQ stuff. When I took my visit to Iowa, Illinois and Penn State, all stood out, which kind of tells you a little bit about most offensive linemen.” — Nourzad to 247Sports after he committed to Penn State

A quote about Nourzad: “We’ve really looked at Hunter (Nourzad) and Olu (Fashanu) as kind of like the foundation of the O-line.” — coach James Franklin to reporters after a practice this month