Penn State defensive end Bryce Mostella accuses the team of mistreatment and neglect regarding his mental health and performance on the field, according to a handful of social media posts.
In a 16-tweet Twitter thread posted Saturday afternoon, Mostella alleged that negative interactions from staff have greatly contributed to his struggles during his time with the Nittany Lions. Although he says the thread is “not a criticism of the university or any of its employees,” Mostella’s accusations paint a different picture.
Mostella openly admitted that he has struggled with gaining weight as a defensive end, which would often negatively affect his mental health and contribute to diagnoses of anxiety and depression. He alleges that James Franklin and defensive line coach John Scott asked Mostella to discuss mental health only when asked directly.
After a few months passed, Mostella claimed that Franklin was dissatisfied with his progress.
“The narrative shifted from ‘a hard worker who is going to figure it out’ to someone who ‘doesn’t care about football or the team,’” Mostella wrote online. “In every game, he insisted that he didn’t want to be at Penn State and that he didn’t want to play football, contrary to what I kept telling him.”
Mostella alleged that in August, Franklin said that if he did not gain “an unspecified amount of weight” by August, he would be kicked off the team and lose his scholarship.
“That moment started the darkest phase of my life, a phase I am not out of,” Mostella wrote on Twitter.
Continuing the Twitter thread, Mostella said he was hospitalized on November 3 for having suicidal thoughts. He had lost about 30 pounds since August and claimed to be the lowest he had been since his freshman year of high school. Mostella was also diagnosed with an eating disorder, in addition to an unspecified heart condition that he claimed was caused by the eating disorder.
Mostella alleges that Franklin and Scott did not return calls or texts to their mother to discuss her mental health and her role on the team. The redshirt sophomore also accused Scott of lying about changing his phone number.
Mostella also claimed that he was removed from the defensive line’s group chat “without warning.” Later, after he left the hospital, he says non-coaching staff members gave him two options for moving forward: transfer or medically retire. Mostella claims the team did not give him clearance to resume training, instead suggesting he should “focus on getting better”.
“I missed school so much being in the hospital [that] They told me the only real option was medically [withdraw] of the semester, which I did,” Mostella wrote online.
Due to administrative problems (and the university’s own bureaucracy), Mostella says her enrollment for the spring semester was cancelled. He said he is currently awaiting news from the school, but returning to classes in the summer appears to be the most likely outcome.
“The sole purpose of this was to make people aware of the situations and [the] types of people you may be dealing with if you or a loved one gets involved with particular systems,” Mostella wrote at the end of his thread.
On Saturday afternoon, Penn State Football did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations raised in Mostella’s Twitter thread. is still included in the team’s active roster and within the Penn State student directory.
Mostella, a redshirt sophomore, has yet to appear in a game for the Nittany Lions. He arrived on campus as a three-star recruit ranked as Michigan’s eighth prospect.
Editor’s Note: Some quotes from Mostella’s tweets have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
