Blue White Illustrated

J ust how good are Penn State's football recruiting classes of 2017 and '18? Did the Nittany Lions really deserve the No. 12 overall ranking from Rivals.com in the :rst of those two years and the No. 5 ranking this past year? We are starting to get answers to those questions, thanks in part to the recently instituted NCAA rule change that allows freshmen to play in as many as four games without losing a year of eligibil- ity. Heading into the Citrus Bowl, 16 players from Penn State's 21-member Class of 2018 have seen action during the 2018 season. Those 16 players are: receivers Jahan Dotson, Daniel George and Justin Shorter; o;ensive linemen Bryce E;ner, Rasheed Walker and Juice Scruggs; tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Zack Kuntz; defensive linemen P.J. Mustipher, Jayson Oweh and Nick Tar- burton; linebackers Micah Parsons and Jesse Luketa; running back Ricky Slade, cornerback Trent Gordon and kicker Jake Pinegar. Another kicker, Rafael Checa, also has played for the Lions this season but was not a member of the team's most recent scholarship class, ar- riving instead as an invited walk-on. When you include redshirt freshmen from the Class of 2017, a grand total of 30 scholarship players with freshman eligibility have seen action this year. That group of redshirt frosh includes: receivers K.J. Hamler, Cam Sullivan- Brown and Mac Hippenhammer; o;en- sive linemen Des Holmes and Mike Miranda; defensive linemen Fred Hansard and Damion Barber; lineback- ers Ellis Brooks and Brelin Faison- Walden; defensive backs Jonathan Sutherland and Donovan Johnson; run- ning back Journey Brown and quarter- back Sean Cli;ord. In addition, there's C.J. Thorpe, who started out on the of- fensive line before moving to defensive tackle at midseason and seeing most of his action on that side of the ball. The only real negative developments re- garding the progress of Penn State's past two freshman classes have been the loss of :ve players. O;ensive lineman Nana Asiedu and cornerback Jordan Miner were both diagnosed with heart conditions prior to the 2018 season and were forced to give up football. Also, defensive back Isaiah Humphries from the Class of 2018 and linebackers Brailyn Franklin and Bre- lin Faison-Walden from the Class of 2017 opted to transfer. Franklin has resurfaced at Sam Houston State, and Faison- Walden will attend UNC Charlotte. Humphries had not decided as of this writing where he will go a

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