Blue White Illustrated

T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 1 9 >> of signing day pressers. Optimism is mandatory at these kinds of events, no matter what the circumstances may be. And when the final analysis is years away, it's easy to assert that the so- called experts got it all wrong. But the rankings do matter, both as a broadly accurate indication of the kind of players you're bringing in, and also as a sign of how your program is perceived by the public at large, especially the people who will have a disproportionate role in its future success: high school players and their parents and coaches. Yes, some of the can't-miss players in the Class of 2019 will, in fact, miss. And some two-star players and even some walk-ons will emerge as stars in the years to come. But when you look at the top of the rankings and see them domi- nated by the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Clemson, it's hard not to notice the correlation between recruit- ing success and on-field performance. All of which brings us back to Franklin's class. The Nittany Lions' sixth-year head coach is very happy with it, you will not be surprised to learn. Penn State's Class of 2019 num- bers 24 players, 14 of whom received four stars, and nine of whom received three stars. It was 10th in Rivals' team rankings in the aftermath of signing day, as Penn State placed among the nation's top dozen teams for the third year in a row. Even before the final letters arrived on Feb. 6, Franklin was beaming. This year's class "looks good today on paper, and I think it will end up looking good on the field, as well," he said in December when the early signing period began. "At the end of the day, I thought our staff did a great job of identifying high-character kids who want to come to a great institu- ON SIGNING TWO QUARTERBACKS We started with that approach because we weren't sure what Tommy [Stevens] was going to do, and then once we committed to that, we stayed with it. We always wanted to have five quarter- backs on scholarship. This is going to allow us to do that. In a perfect world, you love [to have it] spread out: One is a senior, one is a junior, one is a sopho- more, one is a freshman, but there aren't too many programs in the coun- try that have it like that. But like we try to do with everything, we're just up front and honest and transparent from the beginning with their families and with them. And you know, Ta'Quan [Roberson] never really seemed fazed at any point. And really, Michael [Johnson Jr.] jumped on after the fact, and he already knew. So they both were great about it, and I thought Coach [Ricky] Rahne did a great job and they were two guys who really fit our profile. I think they're excited about Penn State. It just worked out really well. You know, with Michael, I've known Michael's dad for, I don't know, 20 years. He was the quarterbacks coach with the Atlanta Falcons with Michael Vick, and I was offered the receivers job. So we go way back. And then obvi- ously having an opportunity to develop a relationship with his son and seeing what he was able to do, you know, that was really good. And then New Jersey, where Ta'Quan is from, great football, very competi- tive. You look at that league in New Jersey, and it's very similar to the league in the Maryland/D.C. area. High-level football, coached really well, very competitive. Ta'Quan came to camp and earned it the hard way. We loved how he threw the ball, how it came out of his hand. But he didn't run a 40, and we said, hey, you need to come back. You need to come back and do all the testing, and he came back. We offered him, and it didn't take much longer after that. He committed and never changed. ON NOAH CAIN AND DEVYN FORD It worked out really well. I think we've got two really good backs who are really mature. One will be coming in early [Cain], and one will be coming in this summer. You know, they're highly, highly productive guys. Both of them, if you combine their stats, it's ridicu- lous. You look at Noah, what he's been able to do, obviously at IMG and his high school before that, it's impressive. It's impressive. We're pretty fortunate. With Devyn, he had over a hundred touchdowns in high school, so we're fortunate to get two really good backs coming in here who are also highly competitive guys and both very mature. ON THE EARLY ENROLLEES Typically, we've had between four and six guys at mid-semester. Although we've lost [some players to the transfer portal], we pretty much have the same number right now that we typically have going into spring ball and winter workouts. So the 14 mid-semester guys – with scholarship [players] and walk-ons – is helpful there. ON RECRUITING LINEBACKERS I think we're getting into a rhythm now. I think we really understand Penn State much better. I think our institutional knowl- edge is much better. Our community knowledge is much better. Also, [it's about] recruiting areas and places where we're going to have the most success. You look at Lance [Dixon] – Lance is an interesting one. Lance came to camp very early on, ran a 4.4 for us in camp. That's not a short trip; I think they came up here seven times on their own. You know, we created a really strong relationship with Mom and Dad, Rosy and LeBarron. Mom was the one at the end, before he committed, who was concerned about the distance a lit- tle bit. He never flinched. What's interesting with Brandon [Smith] is that… he had a bunch of of- C O A C H S P E A K J A M E S F R A N K L I N D I S C U S S E S T H E

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