Blue White Illustrated

A 9er the early signing period con- cluded in December for the Class of 2019, Penn State and Michigan found themselves vying for the No. 1 spot in the Big Ten. It was a back-and- forth battle for top recruiting honors, and it continued well past the traditional signing date, which this year fell on Feb. 6. Going into the weekend of Feb. 8-10, Rivals.com had the Nittany Lions with the 11th-best class in the country and the second-best class in the Big Ten be- hind the Wolverines, who were rated 10th nationally. Penn State's class had 23 members, 13 of whom had received four- star ratings and nine of whom received three stars. There was only one two-star player in the class. In my opinion, Penn State recruited the Big Ten's top class at three position groups: linebacker, running back and defensive back. There's also a case to be made that the Lions recruited the con- ference's best quarterback class. Penn State's top recruits are linebacker Brandon Smith, running backs Devyn Ford and Noah Cain, o8ensive lineman Caedan Wallace and wide receiver John Dunmore. All of those players are ranked in the Rivals100. The reason for the uncertainty in the national and Big Ten rankings coming out of signing day was that another four-star player – safety Nick Cross of Hyattsville, Md. – hadn't made a deci- sion whether to join Penn State's class. Cross had been verbally committed to Florida State and was also considering Maryland, but he made an official visit to Penn State late in the recruiting cycle and spent the ensuing weeks weighing his options. That saga will likely be over by the time you read this, but it was still ongoing as of BWI's deadline, and so was the battle be- tween Penn State and Michigan for the Big Ten's top spot. Keeping that in mind, let's take a posi- tion-by-position look at how the Nit- tany Lions addressed their recruiting needs with the Class of 2019. QUARTERBACK SIGNEES Michael Johnson Jr., Ta'Quan Roberson ANALYSIS Gone is Penn State career passing leader Trace McSorley, but for the 7rst time in the program's modern history, the Nittany Lions will enter spring practice with 7ve scholarship quarterbacks on their roster. In addition to Johnson and Roberson, both of whom enrolled in January, the Lions' QB con- tingent includes 79h-year senior Tommy Stevens, redshirt sophomore Sean Cli8ord and redshirt freshman Will Levis. That's a lot of quarterbacks, but Penn State has very little game experience at the position. Stevens is the only player on the roster to have thrown more than a handful of passes, and his availability this spring is unclear as he recovers from an injury that hampered him last season and forced him to miss the Citrus Bowl in January. During his three seasons as McSorley's backup, Stevens threw 41 passes, com- pleting 24 of those attempts (58.5 per- cent) for 304 yards, with four touch- downs and one interception. Cli8ord is the only other scholarship quarterback to have seen game action for Penn State. He played in four games last season, completing 5 of 6 passes for 195 yards, including touchdown tosses of 34 and 95 yards. If he's healthy, Stevens should have the inside track over Cli8ord for the starting job. But the fact that Penn State will have 7ve scholarship quarterbacks prac- ticing this spring shows how well James Franklin and his assistant coaches have recruited at this position the past three years. RUNNING BACK SIGNEES Noah Cain, Devyn Ford ANALYSIS With Miles Sanders enter- ing the NFL Dra9 and backups Mark Allen and Johnathan Thomas graduat- ing, the only experienced returnees here are Ricky Slade and Journey Brown, both of whom will have sophomore eli- gibility this coming fall. Another soph- omore, C.J. Holmes, will be eligible in 2019 a9er transferring from Notre Dame last year. The lack of game experience meant that Penn State needed to recruit two excellent running back prospects in 2019. That is exactly what Franklin and his sta8 did, landing Cain and Ford. Going into spring practice, it's only natural to view Slade as the favorite to replace Sanders as Penn State's starting RB. He 7nished the 2018 season as the Nittany Lions' third-leading rusher with 257 yards and six touchdowns on 45 carries. But with Brown, Holmes and Cain joining Slade in spring practice and Ford arriving in May or June, the battle for this position 7gures to be more compet- itive than it was a year ago when Sanders was Saquon Barkley's heir apparent. Holmes, Cain and Ford were all highly ranked four-star running backs in their respective recruiting classes, so the race for this spot should continue through the spring and summer months. It wouldn't be surprising to see Penn State use a three-man rotation at running back this fall. PHIL'S CORNER With latest batch of signees, Penn State meets most of its needs

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