Blue White Illustrated

and 12 touchdowns and averaged 15.6 yards per reception. WHAT HE WON Breneman earned a fivestar rating from Scout.com, while both ESPN.com and Rivals.com gave him four stars. Rivals listed him as the No. 3 tight end in the nation, the No. 3 prospect in Pennsylvania and the No. 78 prospect in the nation. Breneman was named to the Pennsylvania Class AAA All-State team his junior season by The Patriot News and PAFootballnews.com. He was also an Under Armour All-American despite the injury. WHERE HE VISITED Breneman received more than 30 scholarship offers before committing to Penn State in early March. Other schools that extended offers in- cluded Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Pitt, South Carolina, Stanford, Virginia and Wisconsin. WHO OPENED THE DOOR Larry Johnson was the first coach to reach out to Breneman in high school, but the young tight end prospect was already largely sold on the university. By the time he enrolled in January, he had built strong relationships with nearly the entire staff, especially tight ends coach John Strollo. QUOTABLE Breneman: ���I committed to Penn State because of Coach O���Brien and because of his coaching staff ��� the best coaching staff in the country. Playing in front of 110,000 people and the great degree you get from Penn State, all that stuff is still there. Who cares about bowl games? We���re going to do something bigger than just a bowl game.��� PHIL���S TAKE If Breneman had not missed the 2012 season with a torn ACL, I���m convinced he would have been a consensus choice as the top tight end in the country. His high school coach, Jim Cantafio, said Breneman consistently runs the 40-yard dash in 4.55 seconds. He has superb size, a tremendous pair of hands and runs extremely precise routes. He���s projected to play the F tight end spot. It will be interesting to see how his recovery is coming along and how much he participates in spring practice. He hopes to play this coming fall. CURTIS COTHRAN DE, 6-5, 235 Newtown, Pa. Council Rock North HS WHAT HE DID Playing offensive line and defensive end for the Indians, Cothran came to be regarded as the most ath- MAN OF HIS WORD Brandon Bell follows through on his pledge of allegiance to Penn State | hen Ron Vanderlinden first stopped by Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, N.J., to check on linebacker prospect Brandon Bell, before doing anything else, he inquired about Bell���s character. Vanderlinden already knew what kind of prospect he was. That was evident from Bell���s statistics as a junior: 117 tackles, 24 of which were for negative yardage, six sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception ��� a portfolio that helped him garner unanimous honors as the best linebacker in the Cape-Atlantic League. But Vanderlinden wanted to know what made the 6foot-1, 222-pound linebacker tick. W ���The first words out of his mouth,��� Oakcrest head coach Chuck Smith said, ���were ���What type of kid is he? Is he a good kid? Is he troubled? What kind of character traits does he have?��� ��� Smith was happy to divulge. Bell, he said, watched more game film than anyone on the team. He was a two-year captain-to-be, a B+ student who gave back to his community and school. Even during his senior season, in which the Falcons finished 1-9, Bell maintained a positive outlook that influenced his teammates. ���You could come to our practice and you wouldn���t know if our team was 1-6 or 6-1,��� Smith said. ���We had leadership that kept the enthusiasm going.��� It was enough to convince Vanderlinden that Bell was worthy of a Penn State scholarship. Bell had received 16 offers before choosing the Lions, the first of which had been from Northwestern. ���I wasn���t sure what was coming next,��� he said, ���so Northwestern was always in my head.��� But as time went on and more scholarship offers materialized, Bell narrowed his options down to Penn State and Rutgers. ���Both of those schools sort of have the same values,��� he said. ���After visiting Penn State, I felt strongly about them. But I still had Rutgers in my

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