Blue White Illustrated

WHAT HE WON Hamilton was rated a fourstar prospect by ESPN.com, and a three-star player by Rivals.com and Scout.com. Rivals ranked Hamilton as the No. 42 athlete in the country and No. 15 overall in Virginia. He was the Commonwealth District Offensive Player of the Year in Virginia. The (Fredericksburg) Free Lance-Star and VirginiaPreps.com both nominated him for their respective Class AAA All-State teams at wide receiver. WHERE HE VISITED Hamilton checked out Virginia and Virginia Tech, as well as Wake Forest. The Hokies and Cavaliers were thought to be the favorites. Duke, Illinois and Miami were also under consideration. WHO OPENED THE DOOR Charles London and Stan Hixon led the way with Hamilton, but the door might actually have been opened a few years before. Mountain View head coach Lou Sorrentino coached Penn State���s all-time leading receiver, Deon Butler, in high school. QUOTABLE Lou Sorrentino: ���DaeSean really did his homework here, and that���s what I���m really proud of. I know he made the best decision for himself because he did all the research and understands that, even with the sanctions, it wasn���t going to hold him back from picking the best school for him. I think that speaks highly for the type of young man Penn State is getting.��� PHIL���S TAKE Hamilton is as smooth a wide receiver as I���ve seen on film this year. He has a great pair of hands, runs precise routes and displayed an ability as a high school wide receiver to read coverages. He never seems to make mental mistakes. Hamilton���s style of play reminds me of former Penn State receiver O.J. McDuffie ��� very polished, with fluid motion and deceptive speed. He also has the athletic skills to play in the secondary at either free safety or cornerback. He has football intelligence, as well as a 4.1 GPA in the classroom. He should be able to quickly pick up Bill O���Brien���s sophisticated pass offense. TANNER HARTMAN OT, 6-5, 255 Lynchburg, Va. Liberty Christian Academy WHAT HE DID Although Hartman attended Penn State���s football camp last June, he committed to Maryland in July after receiving an offer from the Terrapins just two weeks earlier. When the Nittany Lions extended a scholarship offer later in the summer, the Virginia prospect began to reconsider his commitment. His head coach at Liberty Christian Academy was Frank Rocco, a former Penn State quarterback. In the end, THE BRENEMAN FILE STAT I S T I C S Caught 73 passes for 1,120 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior. HONORS Received a five-star rating from Scout.com and four stars from ESPN.com and Rivals.com... Was Rivals��� No. 3 tight end in the nation and No. 3 prospect in Pennsylvania... Named to the Class AAA All-State team his junior season by The Patriot News and PAFootballnews.com Tim Owen His parents shot down those potential interviews pretty quickly, but he did appear on ESPN���s ���College Football Live��� a few weeks later. And in the months that followed, he frequently took advantage of his high media profile to tout Bill O���Brien and the program, and to explain why Penn State was still a good fit for him, both on and off the field. Breneman worked so hard on behalf of Penn State that even his future head coach took notice. ���O���Brien told me one day that I did more talking before my career than some guys do in an entire career,��� he said. ���He said thanks for the kind words, then made it pretty clear that I have to be safe, I have to be smart.��� Breneman didn���t have to put up with any media attention on signing day, as the ACL injury changed the way he approached his freshman year. Realizing that he wasn���t going to be able to play basketball as a senior at Cedar Cliff, Breneman decided to take extra classes during the summer so that he would be able to graduate in December and enroll at Penn State in January. Breneman said he will take to heart the lessons he learned while playing a role in a major national news story, embracing them as part of his college education. ���Most prospects don���t go through something like that before they���ve actually enrolled, so I know it���ll help a lot when I actually am put on the spot a few years from now,��� he said. ���It definitely made me a better person. I learned a few things about what is acceptable and not acceptable, talking to people and over stuff like Twitter. ���So I look back on all of it with no regrets, I know it'll help when I have to deal with the media down the road.���

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