Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541990
5 6 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M I t took Penn State nearly two months to find its new coach after dismissing James Franklin in mid-October. Get- ting a head start on the competition was supposed to be a plus for the Nittany Lions, but after being rebuffed by their primary target, BYU's Kalani Sitaki, the search process continued well into the first week of December, with athletics director Patrick Kraft continuing to in- terview potential candidates while the three-day early signing period was in progress. Even before Sitake's change of heart forced the Nittany Lions to abruptly re- start their search, they knew that the early signing period wasn't going to be much fun. Just two months earlier, the Nittany Lions had 26 players commit- ted. That number dropped to seven at the start of December, and in the end only two players — quarterback Peyton Falzone and defensive end Jackson Ford — signed with PSU. Why did Penn State's class fall apart when the classes at other schools with head coaching vacancies mostly held together? The easy answer is that those other schools had new coaches in place by the time the signing period started. But that explanation doesn't tell the full story of how everything played out so differently. Here's a look at some of the factors that turned one of the better recruiting classes in the country into a duo. Never A Priority When Kraft met with the media on Oct. 13 to discuss Franklin's dismissal, he was asked about potential recruiting fallout and how he planned to address it. What was the first thing that came to mind for him when asked? It wasn't high school recruiting, but rather the transfer portal. "The recruiting role has changed. Student-athletes are flipping and going everywhere," Kraft said. "I'm not going to be naive. I know that every Power Four team has probably reached out to our student-athletes already." He later added, "I'm just going to be very honest. I'm less worried about '27 kids and more worried about my kids in the locker room right now. That's my focus." Kraft may have been referring to the 2026 class, rather than the '27 group, although that class, too, was unraveling. Class Dismissed Recounting the decisions that drove PSU's 2026 recruiting class apart RYA N S N Y D E R | RYA N . S N Y D E R @ O N 3 . C O M Penn State had been looking to welcome a top-15 recruiting class this year, but those plans fell apart following James Franklin's dismissal in mid-October. Franklin ended up persuad- ing 11 of the class' members to join him at Virginia Tech. PHOTO COURTESY ON3