Lions until a@er he spent a year at Milford
Academy, a prep school located in upstate
New York.
WHAT HE WON Rivals.com gave Wright a
two-star rating coming out of high school.
A@er a successful prep season, he was
upgraded to three stars.
WHERE
HE VISITED
Wright committed to
Connecticut out of high school. However,
it soon became clear that he would have
to attend prep school, and that gave the
Nittany Lions a chance to get reac-
quainted with him. Several months after
Paul Pasqualoni and his staff were fired
last fall, Penn State began to make a
push.
WHO OPENED THE DOOR Wright wanted a
scholarship out of high school, so he was
always very interested in the Nittany Lions.
Larry Johnson did most of the work
throughout his recruitment.
QUOTABLE Wright on the future of Penn
State football: "As long as [fans] continue
to support us, continue to pack Beaver
Stadium, then Penn State will always have
a good coach, will always attract good
players and will always be winners on the
the ensive line. He's already shown that
he has the kind of frame that can carry
more than 300 pounds. In fact, his playing
weight at C.D. Hylton was right around
300. ■
po-
s
W
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Penn State threw a fun, lively, inform-
ative, well-planned-out football party
in the middle of winter Wednesday
evening, attracting close to 4,000 fans
to the Bryce Jordan Center and showing
just how far the program has come with
how it handles national signing day. For
the record, I am not a huge fan of signing
day. It's a wonderful life memory for the
young athletes, but so many fans and
media egregiously overhype high school
football players who have never proven
anything at the college level, in many
cases further feeding their massive
sense of entitlement. It's all just out of
kilter. Usually a player has to become a
star on the field to earn the type of
praise he receives before he even steps
on campus. However, handled appropri-
ately – as Penn State did – a signing day
get-together can be a terrific opportu-
nity to celebrate everything that's good
about a program while giving the fans a
chance to take part in the fun.
CORY GIGER ALTOONA MIRROR
In some ways, with signing day war
rooms (not just at Penn State) and big
screen highlights and glowing accolades
before they visit campus, the process
could be setting [recruits] up for failure.
And some will fail. If they don't fulfill
their promise, if they have trouble ad-
justing and aren't afforded a redshirt
freshman season and just aren't all that
good, who's to blame? The kid? He be-
lieved it all. Not just from the recruiters,
but from the recruiting sites, the fans,
the media, social media, ESPNU, me and
maybe you. The coach? He said the kid
was great, he had the tools, he'll make
an immediate contribution. If he
doesn't play like [an elite] player, was he
not developed or was he not good to be-
gin with – despite the accolades? Either
way, the coach has some culpability, es-
pecially if the player is praised to high
heaven and ends up with a hellish career.
Joe Paterno used to say: "They work
better and harder with no expectations."
Bill O'Brien told a handful of media
types about this recruit: "He's not call-
ing me dude when he gets to campus.
I'm not his friend."
MIKE POORMAN STATECOLLEGE.COM
Franklin has received some criticism for
recruiting ethics after he and his staff got
five prospects who had been committed
to Vanderbilt to flip to Penn State. This
criticism came mostly from people who
don't understand the role of relation-
ships in recruiting, or the role a coach
plays in the life of a major-college ath-
lete. If a coach can change schools, why
can't a player? College athletes should, if
anything, have more freedom and auton-
omy. MIKE GROSS LANCASTER ONLINE
Bill O'Brien put together a very good
recruiting class, and James Franklin is
continuing that momentum. Franklin is
an enthusiastic, charismatic coach
whom recruits are drawn to, and that's
obvious after looking at the players he
was able to keep committed and the ad-
ditional players he was able to success-
fully recruit. While keeping players such
as Michael O'Connor, De'Andre
Thompkins, Mike Gesicki, Troy Reeder
committed was important, getting com-
mitments from recruits such as Saeed
Blacknall, Koa Farmer and Trace McSor-
ley was very impressive. Penn State
closed out the 2014 recruiting class with
a lot of momentum, and it should help
the Lions in the 2015 class. RIVALS.COM
While most major college football pro-
grams could be seen tightly packed
around conference tables with serious
looks on their faces, Franklin & Co. let
the media into a room with a giant re-
cruiting big board, an omelet station,
and a whole lot of modern technology.
While O'Brien wasn't too fond of
Tweeter and Spacebook, Franklin's staff
was active on social media and their
iPhones and iPads, using Facetime to
show commits the war room and wel-
come them to Penn State instead of the
usual phone call.
ZACH BERGER ONWARD STATE
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