Blue White Illustrated

P enn State's fast start to the 2015 re- cruiting season has done more than back up James Franklin's oft-re- peated pledge to "dominate the state." Having received commitments from two of Pennsylvania's best pure athletes – running backs Andre Robinson and Saquon Barkley – and also from rising defensive prospects Ryan Buchholz and Jake Cooper, Penn State has embold- ened fans, some of whom now seem to think that the Nittany Lions have "put up a fence" around the border. There's a long way to go, and the Nit- tany Lions' success at landing top- ranked offensive lineman Sterling Jenkins and a few others will play a major role in determining whether those claims turn out to be true. But the staff has also made progress just east of the Keystone State, and the Li- ons may soon begin to see all that hard work pay off. In recent weeks, four four-star prospects from New Jersey have either visited or scheduled visits for late March. Even more impressive, all nine New Jersey prospects who currently hold a four-star ranking or better from Rivals.com have already been on cam- pus at least once in the past year. At arguably its biggest area of need in the upcoming class – the offensive line – Penn State is in excellent position with four-star players Steven Gonzalez of Union City, Sam Madden of Barnegat and Grant Newsome of Lawrenceville. As always, New Jersey is also loaded with athletes, boasting such players as Juwan Johnson of Glassboro, Myles Hartsfield of Parlin and the No. 1 athlete in the entire Mid-Atlantic region, Minkah Fitzpatrick of St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City. All six have been on campus already. In addition to boasting more top-line talent, New Jersey's class is deeper than Pennsylvania's this year, a fact that should come as no surprise to anyone who closely follows recruiting. For the past few years, New Jersey has been out-producing its neighbor to the west. Even when you pull back and begin looking at a bigger portion of the talent pool, such players as offensive lineman Tommy Hatton of Montvale, defensive end Jamie Gordinier of Red Bank and linebacker Manny Bowen of Barnegat rank among the fastest-rising prospects in the region. Those players were sport- ing a total of 37 combined offers as of this writing – not bad for a group of three-star prospects. Penn State appears to be in the top five of all the players mentioned above, with the exception of Fitzpatrick. And even there, the Nittany Lions are likely in the top 10. Before the end of spring practice, which concludes with the Blue-White Game on April 12, the majority of those young men will also take a visit, and I believe it's likely that a few will verbally commit. In my opinion, this is more important than locking down Pennsylvania the next few years. In Pennsylvania, there will always be a few prospects who fol- lowed Pitt growing up and who are des- tined to become Panthers, but that's not really the case in New Jersey. While Rutgers has made major strides since Greg Schiano's tenure at the school, it's clear to me based on my conversations with New Jersey prospects that Rutgers doesn't exert the same pull in its home state that Penn State and Pitt exert on Pennsylvania prospects. Players respect Rutgers, but relatively few of them have their heart set on signing with the Scar- let Knights. To me, their willingness to leave the state means that Penn State has an opportunity to make some seri- ous inroads. Franklin and his assistants are very well aware that New Jersey could be an important part of their attempts to build Penn State back into the kind of program that can compete for Big Ten and national championships. The Nittany Lions are going to have to dominate the Garden State, and that ef- fort could begin to take shape during the next few months. ■ Pennsylvania isn't the only state that PSU aims to dominate Ted Sebastianelli for Penn State Board of Trustees B A L L O T # 1 facebook.com/ted.sebastianelli tedsebastianelli@gmail.com Voting Period: April 10 to May 8, 2014 To receive a Ballot, contact: BOT@psu.edu (814) 865-2521 Add a voice for transparency, accountability, and open debate Stop the needless spending; make education more affordable Shift the balance away from the decision-making power group Defend our University and our beloved Coach Paterno Repudiate the Freeh Report, move to eliminate the NCAA sanctions Apologize to the Paterno family, honor Joe

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