Blue White Illustrated

But linemen typically need a year in the weight room before they're ready to com- pete on the Division I level. So for now, the overriding goal is to avoid any further attrition that would result in the team doing less with less. One thing Hand will be able to do is to instill a bit of the Commodores' over- achiever mentality in a program that is ac- customed to bringing in elite recruits. "We want to approach it in the same regard," he said, "because when you have to do more with less, you have to attack things in a di7erent way. Now we want to attack it in the same way, do more with more, and there's an excitement level with that." Smith 6gures prominently in that plan. He wasn't exactly a scrappy unknown com- ing out of Owings Mills High in 2011; he was a four-star prospect and 6rst-team All-Stater who didn't allow a single sack during his junior and senior seasons. Nelson, likewise, was a big catch for the Nittany Lions in 2013, as was Mahon. Rivals ranked Nelson the 17th-best o7ensive tackle prospect in the country last year, while Mahon was rated the nation's No. 3 o7ensive guard and the No. 58 overall player. So the Lions are not exactly starting from scratch. What's more, Franklin and his sta7 are adept at roster management. While Van- derbilt wasn't under the kind of scholar- ship restrictions that Penn State has faced ever since the NCAA sanctions were put in place in 2012, it lacked the depth that virtually all of its SEC rivals enjoyed, and Franklin couldn't a7ord to take anything for granted. Under his leadership, the Commodores scoured their campus in hope of 6nding walk-ons, and it didn't matter how much experience those players had. "We had seven guys on that team who had never played high school football," Franklin said. "We had real challenges from a numbers perspective. Now there, it was overall numbers, not scholarship numbers. [But at Penn State], we'll have to be creative." That creativity was in evidence over the winter when the sta7 moved redshirt sophomore walk-on Albert Hall to the o7ensive line along with Gaia and Dowrey. Hall had been a wideout in high school and played defensive end and tight end his 6rst two years at Penn State. Listed at 245 pounds, he isn't likely to 6nd himself suiting up against Ohio State. But he gives Penn State a bit more depth, and the Lions desperately need it. How desperately? Franklin joked at a recent presser about trying out a few beat reporters. "I'm look- ing around the room to see if any of you guys have eligibility le8 and size," he said. "We could use you." That's pretty debatable. But one certainly is that when the wraps come o7 in the Blue-White Game, Penn State fans will be seeing a work in progress. That's one reason why Franklin has been emphasizing the need for patience and a step-by-step approach as the Nittany Lions work their way through their o7-season preparations. "Right now, everybody wants to talk about the Blue-White Game," he said. "We're not trying to win the Blue-White Game. We're trying to win today's practice. The more good days we put together, the Saturdays will take care of themselves." ■ it," he said. "It's really bene7tted the recruits themselves, because they have so many opportunities to reach out to us through Facebook and Twitter and YouTube, to get their exposure on a national level. Al- though it's changing, it's our job to keep up with it and be at the fore- front of social media." Gattis played safety at Wake For- est, starting for three seasons, to- taling 12 career interceptions and twice winning All-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition. But since breaking into coaching after two seasons with the Chicago Bears, he's been on the offensive side of the ball. He said his experience cov- ering wideouts has helped him to coach them better. "You develop an appreciation for the position because all you do is study 7lm of wide receivers, you watch 7lm of them, you go up against them, so you understand the little details that it takes to attack coverage, to beat defenders," he said. "So not only are they able to learn techniques and fundamentals, but now we're able to go deeper into the game of football and teach them how to read coverages, how to attack de- fenders. I teach them from the mind- set of a defender, and then I give them their tools necessary to beat that guy, which gives them unlimited abilities on the 7eld." His approach has certainly gotten results. While coaching the wideouts at Western Michigan in 2011 – his 7rst full-time coaching assignment a:er a year as a graduate assistant at North Carolina – Gattis helped Jor- dan White win All-America honors. White led the nation that year with an astounding total of 140 catches for 1,911 yards. It was the most pro- ductive season by a wideout in Mid- American Conference history, and it helped propel Gattis to Vanderbilt, where he helped develop Jordan Matthews into a two-time All- American and the Southeastern Conference's career leader in recep- tions (262) and receiving yards (3,759). At Penn State, Gattis has inherited a wideout corps that is in transition following the departure of two-time Big Ten Receiver of the Year Allen Robinson. The Nittany Lions will al- most certainly need some of their young wideouts to step up, including a few of the prospects whom Gattis recruited over the winter, such as Blacknall and Delaware native Chris Godwin. Gattis said he and his fellow coaches see recruiting as a big part of the foundation of what they are trying to build at Penn State. So no matter how many connecting 8ights and hotel stays and trips to the rental car counter their work en- tails, they're prepared to do what it takes. "We're excited to be here," he said. "We're excited to be at this presti- gious school, this university, and to represent this program. And it does- n't matter how tired we are, we're going to continue to build this pro- gram through recruiting." J osh Gattis was born too soon. Back in the early 2000s, when the Durham, N.C., native was trying to attract the attention of college coaches, there were no Rivals camps to attend, and the network of re- cruiting-speci7c websites that to- day's recruits take for granted was still in its infancy. He ended up com- mitting to Wake Forest, and just like the process that led up to it, his sign- ing was comparatively low-key. "Signing day for me was just: sign the papers, turn them in. No one knew about it," he recalled. "Social media wasn't big then, or the web- sites. You still put the tape in and watched the video. There was no YouTube. It's changed over the years." Has it ever. The proliferation of re- cruiting websites during the past decade has made it much easier for players to garner attention, and coaches rejoice each February when those letters of intent scroll o9 the fax machine. Penn State used to be known for its restraint on signing day, but this year's event had a much more cele- bratory tone. That was primarily because new coach James Franklin wanted to pull out all the stops, but it was also because his staff ensured that the team would have some- thing to celebrate. Gattis played a key role in assembling a class that would go on to finish 24th in Rivals' national rankings, helping the Nit- tany Lions hold onto most of the players who had committed to Bill O'Brien and his assistants, while also making some key additions, such as New Jersey receiver Saeed Blacknall. A:er he was hired away from Van- derbilt, Franklin brought in Gattis to serve as o9ensive recruiting coordi- nator and wide receivers coach, a dual role he had played the previous two seasons with the Commodores. As soon as he learned he was leaving Nashville, Gattis packed two suitcas- es full of clothes and checked into a State College hotel. Not long a:er arriving in town, he was back on the road recruiting. His travels took him all over the country, and although he'd been on the job for nearly a month when signing day arrived on Feb. 5, he estimated that he'd only spent 7ve or six days in State Col- lege. Those 7ve or six days were spent escorting prospects around a campus that he barely knew himself. Said Gattis, "We were arriving in town with recruits and leaving town with recruits." As co-recruiting coordinator (fel- low assistant Terry Smith oversees the recruitment of defensive play- ers), Gattis is charged with ensuring that Penn State remains on the cut- ting edge of trends in one of the most vital facets of the game. What that means, essentially, is that the players he recruits will not have the kind of muted welcome that he re- ceived when he was in their place years ago. "Social media has really changed | SIGN OF THE TIMES Josh Gattis aims to keep Penn State in the nation's vanguard in recruiting S P R I N G F O O T B A L L R E P O R T JOSH GATTIS RECEIVERS COACH/OFFENSIVE RECRUITING COORDINATOR "We're excited to be here. We're excited to be at this prestigious school and to represent this program. ... We're going to build this program through recruiting." Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics

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