Blue White Illustrated

108th-best prospect by Rivals.com, he has been very proactive in helping the sta5 recruit. In fact, one of his closest friends, defensive end Jonathan Holland of Potomac, was expected to visit Penn State on the weekend of May 2-3. Naturally, McLean made sure he was available to join Holland on that visit. "When I told him I was going up [to Penn State], Adam was like 'All right, I'm de4nitely coming with you. I've got to be with you for this one,' " Holland said on April 23. "So that was cool. He's been talking about Penn State nonstop. He's got me excited now." In addition to Holland, Penn State is expected to host Pittsburgh o5ensive line- man Sterling Jenkins on May 5. It will be Jenkins' fourth visit to University Park since February. Ever since narrowing his options down to Penn State and Ohio State, Jenkins has made it clear that the upcoming visit is mainly about getting his parents on cam- pus. That revelation led many Penn State fans to speculate that a commitment could be forthcoming, but Jenkins has been non- Coaching staff likely to face some difficult decisions W ith Penn State having already filled up about half of its scholar- ship allotment for the 2015 re- cruiting class, it appears that James Franklin may have an interesting deci- sion to make, one that will certainly get the attention of Nittany Lion fans. While the exact numbers won't be clear until after the 2014 season, when it's known how many players are either transferring or opting not to come back for their fifth year, it currently looks as if Penn State will be able to take only about 20 scholarship athletes. And that figure assumes that three of the recruits enroll early. As of this writing, Penn State had amassed 12 verbal commitments, mean- ing that it needs three of its next eight commitments to enroll in January, or it needs to convince a few of the currently committed prospects to pass up prom and graduation and instead enroll for the spring semester. I could envision the Lions using a combination of those two approaches. If the staff isn't able to convince any of the currently committed players to enroll early, that will drastically reduce the size of the net that it casts. That's something Penn State absolutely wants to avoid, so for now, I'm looking for guys like defensive back Jarvis Miller and wide receiver Brandon Polk to poten- tially start their college careers early. However, that's not the tough decision I'm talking about. When you look at the momentum they have built so far, Franklin and his assistants will at some point have to decide whether they would be willing to trim their current roster to make room for a recruit. For many years, the Nittany Lion faithful considered it a point of pride that Joe Paterno and his staff never took away someone's opportunity to earn an education, no matter how lim- ited that player may have been on the field. But this is a new era. With many of the nation's elite programs routinely cutting players, particularly in the Southeastern Conference, where the rules governing over-signing are less stringent, it's an open question as to whether Penn State can afford to maintain its longstanding approach while at the same time aspiring to compete at the game's highest level. The hard reality is that the Nittany Li- ons have a few players who either haven't lived up to expectations or who were recruited at a time when the pro- gram was hobbled by the Sandusky scandal and the subsequent sanctions and was not in a position to sign the kind of prospects it wanted. These players probably won't see much playing time over the course of their careers, so it's only natural to wonder whether Penn State would be willing to play the kind of hardball that its rivals are playing. My gut instinct is that Franklin wouldn't do anything that would cause a stir with fans this early in his tenure. But at the same time, he is going to be faced with higher expectations than his predecessor, Bill O'Brien, now that the sanctions are starting to abate and the program is going to be able to recruit on an equal footing with its rivals. It bears mentioning that O'Brien did some aggressive roster management of his own. A year ago, he gave quarterback Steven Bench a frank appraisal of where he stood coming out of spring practice, and that conversation ultimately led to Bench's transfer. Maybe we'll hear about more of those heart-to-hearts in the coming months. If anything, the Lions' needs are even greater now than they were when O'Brien took over. The difference is that the team is better equipped to fill its needs than ever before. ■

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