Blue White Illustrated

Caldwell departs after three decades on support staff After 31 years as a fixture on Penn State's sideline, Brad "Spider" Cald- well retired from the university in May. A member of the Penn State foot- ball equipment staff since 1986, Caldwell and his wife, Karen, are re- locating to their vacation home in Vermont, where he will work as ac- tivities director for Fair Haven Union High School. Caldwell will begin his new position on July 1. The Nittany Lions' equipment and facilities coordinator, Caldwell began his association with the football pro- gram in 1983 as a student manager af- ter spending his freshman year at Penn State-DuBois near his hometown of Curwensville, Pa. He was on the side- line for 379 games during his three decades on the Nittany Lions' staff. "Words cannot begin to express the gratitude I have towards Penn State for all the opportunities it has given me through the years," Caldwell said. "The 'Penn State family,' from all the lettermen, coaching staffs, managers, countless alumni and fans, is what makes Penn State such a special place." ■ Coaches view fan support as recruiting asset James Franklin is a Pennsylvania native with experience recruiting in nearby states, which means Penn State appears to be well-positioned as it prepares to do battle with its newest Big Ten rivals, Maryland and Rutgers, for the top talent in the Northeast. Franklin said he's looking to re-establish the regional dominance that Penn State enjoyed dur- ing the program's peak years under Joe Paterno. "That area and that region was tapped in when Penn State was rolling. So, his- torically, I grew up watching that," he said. "Not only did I grow up watching that as a student and as a player growing up in this state, but also professionally. When I tried to recruit against Penn State [as a member of Maryland's staff], it was difficult." Franklin said that the high level of in- terest in Penn State's program sets it apart from its regional rivals. "We had 72,000 people show up to essentially a practice, the spring game [this past April]," he said. "I think we were second in the country. That differentiates us, and I think that's one of the things that's so unique and so different about Penn State. There's no doubt we're embracing it." But the Nittany Lions won't be fo- cused solely on the Northeast. They are also eager to make inroads in areas that have traditionally been dominated by Southeastern Conference programs. To that end, Franklin and his staff are plan- ning to work football camps at two Southern schools in June. They will be at Georgia State conducting sessions as part of the Trent Miles Football Camp, then will travel to Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., for the Hatter Prospect Camp. Franklin said he and his assistants are looking to focus on regions with a high concentration of scholarship-worthy prospects. "If you drive an hour in either direc- tion, how many Division I players are you going to see? Going to places like Florida and Texas and Georgia or Cali- fornia and places like that, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck," he said. "The hard part [is that] you're al- ways going to do your best job recruiting in your footprint, so six hours from campus, those kids [are the ones] we're going to have the best opportunity to develop relationships with. We're going to know those kids the best." Franklin said he and his assistant coaches and support staffers analyze re- cruiting trends to determine, for exam- ple, which areas are producing the most Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship recipients. It's well known that Texas, California and Florida are the nation's richest talent hotbeds, but by putting an emphasis on finding the best players – even the All-America types who end up at Football Championship Subdivision schools – the program has an opportu- nity to be extremely successful. To illustrate the importance of recruit- ing, Franklin pointed out that college football coaches have an advantage over their National Football League counter- parts in that they have fewer constraints when it comes to shaping their roster. "Someone said to me a long time ago and I thought it was a great point: You coach in the NFL, you get one first- round draft choice a year. But if you're a college football coach, you can go out and get as many first-round draft choic- es as you want every year. You sign 25 of them," he said. "It's basically, how are you going to evaluate prospects, how hard are you going to recruit, and are you going to be able to close the deal? So that's something that we're committed to doing. Good players help, and we're excited about it. But we still have a long way to go." BACK TO WORK Franklin confirmed that "pretty much the whole team" ar- rived back on campus May 18 to begin studying film and performing strength and conditioning work. He said the Nit- tany Lions' goal is not simply to put in hours but to use their time as produc- tively as possible. "Everybody in the country is working hard," he said. "What are we doing to differentiate ourselves? Are we working smarter? Are we working better? Are we working with a purpose? Are we coming out there every single day to work with a purpose to get better individually and collectively as a program? Because everyone is working hard. Working hard is not good enough. That's the minimum of what we're supposed to do. What are you going to do more than the programs that ultimately we're trying to compete with?" The rules governing summer workouts are different this year, thanks to a series of changes that the NCAA instituted last October. The changes allow teams to hold mandatory workouts during an eight-week period, and coaches are per- mitted to oversee those workouts. In previous years, only members of the strength and conditioning staff were al- lowed to interact with the players during the summer. Franklin said the new rules will help him get to know players better heading into his first preseason camp. "They're around so much more," he said. "They're making the commitment on their own to come in and watch film and talk football. I think you get a really good feel and a really good sense of it." ROSTER MANAGEMENT Franklin took a hard look at his team following spring practice and began making deci- sions about which players will be on hand when preseason practice opens. The NCAA allows teams to carry 105 players in preseason camp. Penn State had 95 players on its roster as of late May, including five members of the 2014 recruiting class. Twenty additional re- cruits are arriving this summer, along with a number of invited walk-ons. That means a yet-to-be-determined number of players won't be able to join the team until the fall semester begins. While the C A R A V A N N O T E B O O K B Y N A T E B A U E R , T I M O W E N & M A T T H E R B Shane Conlan, the lightly recruited prospect who went on to become a two- time All-America linebacker and one of the stars of Penn State's second national cham- pionship team, was elected in May to the National Football Foundation College Foot- ball Hall of Fame. The 18th Penn State play- er to receive college football's highest indi- vidual honor, Conlan saluted two of his for- mer coaches, Joe Paterno and Tom Bradley, in an emotional acceptance speech. "It's been a tough time the last few years at Penn State," he said. "So most of all I want to thank two people that are most im- portant to me in my life, one being the late, great Joe Paterno. Thank you so much for all you've done. We miss you, Coach. And my defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, who found me at a very small school. I had no of- fers except for one, Penn State, and he went to bat for me." Conlan, a native of Frewsburg, N.Y., de- scribed himself recently as a "zero-star re- cruit," adding that Penn State was the only school at any level of college football that wanted him. He went on to become an in- strumental part of a defense that lifted the Nittany Lions to a 23-1 record in the 1985 and '86 seasons and twice played for the national championship. As a senior co-captain in 1986, he led Penn State to a 14-10 win over No. 1 Mi- ami in the Fiesta Bowl to capture the team's second national crown in five sea- sons. He had eight tackles and two inter- ceptions in that game, the second of which he returned 38 yards to set up D.J. Dozier's winning touchdown in the fourth quarter. Athletic director Dave Joyner called Con- lan "one of the greatest linebackers in our long and outstanding Linebacker U her- itage." Conlan, who ranks seventh in Penn State history with 274 career tackles, lives in Sewickley, Pa., with his wife and four children and works in the front office of the Arena Football League's Pittsburgh Power. He will be inducted with 15 other members of the Class of 2014 on Dec. 9 in New York. F O O T B A L L Conlan elected to College Football Hall of Fame Penn State Athletic Communications SPIDER CALDWELL Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications F O O T B A L L

• Cover