Blue White Illustrated

F ifteen of the top prospects in the Class of 2015, including 10 Rivals.com four-stars and five three-stars, had made verbal commit- ments to Penn State as of late May. Among Football Bowl Subdivision programs, this was tops in terms of quantity. And, save for Alabama, which had Rivals' No. 1 class, Penn State had the second-best combina- tion of quantity and quality in the country. This is not normal. Not at Penn State, anyway, where the team's past recruiting efforts tended to proceed at a more measured pace. Under Joe Paterno, the Nittany Lions typically would rack up commitments throughout the summer months and into the football season. When Bill O'Brien took over, the team adhered to a similar timetable, although it must be noted that the NCAA's unprece- dented sanctions affected its recruit- ing philosophy dramatically. But after decades in which everything followed a fairly predictable pattern, things changed this year with James Franklin's arrival. Beginning with the Class of 2014, which was incomplete when he took over the program in Janu- ary, Franklin began recruiting with a fierce sense of urgency, and he hasn't let up in the months since signing day. With his success, he has delivered a message to Nittany Lion fans and the media covering the program. In essence: Get used to it. Emphasizing his belief that Penn State should be among the top 15 pro- grams in the country, Franklin sees the team's recent recruiting success as a positive, no doubt. But in order to make the leap he envisions, the Lions will need to experience this kind of early success annually. After all, that's what the nation's best teams are doing. "I would say there will be a pretty good foundation this time of year, every year," Franklin told reporters during a Coaches Caravan stop. "If you look around the country, the pro- grams that finish in the Top 25, top 10, typically they're going to have a good amount of commitments by summer. They'll get a few more commitments over the summer and then they'll have a few spots left during the season. That's how we would typically do it as well." Recruiting analysts have estimated that Penn State has roughly 20 schol- arships available for the Class of 2015, although more may become available should there be any attrition in the months to come. Because he and his staff have only been at Penn State for about five months, Franklin feels they are still playing catch-up as they look ahead – not only to 2015 but to 2016 and '17. "We're behind right now in recruit- ing," he said. "I know that sounds crazy, but we're behind. Typically, you're recruiting two classes at the same time, so now we're going to be able to get a head start on the next class as well. We're starting to develop relationships on top of that for the fol- lowing year." The Lions recently saw verbally committed linebacker Josh Barajas de- fect to Notre Dame, but Franklin has said he doesn't think the staff will be forced to spend precious man-hours "babysitting" a class of already-com- mitted prospects. Also, he said, with the Class of 2015 filling up, he and his staff will be looking to transition to the future sooner rather than later. As Franklin's grip on the Penn State program becomes stronger and even more assured, his strategy for recruit- ing success will eventually be boiled down to one word: Normal. ■ Early success points way to PSU's future the fans and I saw Coach O'Brien talking to all the [reporters] and all the people all around who were talking about the program. It was just a really good envi- ronment and I was just really excited. It was at that point when Penn State be- came really big to me. One of the coaches you've men- tioned quite a bit is Herb Hand. Tell us about that relationship and how it evolved. He o9ered me at Vanderbilt. Even then I thought he was a good guy. I didn't re- ally have interest in Vanderbilt, but I thought, OK this guy is nice, but I went about my business. But when he came to Penn State and he had the same mes- sage, that to me is a really rare thing and it shows me de8nitely about how honest he is how he feels about me. Having that opportunity to be o9ered twice, in a dif- ferent situation that they were in, it shows me that it's not just a recruiting spiel. It's real, and I can count on this guy through thick and thin. Coach James Franklin – I didn't know who he was when he got hired. My coach told me it was a big score for Penn State, so I was like, OK, I want to meet this guy. A week later, he came to my school and I was like, Whoa. I was taken aback be- cause there had never been a head coach in my school before. I noticed how he re- cruited you. I got a nice taste of that the 8rst time I met him and how aggressive, you could say, he is with his recruiting. I started doing more research and doing more homework and getting up there and seeing what they have to o9er. I can really see what they want to do. You've gotten pretty close with some of the other guys in the Class of 2015. Did those relationships help with this decision? The fact that I knew them before was really a bonus and I was really thankful for how open and friendly they were with me. It just added to what I was al- ready looking for. But I didn't think I had to go there because of those commits, or all the hype surrounding them. I just think it was a really good bonus. ■

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