Penn State Sports Magazine
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Top prospects on hand for game R Y A N S N Y D E R | B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D Penn State's first big recruiting week- end of the season saw a host of the re- gion's top Class of 2015 and '16 prospects make their way to University Park. While the total prospect attendance wasn't as big as last week's game against Massachusetts, it's clear that the staff put an emphasis on hosting bona fide scholarship-worthy prospects at Satur- day's homecoming clash against the Wildcats. The most notable name in town was Class of 2015 four-star cornerback Jordan Whitehead, who plays at Central Valley High School in Monaca, Pa. A@er taking official visits to Pittsburgh, Ohio State and West Virginia throughout the first month of the season, Whitehead's visit to Penn State this weekend will be his final official of the year, as he's ex- pected to make a decision next Friday, Oct. 3. Unlike the majority of prospects who are a week away from their decision, where Whitehead ultimately ends up is still very hard to call. In the past month, all four of his favorite schools have been rumored to be the leader. Meanwhile, Whitehead himself has kept quiet when it comes to speaking with the media, so this is truly a situation in which nothing would surprise us next Friday. All four schools appear to still be in play. The most interesting Class of 2016 prospect to note is someone you all should recognize, as five-star defensive end/linebacker RahShaun Smith, from St. Frances in Baltimore, was back in University Park again this weekend. As we noted in last weekend's postgame newsletter, Smith was in attendance for the UMass game as well. It's not o@en that you see a five-star prospect come to the same school two weeks in a row, making Smith someone we'll be watch- ing closely throughout the next two months. Smith is expected to be back in town for the Ohio State game Oct. 25, so it's beginning to look as if the Nittany Lions will be a real player here. Another elite 2016 prospect to remem- ber is Rochester, N.Y., quarterback Jake Zembiec. The staff is currently focused on two quarterbacks for next year's class, the other being Brandon McIlwain, New- town, Pa., who we highlighted last week- end a@er his visit for the UMass game. That said, Zembiec is the one we believe the staff would prefer, and we think there's an excellent chance that he ends up committing to the Nittany Lions sometime between December and next spring. A@er picking up 15 total verbal scholarship offers in the past six months, Michigan State and Oklahoma State are shaping up to be Penn State's top com- petitors. The coaching staff also hosted two of the top prospects in Washington, D.C. Along with high school teammate and future Nittany Lion defensive back Ayron Monroe, tight end Devante Brooks and defensive end Terrell Hall made the trip on Saturday. The St. John's College High prospects were in town over the summer for camp. That ended up being a wise de- cision by Hall, as he officially picked up a verbal scholarship offer from the coach- ing staff earlier in the week. As for Brooks, he's yet to pick up an offer from the Penn State staff, but we do believe that will come with time. So far, the four-star has earned 11 verbal schol- arship offers, all of which came in the early summer or before. In July, Brooks traveled to Ohio State with hopes of picking up an offer from the Buckeyes, but ended up tearing his le@ anterior cruciate ligament. Since the injury, of- fensive coordinator John Donovan, who also coaches tight ends, has remained in contact with Brooks on almost a weekly basis, so we do believe the staff will offer once they're confident that Brooks will make a complete recovery from his knee injury. G A M E G R A D E S R E C R U I T I N G QUARTERBACKS Christian Hackenberg struggled early, even on short passes, and did not improve as the game went on. Sure, there were a few impressive throws, as always, but his back-to-back pick-six and fumble to open the fourth quarter killed any comeback chance PSU might have had. GRADE C RUNNING BACKS In the first half, Bill Belton, Zach Zwinak and Akeel Lynch combined for only 3 yards on seven carries. They finished the game with only 35. GRADE D RECEIVERS DaeSean Hamilton pulled in a deep ball with an incredible effort in the second quarter. Otherwise, his position-mates had a couple drops when Hackenberg absolutely needed any help he could get. GRADE B- OFFENSIVE LINE Hackenberg was the leading rusher at halftime because he was forced to avoid pressure almost every time he dropped back to pass. That's not the for- mula for success. Blocking your own teammate on fourth down isn't, either. GRADE D DEFENSIVE LINE Northwestern's offensive line neutralized this unit initially, but it kept plugging away and made an impact in the second half. GRADE B+ LINEBACKERS This unit was down to begin with as Nyeem Wartman was held out due to injury. They were a little over- matched in Northwestern's quick pass- ing game, but Mike Hull led the team with 16 tackles. GRADE B- DEFENSIVE BACKS Penn State gave up 150 passing yards in the first quarter alone. The DBs buckled down afterward, but the damage was already done. GRADE B- SPECIAL TEAMS The punts were erratic. Re- turn coverage was sloppy, and Sam Ficken had his first field goal attempt blocked. There certainly have been bet- ter days for this unit. GRADE C COACHES They tried a few different com- binations in hope of getting the run game going but nothing worked. The defense made some adjustments after a lousy first quarter, but the offense never caught up. GRADE C CROWD The 102,910 in attendance gave it everything they had. Today, however, no amount of crowd noise was going to help. GRADE A S E P T E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 6