Blue White Illustrated

D ecember and January tend to be fairly slow months in the recruiting cal- endar because of the NCAA-man- dated dead period, which this year lasted a full month, from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15. During that time, prospects and coaches are al- lowed to have contact over the phone and via social media, but on- and o:-campus visits are prohibited. Because of the slowdown, the two weeks leading up to the dead period and the two weeks that follow tend to be hectic for coaches and players alike. At Penn State, head coach James Franklin and his assistants squeezed in as many in-school and in-home visits as possible during the first two weeks of December. Although it isn't known ex- actly how many visits they made, they were in more than 80 schools during a 10-day span, checking up on not only their top remaining Class of 2015 prospects and committed players, but also their top targets in the Class of 2016. In addition, the staff made roughly 10 in-home visits. Most of those stops were to see players who had already committed, while the rest went to seniors who had yet to make their decisions. The sta: was also busy identifying po- tential transfers following their respective bowl games. Penn State has interest in linebacker E.J. Levenberry, a Florida State sophomore who is from Woodbridge, Va., and safety D'Andre Payne, a Tennessee sophomore from Washington, D.C. But much of the focus has been on the o:ensive line. As of Jan. 17, two centers had emerged as serious contenders: Cory Helms, formerly of Wake Forest, and Kevin Reihner, formerly of Stanford. Helms appears to be the sta:'s top target. A native of Alpharetta, Ga., he won fresh- man All-America honors with the Demon Deacons in 2013 and picked up an o:er from Penn State only days a;er declaring that he intended to transfer. He has also earned o:ers from Texas A&M and South Carolina. Helms was scheduled to visit Texas A&M Jan. 16-18 and South Carolina Jan. 23-25. His trip to Penn State is set for Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Helms is expected to enroll at his new school in the summer and will be required to sit out a season. He still has a redshirt available and will have junior eligibility when he returns to the 9eld in 2016. The sta: is also monitoring Reihner. Originally from Scranton, Pa., he committed to Colorado out of high school before trans- | Lions prepare for homestretch PSU looking to bolster Class of 2015 in weeks leading up to signing day F O O T B A L L R E C R U I T I N G TOP PROSPECT Petrishen is one of several players the Li- ons have been pursuing in January. Photo by Tim Owen

• Cover