Blue White Illustrated

Signing Day Newsletter

Penn State Sports Magazine

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NATE  BAUER | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M F E B R U A R Y 5 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 the athleticism and the size and the fit that we were able to attract. You look at ending the season with a really dramatic bowl win in New York City in front of basically a home crowd. You look at get- ting scholarships back [following the NCAA's discontinuation of its sanc- tions]. You look at being able to go to a bowl. You look at all the wonderful things that are going on here at Penn State." With that, the Nittany Lions will con- tinue down a path that rarely slows down, let alone ever stops. With eight linemen – both offensive and defensive – in this year's class, Franklin noted that the Nittany Lions need to think long-term as they work to address their weakest points. The goal is to build a program that will include not only top-end starters, but high-caliber backups as well, second- and third- teamers who will push the starters in practice. Franklin said this year's class will play a part in developing the kind of across-the-board depth that the coaches covet. "I love the guys that we got," he said. "I love the class that we put together, but we're never going to be satisfied. "I told these guys, we're going to go out and recruit a class next year of guys to come in and take their jobs. That's the mentality. They're going to be sick enough to help us go recruit. [Robert] Windsor is going to be sick enough to help us go recruit the top two defensive tackles in the country to take his job next year. And he understands that's just going to bring out the best in him, creat- ing the most competitive environment in the country that we possible can. "Our O-line, D-line, you don't solve that overnight," Franklin continued. "We made progress there, but we're still behind in terms of depth. We were the second-youngest team in America last year, and we're not going to be the most veteran team next year. We got a bunch of true freshmen who will be redshirt freshmen. We had a bunch guys who played as freshmen who will now be sophomores. So we'll be a young team on the O-line and D-line, and that's going to be a challenge. That's going to still need to be an emphasis for us next year." According to NCAA statistics, nearly 1.1 million high school stu- dents play football each season. Of those, roughly 70,000 will go on to play at the college level across all three divisions, and fewer than 11,000 will be on scholarship each year at FBS schools. From there, 254 will be selected in the NFL DraB each spring. In breaking down the numbers, only 6.5 percent of high school players will ever play college ball, and 0.08 per- cent of those players will eventually make it to the professional level. All of this helps explain why signing day has become such an absurd, de- lightful and purely American specta- cle. To borrow a popular Internet meme, "So you're telling me there's a chance?" The odds that any one player will reach the pinnacle of the sport are vanishingly small, yet sky-high am- bitions are at the core of this annual event. They're the fuel that keeps every recruit, parent, coach and fan energized as the path forward un- folds. Wednesday morning at the Lasch Building, James Franklin and his staff celebrated signing day alongside members of the athletic department, university community and media corps, with players and their families joining the festivities via video con- ferencing. It was a moment to salute the achievement of the players, who had already beaten the odds simply by ac- cepting scholarship offers from a major-college football program. It was also a moment to look forward with gleeful optimism. One of the beauties of signing day is that it serves as both an ending and a begin- ning. Could these 25 players (plus one graduate transfer) be the difference- makers Penn State needs as it looks to improve upon its 7-6 showing last season? Could these 25 players, 12 of whom hail from Pennsylvania high schools, help transform Penn State into the only real destination for in-state tal- ent in future years? Could these 25 players set in motion the wheels that will turn the program into an eventual title-winner? No one knows. A series of local luminaries, from legendary radio play-by-play man Fran Fisher to wrestling coach Cael Sanderson to women's soccer coach Erica Walsh to men's ice hockey coach Guy Gadowsky, formally intro- duced the newest Nittany Lions on signing day. As the coaches and other dignitaries read those names, past, present and future all seemed to intersect. The accomplishments of the people in that room seemed to take on a tangi- ble quality, bumping up against the future accomplishments of young men whose aspirations are to some- day join the pantheon of Penn State greats. After a brief respite, the rest of the day featured more celebration, first in an afternoon news conference with Franklin and staff members Terry Smith, Josh Gattis and Andy Frank, and then with continuation of a new tradition, the "Signature Event," in which Franklin gathers with fans to introduce the new play- ers. Soon, the fanfare will die down and the hard work will begin as the newest Nittany Lions pursue their goals. For this one day, however, none of that matters. There's a chance. Hopes are high as newest Nittany Lions look ahead

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