Blue White Illustrated

| Lions land three in busy May Four-star lineman Menet headlines recent wave of commitments F O O T B A L L R E C R U I T I N G T he Penn State coaching sta6 recently enjoyed its most successful month yet in its pursuit of the Nittany Lions' next recruiting class. May is usually a busy month when it comes to extending scholarship o6ers, as the sta6 spends four consecutive weeks on the road during the spring evaluation period. There aren't a lot of May com- mitments most years, but that certainly wasn't the case in 2015, as three prospects announced for Penn State in recent weeks. The most notable member of that trio was four-star o6ensive lineman Michal Menet of Reading, Pa. Menet, who stands 6-foot-5, 268 pounds, had been at the top of the sta6's recruiting board from the day James Franklin and his assistants stepped on campus. In fact, the initial contact had been made by Franklin's predecessor, Bill O'Brien. Within 48 hours of Franklin's in- troductory news conference in January 2014, he made it clear to Menet that not only was O'Brien's o6er still valid, but that the new sta6 was going to recruit him harder than anyone else. That proved to be true. "Oh man, they were so aggressive," Menet said following his announcement on May 29. "I think Franklin started con- tacting me and my coach a day or two a7er he got the job. I think they reached out to me on Twitter almost every day since. I'm not big on calling coaches every night, but I still talked to them probably once a week, or at least once every two weeks over the past year. It just really showed me how important I was to them. They recruited me so hard. It showed me how much I really meant to them." Menet, who attends Exeter Township Senior High School, earned more than 30 scholarship o6ers over the past year. He had arguably the most impressive o6er sheet of any 2016 prospect in Pennsylvania, as Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Stanford and UCLA all extended o6ers. In the end, it came down to the Nittany Lions and Duke. As is the case with the majority of the prospects Penn State pursues, aca- CLASS OF 2016 COMMITMENTS* NAME POS HT WT RANKING HOME SCHOOL Danny Dalton TE 6-5 230 ★★★ Marshfield, Mass. Marshfield Alex Gellerstedt OL 6-7 275 ★★★ Dublin, Ohio Coffman Lavert Hill DB 5-10 166 ★★★★ Detroit, Mich. Martin Luther King Connor McGovern OL 6-5 290 ★★★★ Lehman, Pa. Lake Lehman Senior Zechariah McPhearson CB 6-0 180 ★★★ Upper Marlboro, Md. Riverdale Baptist Michal Menet OL 6-5 268 ★★★★ Reading, Pa. Exeter Township Senior Miles Sanders RB 5-11 192 ★★★★ Pittsburgh, Pa. Woodland Hills Shane Simmons DE 6-3 224 ★★★★ Hyattsville, Md. DeMatha Jake Zembiec QB 6-2 205 ★★★★ Rochester, N.Y. Aquinas Institute * As of May 31 DECISION TIME Menet pos- es with his parents af- ter his an- nounce- ment that he will at- tend Penn State. Pho- to by Tim Owen

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