Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/590325
I n the ultra-competitive world of Divi- sion I recruiting, coaches tend to make promises to players and their families when they're in a dog.ght to sign some- one they really want. That might mean guaranteeing that the entire coaching sta/ will be intact throughout a player's career or assuring a recruit that he will be accepted into a speci.c internship program. Whatever the speci.cs, there are many examples of coaches trying to seal the deal by making a pledge of some sort. The prob- lem is, when you're dealing with 85 elite high school athletes, all of whom believe they're the next big thing, it's sometimes tough to deliver on all those guarantees. Actually, it's next to impossible. At Penn State, it's still too early to judge how o0en James Franklin and his sta/ use this approach, but there was one major talking point that was em- phasized to basically all 50 of the prospects in the past two classes who ul- timately ended up signing their letter of intent. I'm talking about early playing time. All it takes is a glance at the Q&A's and updates that we've published during the past year to see how hard this sta/ has been pushing early playing time. With the impact of the NCAA sanctions still being felt – that will probably be the case next year, too – this approach was always a win-win for the sta/. But it's one thing to talk about it in a recruit's living room. It's another thing to really follow through on the .eld. In the first half of the season, corner- back John Reid, wide receiver Brandon Polk and running back Saquon Barkley were the obvious examples of this plan. But when you take a closer look, there have been 20 first- or second-year players who have regularly contributed on both offense and defense this sea- son. That number is even higher when you include special teams and a few in- juries. Joe Paterno once said that for every freshman you play, that's one game you're going to lose that season. In his prime, that was probably true. But in to- day's game, it's been proven that the ex- perience that players gain early in their careers pays o/ in the end. A few years from now, fans should see the results on the .eld. But don't forget how good this looks to Penn State's cur- rent recruits. I can guarantee you that the coaches will remind all of their top targets plenty of times before they end up signing a letter of intent. ■ Early playing time is a draw for PSU