Blue White Illustrated

P L A Y E R B I O S Oensive line is strength of Nittany Lions' class W hen you looked back at Penn State's 2015 recruiting class, it wasn't diffi- cult to figure out where the four offen- sive linemen were ultimately going to end up. At 6-foot-8, it was clear that Sterling Jenkins was going to play tackle, and it was just as clear that the 6-4 Ryan Bates was ideal for guard. But this year's offensive line prospects – Will Fries, Alex Gellerstedt, Connor McGovern and Michal Menet – are all within two inches of each other. Geller- stedt and Fries are the tallest at 6-6. McGovern is 6-5, with Menet at 6-4. When listening to James Franklin, it was pretty clear, to me at least, that he and his staff are really embracing this. "Everybody has [Fries] slated as an of- fensive tackle, and we do as well," he said. "But if you look, he played a lot of guard in high school, he's a big, physical guy. Menet's a guy who I think has the athletic ability to play tackle, has the in- telligence to play center, has the power to play guard. I'd say the same thing for McGovern. Typically, centers are centers only or they're centers and swing guys to guard. But I would not [rule out] Mc- Govern [playing] tackle for us as well. Gellerstedt is the one guy, at this point in his career, who is probably a true pro- totype tackle." Whether they designed it this way or not, mixing and matching these four players could make a real difference quickly. While last year's class was good, I think it's pretty clear that the staff just brought in its best group of offensive linemen. Both McGovern and Menet have already proven themselves against the best, while Fries was one of the first offensive linemen to land an offer from the staff this cycle. As for Gellerstedt, he attended camps at PSU during the past two summers. In fact, he camped at Penn State twice this past summer, so the staff knows more about him than anyone else. After all the ups and downs of the past few months, it's important to remember just how good this group of linemen re- ally is. If you had asked Penn State fans at the start of this recruiting cycle to name the team's biggest need, there's no doubt which position group they would have cited. As it turned out, that posi- tion group was the staff's biggest suc- cess. Give credit where credit is due. From listening to Franklin, I also learned that PSU is going to have a ter- rific battle between those four players in the near future. Competition brings out the best, and that's exactly what Penn State really needs. The absence of any real competition on the offensive line was arguably the team's biggest issue the past two seasons. Early signing period? When asked if he would be in favor of an early signing period, here's what Franklin had to say: "Yes, yes. Yes, I would. I would love an early signing pe- riod. I'll answer that question as quick as possible. Yeah, I do. I think an early signing period would make sense. And I think you could put something on there so that if there was a change at the head coaching position, that would [nullify a player's letter of intent] at that point." Franklin went on to add, "I probably have a little different opinion on this. I think the early signing period should be for the kids who wanted to go to Penn State their whole life and don't really want to go anywhere, so let's get those guys locked up. They don't want to go on any other visits or do any of those things. This is just the school they wanted to go to. So why not get those guys locked up? At each state and each school, there are kids like that. That actually helps the schools that are maybe wasting their time recruiting a kid, as well. So I do think it makes a lot of sense." I don't think I could have said this any better myself. I've tried to make this point in the Li- A N A L Y S I S B Y R Y A N S N Y D E R FUTURE TEAMMATES Menet (left) goes up against Shaka Toney during a sum- mer camp com- petition. Photo courtesy of Ri- vals.com

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