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LAST WORD N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M enn State receivers coach Josh Gat- tis wears a close-crop haircut. At practice or during games, it's often hidden under a baseball cap. But Gattis, all of 32 years old, does in fact still own a full head of hair. None of which is meant to suggest a personal fascination with what sits atop the Nittany Lion wideout coach's head. Rather, Gattis' follicle fortune – espe- cially compared to some of his coaching colleagues on James Franklin's staff – is a remarkable achievement that belies the stressful nature of his work. And that's not even considering wins and losses on the field. Hours after securing the 16th and final faxed national letter of intent from Penn State's Class of 2016 recruiting haul, Gattis spoke with the nerve and enthu- siasm of a man who'd won the lottery minutes after avoiding getting hit by a bus. "There are highs and lows in recruit- ing. There are ups and downs. There's no coach who won't tell you that. It's fun and exciting, but it is stressful," Gattis said, his face relaying every ounce of the day's weight. "There aren't many coaches who sleep well the night before signing day. I don't care what kind of class you have, because you can never really count a kid in until you get that letter of intent." Given the pressures that are an un- avoidable part of his job as Penn State's recruiting coordinator for the offensive side of the ball, Gattis's mood seemed more than warranted. In a recruiting year that saw the pro- gram lose six verbally committed prospects to other schools, including a handful in the weeks leading up to sign- ing day, the staff was given no respite. Andrew Pryts, Aaron Mathews and Karamo Dioubate all bolted for other options. Antonio Shelton, Dae'lun Darien, Tyrell Chavis, T.J. Johnson and Brenon Thrift, meanwhile, committed to Penn State in the final four days of the recruiting cycle. The late additions amounted to an incredible 25 percent of the Nittany Lions' signing day haul, and that number helps explain why Gattis depicts the recruiting process as some- thing akin to a constant state of profes- sional terror. "It was stressful. But that's the bal- ance of it, because we feel very strongly about what we have here," he said. "When you truly believe in what you have, you do get attached a little bit more as far as the emotions and stuff. It was stressful, but again, today we're ex- cited and we're happy and now all that stress is gone. Now we'll slowly build it back up for next year." The recruiting process is the founda- tion of any coach's professional success, and it's unnerving to have so much rid- ing on prospects who often are being bombarded by competing offers and who may not feel the same way they did weeks or months earlier when they committed. Penn State's was by no means the only class to undergo major changes. Many programs experienced just as much upheaval, and some expe- rienced more. As Gattis explained, this is simply the new normal in the high- stakes world of college football recruit- ing. Complicating matters further, the jolt of energy that everyone feels on signing day doesn't necessarily abate after the ink has dried on all those letters of in- tent. Often, a class's high ranking will give rise to expectations of immediate success, even though many players will inevitably require two or three years of development before they can even think about reaching their potential at the college level. A year ago, for instance, Penn State signed a very talented class. It was ranked 15th nationally by Rivals.com, but that class had relatively little to do with the program's on-field fortunes in 2015, as all but six of its 24 members redshirted. Even Franklin's first class, soon to be in its third year at Penn State, has a bevy of players who have yet to make a statistical impact. Harking back to a saying from new of- fensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, Gat- tis said that time is an essential factor in players' success – both before and after signing day. "Coach Moorhead says it all the time: 'Experience beats talent, but when you give talent experience, that's ultimately what wins.' So we were able to take a lot of talented players last year and redshirt them, give them some experience in college football [and] build them up," he said. "So we're excited about the [direc- tion] that we're headed in. "Patience is the key in recruiting. It's not just on the front end, but while you have them as far as developing the play- ers and putting them in the position to be successful. But we're excited moving forward." Gattis acknowledged with a smile that he's hoping for a bit of a respite this coming year, as the coaching staff fo- cuses on courting, corralling and secur- ing the Nittany Lions' Class of 2017. "I hope that it goes faster, next year's signing day. I felt like this year's signing day went extremely long," Gattis said. "But we're excited about the group that we have and we're excited to have the class that we have and the finish that we did." ■ It's about time P

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