Blue White Illustrated

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 aybe the leap year had something to do with it. It's an extra quarter of a day, tacked onto the calendar as one full day at the end of February once every four years. To hear some people tell it, odd occurrences accom- pany its arrival. As it pertains to the Penn State football program, the argu- ment certainly has legs. In January, the conversation around the team wasn't particularly positive. The Nittany Lions had ended their sea- son with four consecutive losses. They had lost two juniors to the NFL, and several other players had transferred out. Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop had bolted for Tennessee, Herb Hand had left for Auburn, and in the months leading up to signing day, seven prospects had decommitted from the Class of 2016. The coaching staff had to scramble to fill those vacancies, and al- though they succeeded, securing six verbal commitments in the final week of the recruiting cycle, none of the late ad- ditions received better than a three-star rating from Rivals.com. Lost in the barrage of fretting opinions regarding the state of the program, however, was a broader reality. The im- mediacy of recruiting losses, offset by arguably smaller gains, skewed the per- ceptions of a class that finished third in the Big Ten and No. 22 in the country according to Rivals.com and is filled with consensus stud recruits. Pressed at his Feb. 3 news conference to explain the scrambling and chal- lenges of the final weeks of the recruit- ing process, Penn State head coach James Franklin attempted to steer the conversation toward the positives that hadn't yet been discussed. "What I'd prefer to do is to focus on the progress. I'd like to focus on the last two recruiting classes that were clearly two of the better recruiting classes in the last five years," Franklin said. "I know you don't want to talk about that, but I would love to talk about that. We have the number one running back in the country committed to us. I would like to talk about all the significant positive things that are going on in our program. "Obviously, everybody knows coming in here [what the challenges were]. I don't need to get into the challenges. Those things have been talked about enough. So what I would like to talk about is all the tremendous progress, all the great families and all the great foot- ball players who are joining our family, and that's our focus." The opinions that followed varied, but in the aftermath of signing day, more than few people seemed to view those words as the equivocations of a head coach who was determined to gloss over his program's flaws. But even those who didn't agree with Franklin's sunny assessment had to un- derstand why he preferred to dwell on the team's successes rather than fixat- ing on the prospects who had gotten away. Head coaches have a responsibili- ty to generate excitement and enthusi- asm, to spread their vision for the pro- gram to their players, fans, the universi- ty community at large, and of course to the prospects who will eventually de- cide whether or not to sign up and help realize that vision. Putting a positive spin on the program's long-term out- look is a big part of any coach's job. Three-and-a-half weeks after signing day, this notion was put to the test. Franklin and the Penn State coaching staff welcomed more than 70 prospects, highly sought-after juniors and sopho- mores, for the program's big junior day event at the Lasch Building. Among the prospects in the house that day was La- mont Wade, the No. 1 cornerback, No. 1 Pennsylvania prospect and No. 8 overall prospect for the Class of 2017. Also pres- ent: wideout Mark Webb, linebackers David Adams and Nathan Proctor and cornerback Amir Riep, all of whom had already earned national Rivals rankings. And before the weekend was over, the Nittany Lions had secured the commit- ments of four-star defensive end Yetur Matos, three-star defensive end Damion Barber, and Class of 2018 linebacker/de- fensive end Micah Parsons. Those com- mitments showed that Franklin and his coaching staff know exactly how to frame the program's present and future in a way that resonates with prospects and their families – the people whose contributions will matter most to Penn State's eventual success. Part of that process involves down- playing the effects of small setbacks, and it applies just as readily to fans and media as it does to players. It means closely examining the proceedings and making a distinction between momen- tary fluctuations in momentum and the more significant developments that re- sult in actual success and actual failure. All of which is to say, in the day-to-day news cycle of major college football re- cruiting, short streaks of negative news do not necessarily develop into cata- strophic trends. And on the flip side, a weekend of strong recruiting successes does not guarantee a stress-free finish to a process that is nearly a full year from completion. Challenging as it may be to avoid get- ting swept up in the news of the day, it's a necessity. Penn State is trying to elbow its way back onto the national stage, and it is going to meet some resistance along the way. Given that inevitable reality, February's lesson is one worth remem- bering. ■ Taking the long view M

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