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LAST WORD T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M s if we need another reason to enjoy college football more than the NFL, look no further than a mid-Septem- ber matchup between the Jets and Bills. What started decades ago as a rivalry be- tween two teams from the same state with many players who had ties to the re- gion has gone the way of the rest of them. In this Thursday night game, only four active participants were natives of New York, while only one other played his college football in the Empire State. That's not surprising, as any hint of local flavor has been gone from the NFL since unrestricted free agency changed the game for good in 1992, if it hadn't already been gone before then. If locale still determined roster composition, then the Miami Dolphins would peren- nially contend for championships, Bill O'Brien would be chock-full in Hous- ton, and Alabama would by now have an expansion team. With that Jets-Bills game sandwiched between Penn State's renewed rivalry with Pitt and its revenge game against Temple, the juxtaposition of the in- trastate matchups at the different levels of football was just another reminder that no matter how big the NFL gets, college football maintains its inherent distinction. That, after all, is what makes Satur- days in the fall so eye-catching – the overlap of the players and their alle- giances. Many of those players com- peted with or against each other in high school. College teams tend to empha- size their particular geographic areas in recruiting, and when coaches from rival schools work against each other in the same state, they often find themselves scouting the same talent pool. That proximity adds a new layer of intrigue to the games. When Penn State was at Heinz Field, for instance, defensive back Troy Apke's best friend, Alex Bookser, was across from him on the line of scrimmage, starting as the Panthers' left tackle. When the Owls came to Beaver Stadium one week later, there were eight Penn State players who had at least one former teammate on the op- posite sideline, not counting defensive tackle Brenon Thrift, who started his collegiate career at Temple. On the Friday nights before those games, coaches from all three teams were in high school stadiums through- out the region, pursuing many of the same athletes. Whether a specific out- come on Saturday impacts a specific re- cruit's decision, however, isn't always cut and dry. As five-star defensive back Lamont Wade of Clairton, Pa., told our friend Ryan Donnelly of Rivals.com after the 42-39 Pitt-PSU game, "They definitely could use some help back there, Pitt and Penn State. Both de- fenses weren't that great." Penn State's recruiting approach does- n't emphasize game-day results. The coaches want prospects to choose a school for more lasting reasons. "It doesn't matter if it's a kid from Philadel- phia or a kid from Pittsburgh, we're going to go in there and recruit those young kids and we're going to show them what Penn State has to offer them, to help benefit them for the future regard- less of who we're playing, regardless of whatever," offensive recruiting coordina- tor Josh Gattis said. "It doesn't matter." But the idea doesn't go anywhere. If anything, for fans, it only brings more to light as the teams from Pennsylvania do battle on the field. In addition to the ongoing recruiting turf wars, there are also the sour memories rekindled from previous recruiting cycles, adding yet another dimension to the game that the pros can't match. In the Pitt and Temple games, there were dozens of prospects on those teams who had once coveted an offer from the Nittany Lions in high school, only to never receive it. In the past two signing classes, too, Penn State flipped three recruits who had once verbally committed to those programs. Those moves linger, with players and coaches alike, and it adds a different spice to those afternoon kickoffs. With Penn State having not yet ex- tended its series with Pitt past these four games, and with Temple not on the schedule the next three seasons, there is a valid question whether Penn State will have two in-state opponents on its schedule like this again. If so, this is a season to behold. As conferences, including the Big Ten, ex- pand to nine-game schedules, and with an added emphasis on blockbuster sea- son openers, the odds of it ever happen- ing again appear low. "What I've learned is that there is so much more to scheduling than just that," Temple head coach Matt Rhule said when asked about his desire to reignite a series with PSU. "There is so much more to it. Everyone has to take care of their own house first, make sure they have enough home games and all that stuff, but I love when we play local teams. ... We know the same kids we're recruiting. Any time we play those peo- ple that are local it's great, but I just know how hard scheduling has become now, especially with the conferences that are going to nine conference games. They've made it really hard for us to get games." After the intrastate rivalries of 2016 – two close games that were separated by one possession and saturated with local flair – here's hoping they con- tinue. ■ Keystone classics A

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