Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/730644
in those situations, and I know he'll have opportunities to make more big plays for us the rest of his career." Now in his fourth year on campus, Hamilton came to Penn State at a time when the Nittany Lions were under se- vere scholarship restrictions, announc- ing his commitment only five months after the NCAA levied its sanctions. One of only three wideouts in former coach Bill O'Brien's two recruiting classes (Geno Lewis and Jonathan Warner were the others), he had been recruited by Vir- ginia Tech, West Virginia and Miami (Fla.) but was moved by O'Brien's visit to his home, during which the two talked about much more than just football. Hamilton has an older brother, Darius, who is autistic, and so the conversation drifted to the subject of family, with O'Brien showing him photos of his spe- cial-needs son. As Hamilton's mother, Madgeline, told BTN.com, "They made a connection right there." When Franklin arrived at Penn State in 2014, one of his top priorities was to ad- dress the team's shortfall at the position. He signed three wideouts in his first class, earning commitments from God- win and Thompkins and pulling Black- nall away from Rutgers. His 2015 class included Johnson and Charles, and he wasn't finished, signing Dae'lun Darien this past year and lining up verbal commitments from two prospects in the Class of 2017 (Mac Hippenhammer, Cameron Sullivan- Brown) and one in the Class of 2018 (Justin Shorter). Of the eight wideouts who have signed with Penn State under Franklin or are verbally committed, five have received a four-star rating from Ri- vals.com. Of course, Penn State has had great in- dividual wide receivers before, and great pass-catching units, too. In 1994 Bobby Engram and Freddie Scott combined to catch 99 passes for 2,002 yards and 16 touchdowns. In 2008 Deon Butler, Der- rick Williams and Jordan Norwood to- taled 132 catches for 1,932 yards and 17 scores. The player who started Penn State's current renaissance, All-Ameri- can Allen Robinson, was a singular talent, totaling 174 catches for 2,450 yards dur- ing his sophomore and junior seasons be- fore leaving early for the NFL. But Robinson also had a couple of sure- handed sidekicks in Lewis and Brandon Felder. So even though the program earned a reputation over the years as a proponent of Lombardi-era conser- vatism, it has produced its share of NFL- caliber wideouts, with Engram enjoying a START OF SOMETHING BIG Johnson, a redshirt fresh- man, made the first catch of his college career against Pitt, pulling in a pass from McSorley and taking it 27 yards. Photo by Steve Manuel