Blue White Illustrated

RYAN SNYDER O N R E C R U I T I N G Coaching staff uses spring recruiting period to broaden PSU's reach quite a bit of traveling. Assistant coaches John Strollo, W John Butler and Ron Vanderlinden took care of the majority of North- eastern and Midwestern prospects following the staff's first-week surge involving its most important targets. That freed up Larry Johnson, Stan Hixon, Ted Roof and Mac McWhort- er to spend quite a bit of time in the South, where they visited prospects from Florida to Texas from May 7- 18. A few 2013 offers have been extended to a handful of Southern prospects, but the consensus from those players' head coaches is that Penn State is not focused strictly on the immediate future but instead is looking to build relationships at some of the nation's top high school programs in the hope that they will pay off down the road. One of those schools is Evans High in Orlando, Fla., home to wide receiver Dominic Walker. Walker has received offers from 22 schools, including all three of Florida's BCS- affiliated programs, and it's unlikely that the Nittany Lions will be able to sign him. However, they made him an offer anyway, and as Evans head coach Chip Gierke said, it was a step in the right direction. "It's just good to see Penn State back down here," said Gierke, who has coached in the Orlando area for 40 years. "They used to get a bunch of players down here and they would make 'em into men. So I'm all for Penn State recruiting hard in Florida again." Gierke added that Penn State has a reputation for academic integrity that should help it make inroads in Florida. "A lot of people down here look to Penn State as a school that rivals the Ivy League," he said. 12 J U N E 2 8 , 2 0 1 2 hile Bill O'Brien was meeting with fans and alumni during the Penn State Coaches Cara- van, his staff was also doing "While education may go overlooked by some of our inner-city kids, coaches like myself will always point our prospects in the right direction academically and on the football field, so a program like Penn State has a lot to gain and lit- tle to lose recruiting down here, and I think the new staff definitely real- izes it." If that doesn't get you excited, WEST MESQUITE COACH MIKE OVERTON "Mac made it clear that he wants Penn State to have a presence down here. He said he wouldn't have come out of retirement for any other program, and I think that speaks highly of what he wants to accomplish. " Steve Manuel then what Mac McWhorter is accomplishing in Texas should. McWhorter was the main reason Penn State was one of Kameron Miles' top three schools. Rated the No. 1 safety in Texas and a member of the Rivals100, Miles attends West Mesquite High in Mesquite. He recently gave Tennessee a verbal commitment, but the fact that Penn State made it into his top three in such a short amount of time speaks to how this coaching staff will approach prospects outside of the university's customary recruiting territory. "Coach McWhorter was great," West Mesquite head coach Mike Overton said. "Being from the South, and being really familiar with McWhorter did with Kameron. That may not work every time, but Mac made it clear that he wants Penn State to have a presence down here. He said he wouldn't have come out of retirement for any other program, and I think that speaks highly of what he wants to accomplish up there. He knows there's a lot of tal- ent here, and he wants the talent down here to see what Happy Valley is all about." As for Miles, his recruitment may not be over just yet. He's never visit- ed Tennessee, or any other school for that matter. Despite his commit- ment, he told reporters he would like to take all five of his official vis- its. While Overton said he isn't cer- tain how likely that is, it appears firm commitment to Tennessee. Will that eventually happen? I'm not exactly sure, but as of now, he's talking about doing that, and with Penn State being high on his list, he could end up visiting Penn State for a game this fall. "I mean, heck, I'd like to check out Happy Valley myself. That's one of the top 10 programs in the nation, so we'll see what he decides to do come football season." Does Penn State have a chance to become a national player on the recruiting scene? Only time will tell. But after this year's spring evalua- tion period, there's no doubt that Bill O'Brien is focused on broaden- ing the scope of the Nittany Lions' recruiting. W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M MAC McWHORTER Texas from his days on Mac Brown's Texas staff, Coach was really honest with Kameron, was able to relate to him a bit. He then explained the sit- uation up there, while also really selling the school's academic pres- tige. "In recruiting, it's all about rela- tionships, so really, any coach can make a push and succeed, and that's basically what Coach that Penn State may not be entirely out of the picture. "We tell all of our players to go out and take as many visits as they can," Overton said. "We want them to see as many schools as possible because, let's face it, it's the only time in your life when you're going to be loved by so many people. He stated that his intentions were to visit a few schools, despite being a

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