Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/787374
aquon Barkley was headed to Rutgers. It had been decided. The Scarlet Knights had offered him a scholarship before anyone else, and the young running back prospect had enthu- siastically accepted it, announcing his de- cision in September 2013, just as he was starting his junior season at Whitehall (Pa.) High. But Penn State hired James Franklin four months later, and as the Nittany Lions' new head coach began laying the ground- work for his first full recruiting class in 2015, one of his first calls was to Barkley. Franklin made it clear right from the start that he wasn't going to take no for an an- swer. "He told me that I was coming to Penn State no matter what," Barkley re- called, "even if he had to come to my house and knock me upside the head." Fortunately for all concerned – well, ex- cept for the Scarlet Knights – it didn't come to that. Franklin didn't need to drag Barkley from his home in the Lehigh Val- ley into a car with the motor running. He just needed a chance to talk. "Like my mom said, he could sell you a stone and make you feel like it's the best stone ever," Barkley said. "He's really good with his words." Barkley committed to Penn State in Feb- ruary 2014, six months before the Nittany Lions' new staff coached its first game. That stone Franklin sold him? Barkley bought it, convinced that with a bit of elbow grease, it would start to resemble a diamond. Now, with Penn State coming off a Big Ten championship and Franklin having just signed the highest-rated re- cruiting class of his tenure with the Lions, it's starting to look as though that confi- dence was entirely justified. That's a significant devel- opment for Penn State, be- cause some prospects aren't going to respond to talk of faith and potential and the Buoyed by a breakthrough 2016 season, James Franklin welcomes his most highly rated recruiting class to Penn State T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 1 7 >> REACHING STARS FOR THE S SHRINE GAME Members of Penn State's 2017 recruit- ing class pose with Franklin at the Lion shrine during an off- ical visit weekend in January. Photo courtesy of Robert Matos