Penn State Sports Magazine
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success that lies just around the corner. They want to see results. Franklin has shown in his six years as a head coach that he can sell potential, having first convinced recruits at Vanderbilt that they could be part of a massive turn- around at one of the Southeastern Con- ference's least-successful programs, then having sold Penn State recruits on his vision of a resurgent Nittany Lion powerhouse. But it's nice to be able to offer promise and proof, and Penn State's 2017 class is a testament to the value of both. Of the 21 recruits in this year's class, some needed a bit of convincing, others didn't. Those who did – five-star defen- sive back Lamont Wade was chief among them – were eventually persuaded by the Nittany Lions' 2016 Big Ten champi- onship run, a season in which they looked spectacular both in victory and in defeat. But many others, such as four- star Cincinnati quarterback Sean Clif- ford, bought in well before the 2016 season even began, confident that a turnaround was in the offing. For all the talk on signing day of Penn State's sud- den return to the national spotlight, the truth, Franklin said, is that most of the players in this year's class were sold on the Lions before Kirk Herbstreit de- clared them the story of the year in col- lege football. "I think it had a little bit of an impact this year," Franklin said, "but not as much as people think. I think where it's probably going to have the biggest im- pact is the '18 class and the '19 class. These guys were sitting in their living rooms and at their high schools watch- ing Penn State be really successful and You talked about being involved with a lot of these kids for multiple years. With Ellis Brooks, talk about the logistics and how you were able to get all that done so quickly. It probably wasn't as quick as people think. We've been in steady contact with Ellis for a long time. He was very active in hitting me up on Twitter, direct mes- sage. A lot of people say, "How come you didn't keep o=ering guys?" We don't normally do that. We don't o=er a lot of players. Then once we get commitments and people tell us they're coming, why are you going to keep o=ering other players if you can't take their commit- ment? Maybe we're a little old school like that, but that's what we're comfort- able doing. That's how we would want to be treated as parents. That's how we would want to be treated as prospects. The guys who choose not to come here, we wish them nothing but success. But the guys we do have coming here, we're really, really excited about. Fortu- nately with Ellis, we were able to get in there and get in his home. He's a really, really sharp kid, sharp family, what I would characterize as a Penn State kid and a Penn State family. Obviously it helps that this was a school he was always fond of. There's a really cool picture I think they put out where you see him at Michael Robinson's knee at Michael Robinson's graduation from here, him and his dad. There is Ellis down by his knee as a little kid looking up at this place. I think those things help. We felt like if we got him on campus that we would be able to make up some ground in a short period of time. But he had all kinds of people coming to his house. He had visited all over the coun- try, from the West Coast to the Deep South, everywhere in between. He had a lot of opportunities. When he came on the visit, his dad was awesome. We felt really good about Dad. Mom, I was scared of. Mom got a>er me in a home visit pretty good. I survived it. We got her here on campus. Then Dad went downtown to the bookstore and bought $300 worth of gear. Pretty good sign. Could you talk a little bit about the importance of the last few guys you got to nish out this class? Why was it important to get them on board, and what do they bring to the table? Yeah, I think [it was important to] keep recruiting. Our sta= was a lot like our season. We persevered, just kept battling. I know fans and people think the recruit- ing process should go smooth and per- fect. I've been doing this 23 years. It never does. You just keep recruiting. You stay positive. You keep selling all the wonder- ful things we have here at Penn State. Even with some of the guys who you think were solid the whole time, there were ups and downs, twists and turns. That's just kind of how it is. I think our sta= just stayed positive and persevered, kept pounding positive messages with guys. We were fortunate. We were fortu- nate to close. I do think Ellis was a great one to sign with us late in the process at a position of need. Obviously Jason Cabinda is going to be a tremendous mentor to him. Corey Bolds, you talk about a huge pickup. We have a need at defensive tackle. We lost some guys to the transfer process. Corey Bolds is a guy we re- cruited really early on. Once his mom and him got on campus, it changed com- pletely. We got some commitments. Corey stayed patient. We just kept talk- ing. I really got to know him really well from a great high school. Coach [Ricky] Rahne did a really good job. Coach [Sean] Spencer. We're jacked about hav- ing that guy. You talk about a big, physi- cal, strong, athletic guy who's going to have a chance to come in and compete, we're really excited. With some of the early commit- ments, how important were those guys in terms of establishing leader- ship and getting the later commits onboard? Who were some of the spe- cic players who emerged as leaders early on in the cycle? What have you seen from them as a coach, those leadership qualities? I think obviously the guys who jumped onboard were really good. 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