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ter in March that he had named his new puppy after the Buckeyes' mascot, Brutus. The signs were there for all to see. What was a bit surprising, however, was the timing of his decision. Throughout the winter, Parsons ap- peared to have one foot out the door, but after what he called an "excellent" visit with the staff in March, his tone on social media and with reporters changed. Suddenly, Parsons appeared to have a very favorable view of Penn State, just as he did last summer, when he was visiting campus seemingly every other weekend. Many expected the Nittany Lions to only strengthen their chances of retaining Parsons when he returned again for the spring game. But it proved to be the exact op- posite. Whether it was a surprise or not, what is obvious is that Penn State faces an up- hill battle to bring Parsons back into the fold. History says that the odds aren't in the sta1's favor. Last year, 62 players decommitted from Big Ten schools. Would you like to guess how many of those players ended up signing with the school to which they originally committed? If you said three, pat yourself on the back. At the same time, Penn State's class was still No. 2 in Rivals.com's rankings as of early May. Losing Parsons, the top- rated defensive end in the nation, is not the end of the world. Just look at last year's top 0ve recruiting classes, which were assembled by Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State and Michigan, in that order. By the time signing day rolled around, those programs had aver- aged six decommitments apiece. In fact, Alabama, which had the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation last year (and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, etc.) had the most decommitments of that group, totaling nine. I understand that it's never fun for fans when their team loses out on players of Parsons' quality, and that's especially true when that player is in the school's backyard. But if Penn State is going to recruit against the nation's best year in and year out, fans had better get used to this. They also should get used to Franklin and his sta1 going a2er the most cov- eted players from some of the East Coast's top high school programs, the kind of prospects who will continue to hear from other elite schools even a2er they've committed. Those are the kind of players the Nittany Lions need, and while they won't get all of them – they won't even get all of the ones who com- mit to PSU – it's clear that this train is just now reaching full speed. ■ NAME POS HT WT RATING HOME SCHOOL Nana Asiedu OL 6-5 260 ★★★★ Stafford, Va. North Stafford Trent Gordon DB 6-0 175 ★★★★ Manvel, Texas Manvel Isaiah Humphries DB 5-11 185 ★★★ Sachse, Texas Sachse Bryce Effner OL 6-5 282 ★★★ Aurora, Ill. Metea Valley Justin Fields QB 6-3 220 ★★★★ Kennesaw, Ga. Harrison Patrick Freiermuth TE 6-5 250 ★★★★ North Andover, Mass. Brooks School Charlie Katshir LB 6-3 190 ★★★ Mechanicsburg, Pa. Cumberland Valley Zack Kuntz TE 6-7 218 ★★★★ Camp Hill, Pa. Camp Hill Jesse Luketa LB 6-3 225 ★★★★ Erie, Pa. Mercyhurst Prep Justin Shorter WR 6-4 210 ★★★★ Monmouth Junction, N.J. South Brunswick Antwan Reed OL 6-5 334 ★★★★ Muskegon, Mich. Muskegon Ricky Slade RB 5-9 195 ★★★★ Woodbridge, Va. C.D. Hylton Nick Tarburton LB 6-4 240 ★★★★ Perkasie, Pa. Pennridge * As of May 14 V E R B A L C O M M I T M E N T S *

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