Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/916653
P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E Stater for I don't know how long. It was basically me coming over and walking around Lasch Building by myself. That's why we kind of went to the situation where we ended up recruiting a lot of guys that we had relationships with, instead of building new." Franklin began by handpicking several recruits he hoped he could persuade to travel with him. Even though the outlook was murky, they leaped on board. Among the first were a pair of offensive linemen, Chance Sorrell from Middle- town, Ohio, and Brendan Brosnan of Park Ridge, Ill., who announced within 48 hours of Franklin's hire that they were following him to Happy Valley. They would go on to serve as reserves during the first couple of seasons before injuries cut their careers short. They both worked as student assistant coaches during the 2017 season. Lloyd Tubman was a defen- sive lineman from Louisville, Ky., who also made a quick decision to switch his verbal commitment to PSU, but he lost his spot before signing day and faxed his letter to Kentucky instead. After those three names surfaced, it was more than a week before any others for- mally decided to follow Franklin. But the wait proved worthwhile, as the players who came next would go on to alter Penn State's football history. Trace McSorley and Grant Haley had been verbally committed to Vanderbilt since the summer and were eager to sign before hearing the news that Franklin was heading north. McSorley, a resident of Ashburn, Va., and Haley, who is from At- lanta and whose mother graduated from PSU, immediately scheduled official vis- its to see the new place. They liked Van- derbilt's campus, but Franklin was a greater factor in their decisions. If Penn State's environment checked out, maybe they would reconsider. The first week or two were stressful, as the players waited for their prospective Penn State coaches to complete their in- terviews and receive their security clearances. Not until those for- malities were complete could they speak to the coaches and glean firsthand infor- mation about what the future held. "I remember it as kind of just like a blur," McSorley said. "I just didn't know what was going to happen. I had been set to go play at Vanderbilt since like July be- fore my senior year, and then, a couple of weeks before signing day, I didn't know what was going to happen. So it kind of was a blur and I was freaking out a little bit, not really knowing what was going to happen with me or with a lot of the other guys who were in the class. "Once me and Grant were up here on a visit, I remember getting reacquainted with the coaches. To have someone [like Haley, who] was going through the exact same thing that I was at the time – I think for me and my parents, it was like, OK, we're not the only ones feeling like this. But for me, Grant was a guy who I had built a little bit of a relationship with when we were going to go to Vanderbilt. It calmed down, and once we real- ized everything this school had to offer, it made it all easier. All that craziness seemed to go away once we realized what the school was and realized this was where I wanted to go." Before they left campus, they had committed to be Nittany Lions, but they'll always have some Commodore in them. A few months after their enrollment, Haley was starting as a true freshman, and he has started almost every game since. He lives in Penn State lore thanks in large part to his winning touchdown return against Ohio State in 2016, after classmate Marcus Allen blocked a field goal attempt. With one more season to go, McSorley has already set Penn State's ca- reer record for touchdown passes, sur- passing the mark established by Christian Hackenberg, whom McSorley had backed up his first two years on campus. Greater milestones aren't far off. Four years after the uncertainty that surrounded the school's coaching change, they can barely FAMILY SNAPSHOT Haley poses with his parents, Carla and Leon, on Senior Day at Penn State in No- vember. Photo by Patrick Mansell