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T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 1 8 >> football," Franklin said. The team's 11-3 finish, he continued, "helped us a little bit. With Lamont Wade, for example. … I felt like we were in really good shape with his family. The dad realized that Lamont wanted to see that. Lamont is a guy who had been going through this re- cruiting process for a long time and wanted to see it all. I think it probably had a little bit of an effect on him and a few guys at the end. But really, to be honest with you, not as much as people would think. It was more about the '18 class and the '19 class." Now that the 2018 class has signed its letters of intent, we're starting to get an indication of just how big that effect was. It might have seemed like a coup when Penn State persuaded Wade, a five-star defensive back from Clairton, Pa., to commit to the Nittany Lions in December 2016, but he's starting to look less like an outlier and more like the kind of player who will comprise future classes. Of the 23 players who signed with the Nittany Lions during the re- cently concluded recruiting cycle, two received five-star ratings from Rivals.com, while 16 were awarded four stars and four were awarded three. The class ranks fifth nationally, making it Penn State's first top-10 class since 2006 and only its second since Rivals began is- suing its rankings in 2002. The only Big Ten school to finish with a more highly rated class this year was Ohio State, which was second in the rankings. The usual caveats apply, so let's get them out of the way right now: There will be attrition, there will be injuries, there will be cases in which seemingly sky-high potential goes unrealized. On the other end of the spectrum, there will also be players who, for whatever reason, didn't get their due coming out of high school but who hit their stride at Penn State. Trace McSorley, to cite only the most obvious recent example, was a three-star kid who, according to the conventional wisdom, was going to spend his career either in the secondary or as a backup to can't-miss quarterback Michael O'Connor. That has not turned out to be the case. So for those reasons and a dozen others, the definitive as- sessment of this class won't come for another four or five years. But there is a way in which every re- cruiting class serves as a useful measur- ing stick in the short term, and that is as a referendum on the state of the program that signed it. Recruiting is the one as- pect of college football in which the players have the power. The kind of players that Penn State is recruiting can go pretty much wherever they want, so ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE I'm really ex- cited about it. All the coaches talk about how important it is to be really good up front on both sides of the ball. When we arrived at Penn State, the D-line was a real strength, and on the O-line we just were lacking some depth that we needed. We've worked really hard at that, and I think we've really done a good job of recruiting guys who are good fits here and guys who have the measur- ables and athleticism that we're looking for. I'm a big believer in recruiting guys who create position flexibility across the offensive line. If we're going to recruit a guard, we would prefer the guard to be a guy who has the ability to be what we call a swing guy – a guy who may not have exact offensive tackle measurables but has the athleticism and feel for the position. I think [Ryan] Bates is a really good example of that. Bates isn't your typical 6-6 offensive tackle, but he's got the athleticism and feel for the position. I think we've done a good job of that, re- cruiting tackles, and then guards who have tackle attributes, and then you also have a variety of swing guys inside. So a center/guard combination, a center who could play guard and a guard who could play center, that type of deal. I'm pleased with the length and I'm pleased with the athleticism and I'm pleased with the mentality of the posi- tion. I think Matt [Limegrover] has done a great job. I think the addition of [assistant coach] Tyler [Bowen] with an offensive line background is really going to help us at the tight end posi- tion but also is going to help us up front. Those two work extremely well together, not only on the field, but also in recruiting. ON MEETING NEEDS I think we've done a good job of identifying some issues and going out and recruiting. On de- fense, I think that we really helped our- selves up front on the line with some guys, obviously with [Aeneas] Hawkins and [P.J.] Mustipher and [Judge] Culpepper and [Jayson] Oweh. And then we got [Nick] Tarburton, who creates flexibility with linebacker or defensive line. That's how he was recruited. I feel really good about that. We have some challenges up front. We lost three senior defensive tackles, so that's an area of concern for us. I feel re- ally good about D-end, but D-tackle is an area that we're going to have to de- velop. We tried to attack that in recruit- ing, but that's a position where typically guys are not able to play early. I love the two corners that we got in [Jordan] Miner and [Trent] Gordon, two guys with length and athleticism. Hav- ing Gordon on campus, I've already been impressed with him. At linebacker, we've got some real needs there. So the combination of [Charlie] Katshir, [Micah] Parsons, [Jesse] Luketa and Tarburton really helps us there. Those guys have a chance to come in and com- pete. And then obviously [Isaiah] Humphries at safety, we feel good about that, as well. And I think we've recruited some corners who have some flexibility to move to safety if we need them to. I do think we have some things that we've got to get resolved at D-tackle, some things that we've got to get re- solved at linebacker, and I think this recruiting class showed that. P.J. Mustipher is a guy who has the body type that makes you think he may be C O A C H S P E A K J A M E S F R A N K L I N D I S C U S S E S T H E

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