Seniors and Recruiting

I apologize in advance as this will be one of the more technical posts I've ever done.  Sorry to those of you who read this blog strictly for entertainment purposes, but it's time to talk some serious football.

This Saturday marks Senior Day 2013, so I'd like to take a moment to talk about this year's seniors.  There are currently 27 seniors on the roster, 17 of which are starters.  5 additional players will be celebrated during Senior Day festivities despite having eligibility left, most notably TE turned OT Garry Gilliam.  Like last year's seniors, these men could have bolted for other programs after the sanctions were announced, but chose to stay at Penn State.  I think I speak for all Penn Staters when I say, thank you so much seniors for staying with us through our darkest hour!  You truly embody the "success with honor" idle that all Penn Staters strive to live up to, and your loyalty will forever be remembered.  Good luck in the next phase of your lives and whatever paths life may lead you down!  Here is a list of the seniors who will be honored during pre-game on Saturday:

Zach Zwinak               RB

Brandon Johnson        RB

Pat Zerbe                   FB

Brandon Smith            FB

Brandon Felder           WR

Alex Kenney*             WR

Matt Lehman**           TE

Garry Gilliam*            OT

Adam Gress               OT

Kevin Blanchard*        OT

John Urschel              OG

Miles Dieffenbach       OG

Eric Shrive                 OG

Bryan Davie*              OG

Ty Howle                    C

Brad Bars                   DE

C.J. Olaniyan              DE

Da’Quan Jones           DT

Kyle Baublitz*            DT

Tyrone Smith              DT

Glenn Carson              LB

Mike Hull                    LB

Malcolm Willis            S

Stephen Obeng-Agyapong S

Ryan Keiser                S

Jesse Della Valle         S

Alex Butterworth          P

* Junior, forgoing final year of eligibility

** Applying for additional year due to injury

With the seniors leaving, it’s time to see what next year’s team will look like without them.  Now, I've criticized O’Brien over the past year for going after too many “skill” position players (QB, RB, WR, CB, S) in recruiting and not focusing on the immediate needs on both lines and at linebacker.  However, when you look at this list of seniors, you start to see the method to his madness.  First of all, Penn State will most likely lose Allen Robinson to the NFL even though he is not a senior, so I’m including him in the following list.  Additionally from the wide receiver group, Brandon Felder and Alex Kenney are graduating.  Although there are plenty of receivers left on the roster, the remaining players, at least that fans are aware of (Geno Lewis, Richy Anderson, Matt Zanellato), are severely lacking in experience.  Thankfully tight end looks food for the future, so that should help Hackenberg out.  The only senior tight end is Matt Lehman, who due to his injury in the first game of the season against Syracuse, is applying for a medical redshirt and could be back next year.  He will be celebrating Senior Day just in case that 6^th year of eligibility is denied.  As for the skill players on the defensive side, cornerback actually looks fine, so I’m very excited to see Jordan Lucas and Adrian Amos leading that group next year.  The safeties, on the other hand, will be decimated by graduation as all but backup Malik Golden are leaving.  So, in summation, the more I look at the situation, the more I understand O’Brien’s recruiting philosophy.

The problem is that Penn State is still lacking tremendously on the offensive line (at all positions), the defensive line (at tackle), and at linebacker.  All of those positions will be left 1 deep at best, and even that 1 deep is comprised almost exclusively of current backup players.  These are also positions that tend to require a year of development to maximize player potential, whereas skill position players tend to be more capable of playing at the college level in their first year.  If O’Brien waits until the 2015 class to recruit more linemen and linebackers, they most likely won’t be ready until the 2016 season.  Now don’t get me wrong, I trust that O’Brien knows exactly what he’s doing.  I’m just saying, to me personally, the current recruiting strategy looks strange on paper.

Oh, we also need a new punter as Alex Butterworth is graduating.  There are no other punters on the current roster.  Also, on special teams, although all of Penn State’s kick/punt returners are coming back (except Jesse Della Valle), none of the current snappers or holders will be returning.  That will need to be sured up as well.

Here’s a position by position breakdown of key players and whether they are staying or leaving:
Offense

QB: Leaving – N/A; Staying – Christian Hackenberg, Tyler Ferguson

FB: Leaving – Pat Zerbe; Staying – N/A

RB: Leaving – Zach Zwinak; Staying – Bill Belton, Akeel Lynch

WR: Leaving – Alex Kenney, Brandon Felder, Allen Robinson; Staying – Geno Lewis, Matt Zanellato, Richy Anderson

TE: Leaving – Matt Lehman (maybe); Staying – Kyle Carter, Jesse James, Adam Breneman

OT: Leaving – Garry Gilliam, Adam Gress, Eric Shrive; Staying – Donovan Smith, Andrew Nelson

OG: Leaving – John Urschel, Miles Dieffenbach; Staying – Angelo Mangiro, Anthony Alosi

C: Leaving – Ty Howle; Staying – Wendy Laurent

Defense

DE: Leaving – C.J. Olaniyan; Staying – Evan Schwan, Deion Barnes, Anthony Zettel

DT: Leaving – Da’Quan Jones, Kyle Baublitz, Tyrone Smith; Staying – Derek Dowrey, Brian Gaia, Austin Johnson

LB: Leaving – Glenn Carson, Mike Hull; Staying – Nyeem Wartman, Gary Wooten, Ben Kline, Brandon Bell, Adam Cole, Charles Idemudia

CB: Leaving – N/A; Staying – Adrian Amos, Jordan Lucas, Trevor Williams, Da’Quan Davis, Jordan Smith, Anthony Smith, Devin Pryor

S: Leaving – Malcolm Willis, Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, Ryan Keiser, Jesse Della Valle; Staying – Malik Golden

Special Teams

K: Leaving – N/A; Staying – Sam Ficken, Chris Gulla

P: Leaving – Alex Butterworth; Staying – N/A

Finally, we’ll take an even closer look at recruiting in the offseason, but with the above lists in mind, this is the basic gist of Penn State’s needs verses like to haves for the 2014 recruiting class:

Needs - fullback, wide receiver, offensive line (all positions), defensive tackle, linebacker, safety, punter

Nice to haves - quarterback, running back, defensive end, cornerback

Hopefully, you can now enjoy Senior Day with a little more knowledge of the seniors and how their departure will affect next year's squad.  Check back tomorrow for my prediction, and as always, go State!

Oh, and here are two great articles by the folks over at OnwardState.com
http://onwardstate.com/2013/11/20/seniors-urschel-gilliam-featured-in-videos/

http://onwardstate.com/2013/11/21/why-you-should-stay-for-saturdays-football-game/