Recruiting Update 2/25

Is anyone else kind of over this whole winter thing yet?  Crappy weather AND no football?  No thank you!

Moving on...

I'd like to start today by congratulating all of the Penn State students, and especially the 700+ dancers who participated in THON 2014 this past weekend!  This year's total shattered last year's record of $12.3 million by a million dollars, finishing with a whopping $13,343,517.33!!!  And as always, all of it is For The Kids!  So, great job everyone; this is who WE really are! (keeping it football related, here is James Franklin's speech at THON)

Ok, with that out of the way, let's get back to football.  Monday was a big recruiting day for the Nittany Lions as James Franklin and Company played host to a bevy of recruits on campus.  The day ended with 2 more commitments, bringing the 2015 class up to 6 commits.  3-star LB Jake Cooper and 3-star DE Ryan Buchholz both hail from Pennsylvania and both came away from their visits impressed enough to pledge their commitment to Penn State.  4 of the 6 recruits from the 2015 class are from the Keystone State, which already surpasses the number of Pennsylvania kids in the 2014 class (3).  Additionally, half the class is currently ranked as 4-stars or higher.  Looks to me like James Franklin's promise to "dominate the state" wasn't just strong talk, it was a promise.  Penn State is now considered to have the best class in the Big Ten at this still very early stage in the recruiting game.  There's obviously still a long way to go until National Signing Day 2015, but this is arguably the best recruiting start PSU has had in decades!

Now if you just can't get enough recruiting news, then have I got a surprise for you!  Today we're featuring our first ever contributing piece here on the blog.  Friend of the blog, Brian Bender, has graciously offered an in depth analysis of Penn State's recruiting targets for the upcoming class.  You might remember Brian as the winner of my 1st Annual Prime Pick 'Em Bowl Pool, so clearly he knows his stuff.  In fact, considering he gave this to me on Friday, and already the #1 LB and #1 DE on his board have committed, you'd be a fool not to read this!

In other news, as the NFL Combine wrapped up on Monday, I figured I'd give you all some links from our friends over at PennLive so you could see how your favorite former Nittany Lions did:

- Allen Robinson

- DaQuan Jones

- John Urschel... who also wrote a diary about the experience

Finally, it may interest you to know that former defensive coordinator and interim head coach, Tom Bradley, has accepted a position with West Virginia as a defensive assistant.  We wish Coach Bradley nothing but the best in all his future endeavors, besides, we don't play West Virginia, so they're cool in my book.

Ok, that's all for now.  Keep it here all offseason for the latest Penn State football news and notes, don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!

February News and Notes

It’s the offseason, so things are already fairly slow in the college football world.  Late February is particularly excruciating.  However, there are a couple of interesting things going on, so I figured I’d get a post in today.

First of all, the NFL Combine officially starts tomorrow (although the media has been doing what they do pretty much all week).  This is an invitation only event in which the best players in the country show off for pro scouts in order to improve their stock for April’s NFL Draft.  Three former Nittany Lions have been invited to the festivities: WR Allen Robinson, DT Da’Quan Jones, and OG John Urschel.  I expect all three to be drafted, with Robinson likely the first one to be picked up late in the 1^st round.  Still, their performances at the Combine will go a long way in determining their final draft position, so good luck gentlemen!  Also of note at the Combine will be former head coach, Bill O’Brien, whose Houston Texans have the first overall pick.

On the recruiting front, James Franklin is wasting absolutely no time in putting together another great recruiting class for next year.  He’s already picked up four commitments, three of which are 4-star players.  As it stands, Penn State’s 2015 class includes 4-star OL Ryan Bates, 4-star ATH Kamonte Carter, 4-star RB Saquon Barkley (who decommitted from Rutgers), and 2-star DB Jarvis Miller.  During the most recent Junior Day, Franklin also handed out offers to 5-star DE CeCe Jefferson, 4-star DE Keisean South, and 3-star LB Josh Barajas.  Looking good Coach Franklin, keep it up!!!

Finally, in case you live under a rock, this weekend is THON weekend (short for Dance Marathon) at Penn State.  Nearly 15,000 student volunteers and over 700 dancers will rock the BJC from now until 4:00 pm on Sunday in the fight to find a cure for pediatric cancer.  For more information about this incredible charity, or to make a donation, check out www.thon.org or watch all the action live via the THON webcast at www.thon.org/Webcast.  Hopefully we can break last year's record of more than $12.3 million!

That's all for now.  Keep it here on the blog all offseason for updates on everything Penn State football.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus.  And in honor of THON, go State, beat cancer!!!

National Signing Day

Sorry for the late post.  Although I was not one of the people who lost power due to the snow/ice storm on Tuesday night, I was preoccupied and couldn't get around to posting until today.  Hopefully the below post makes up for it.

With that out of the way... WOW, what an exciting day yesterday was!  It is now official, Penn State's 2014 recruiting class is in the books!  On one hand, National Signing Day came with few surprises.  Lloyd Tubman did in fact decommit as expected and ended up at the University of Kentucky, in his home state.  This allowed the Lions to pick up Torrence Brown, just as I predicted.  On the other hand, the approach that James Franklin and his staff took towards National Signing Day could not have been more different than his two predecessors and was a big surprise, even shock, to many fans.  The "war room," as it came to be called, was absolutely electric from 6am all the way through to the 6pm Signature Event at the BJC.  There were balloons, flatscreens showing highlights from all the recruits, and even an omelet station for breakfast.  On hand were cheerleaders, the Nittany Lion, the Blue Band trumpets, equipment manager "Spider" Caldwell, former player Michael Mauti, and Coach Franklin's daughters.  Each got a turn to help announce the name of recruits, in the style of the NFL draft, as their letters of intent came in hot off the fax machine.  Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to see and document everything first hand.  However, thanks in large part to Franklin's open door policy with the media, plenty of other reporters were there.  So instead of boring you with my hackneyed regurgitation of what everybody else posted, I'm just going to leave these links here and you can peruse them at your leisure.  Enjoy the awesomeness that was National Signing Day!

Here's the official GoPSUSports NSD blog, featuring player bios and plenty of videos and pictures from throughout the day.

PennLive's Audrey Snyder had full access and provided all kinds of great material:
- James Franklin's NSD press conference (VIDEO)
- Michael Mauti and LaVar Arrington address the crowd at the Signature Event... and Mauti makes a bold prediction (VIDEO)
- A look back at past 3-star recruits, plus a NSD photo gallery
- The Signature Event, a photo gallery

As always, Onward State was also on hand to cover the action:
- James Franklin's "War Room"
- The sights and sounds of NSD (VIDEO)
- Meet the 2014 recruits! (VIDEOS)

Finally, ESPN sat down for a Q&A with James Franklin.

So what can we take away from National Signing Day 2014?  Well, the most notable observation had to be the never ending energy coming from Coach Franklin.  Sure, we already knew he had plenty of energy, but this was ridiculous!  He managed to handle all the formalities of National Signing Day, take care of his two adorable daughters, give media interviews to ESPN, CBS Sports, Big Ten Network, and others, and still had enough left in the tank to put on what looked like a fantastic show at the Signature Event.  Another thing I noticed was that, while Bill O'Brien made it very clear that he didn't put much stock in recruiting rankings and star rankings, James Franklin seems to fully embrace them.  In the press conference video above, he is visibly disappointed that Penn State had the 3rd best class in the Big Ten and vowed to change that very soon.  He was also disappointed in the lack of PA kids (only 3) in this class, and more specifically that Penn State did not land even 1 of the top 10 players from within the state.  Yet, this class is still ranked in the top 25 by every major recruiting service and that's with 5 fewer scholarships than every other school can give out!  Recruiting is a HUGE deal in college football these days.  Just look at Alabama, who pulled in the unanimous #1 ranked class for the past 3 years... while also winning 3 National Championships in 4 years.  If Franklin can continue to pull in "blue chip" recruits, especially as the sanctions come to an end, Penn State could very well be in the National Championship hunt in no time.  That's not hyperbole people, this guy is for real!

I hope you enjoyed National Signing Day as much as I did.  Keep checking back here on the blog throughout the offseason for all the latest news and notes about Penn State football.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!

National Signing Day Eve

I’d like to start today’s post by congratulating former Nittany Lions, Michael Robinson and Jordan Hill on their fancy new rings.  Both men play for the Seattle Seahawks, who embarrassed the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII this past Sunday.  To date, at least one former Lion has played in 43 of the 48 Super Bowls played and there are now 37 former Lions with a combined 53 Super Bowl rings.  Congrats on the fresh bling gentlemen!

Now, on to the main topic of today’s post.  National Signing Day is tomorrow, which means it is the first day that recruits can officially sign their National Letter of Intent, solidifying their choice of school.  Up to this point in the recruiting process, all commitments were verbal and non-binding.  ESPNU (as well as the WatchESPN mobile app if you can’t get to a TV because of some pesky job) will have essentially wall to wall coverage all day as the fax machines begin to whirl in every head coach’s office around the country.  If you’re super into recruiting, this is the biggest day of the year for you; but for most of us, it feels a little blow out of proportion.  Regardless, here’s where Penn State finds itself on the eve of NSD…

Since my last post, 4-star DE Lloyd Tubman has reopened his recruitment, and this past weekend he took visits to a couple of schools including Kentucky and Big Ten rival Nebraska.  He will make his final decision at 9am tomorrow, but considering he took down everything Penn State-related from his Twitter page, it’s starting to look very unlikely that he will be wearing the Blue and White next year.  Still, that hasn't seemed to slow down James Franklin, who took the opportunity to reel in commitments from a pair of 3-star DBs: Amani Oruiwariye (FL) and Christian Campbell (AL).  That makes 5 DBs in this recruiting class, and as friend of the blog (and Bowl Pick Em Champion) Brian Bender pointed out, it’s becoming obvious that Coach Franklin doesn't like what he sees out of Penn State’s secondary right now.  If Tubman does in fact go to another school, it will free up one last scholarship in this class.  That scholarship could go to Torrence Brown, a 3-star athlete from Alabama.  I usually hate the term "athlete," but in this case, it’s very fitting.  The 6-4, 228 lb recruit played RB, LB, DE, TE, and WR in high school… now that’s versatility!  The only safe guess at this point is that he’ll end up playing somewhere on the defensive side of the ball.  Given Penn State’s lack of depth at LB, he’ll most likely end up in that unit with the possibility of lining up at DE if he can put on some weight.

In other recruiting news, after the commitment of walk-on kicker Jorge Powell last week, PSU picked up commitments from 3 (yes 3!) additional walk-on kickers this week: Nick Boumerhi, Troy Stivason, and Joe Julius, who turned down a full soccer scholarship at Southern Illinois to walk-on for the Nittany Lions.  The special teams blitz continued with the commitment of walk-on long snapper Kyle Vasey.  Considering there are only 2 scholarship kickers (Sam Ficken and Chris Gulla) currently on the roster, and 0 scholarship punters, it’s pretty clear that special teams is a major position of need for the coaching staff, and it’s impressive to see that they've been able to fill that need so well without using up precious scholarships.  It should also be pointed out that some of these guys can punt if needed, so they could potentially earn a scholarship that way if they play their cards right.

Oh, and don't forget that this is a thing.  Coach Franklin's "Signature Event" will now feature guest appearances by Michael Mauti and LaVar Arrington!  Should be a good time.

On the coaching front, former linebackers coach and Penn State legend, Ron Vanderlinden, has accepted a position with the Air Force Academy.  I still think it would have been amazing if James Franklin had managed to bring Vanderlinden back to the Penn State staff, but since that didn't happen I will instead wish Coach Vanderlinden the best of luck in his new role.  You’re a true Penn Stater and you will be missed.  Besides, at least he didn't go to Ohio State like some people!

Well, that will do it for today.  Have a great NSD everyone!  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus for all the latest news and notes on Penn State football, and as always, go State!