According to 247 Sports, Penn State wound up with the #14 recruiting class on National Signing Day, just behind Notre Dame. Alabama topped their list, followed by USC, and Florida State, a distant third. ????? ??? ????
In the Big Ten, Ohio State was sixth, Penn State fourteenth, Moo U. 888 ???? twenty-second, Nebraska thirty-first, Wisconsin thirty-ninth, Illinois forty-fifth, Maryland forty-eighth, and Michigan forty-ninth (how the mighty have fallen!). The rest aren’t worth mentioning.
In-state rival Pittsburgh wound up 61st and neighbor West Virginia was 35th.
I’d say that JF and company did a pretty doggone good job of recruiting!
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Joe says
Yeah, they also have a couple more scholarships available. Apparently once the consent decree went away, they were able to move the 3 early enrollee’s out of the 2015 class and into the 2014 class. Something to do with counters, retroactivity and such, which is beyond my comprehension. They were able to use one of the now available scholies for a grad student OL (C) transfer from Stanford. Kevin Reihner (his pop played for PS and the Oilers) graduated from Scranton Prep and is 6′ – 4″ and 295 lbs. They can apparently use the extra scholarships this year or next year.
In addition they’ve asked for clarification if they still need to provide scholarships to Stanko & Warner who both left the team, but are still covered scholarship wise under the old consent decree.
Yeah, this may be the best class that we’ve had in a long time. I was especially impressed that he was able to pull some guys from Pitt; Givens and Petrishan look like they may be diamonds in the rough. Thought with Narduzzi’s defensive credentials though he would be able to keep them in the fold. There is some awesome speed with the receivers and the two cornerbacks may be the best of the bunch. And Barkley and Robinson look like we’ll be set at RB for a few years. All in all it’s a fine class and certainly an upgrade to what were used to seeing especially under St Joe.
I’m also impressed with how he’s started his 2016 class-if he can keep them in the fold.
Big Al says
This appears to be the best class since the 2006 class that ended the “Dark Years”. The only drawback I can see is that it includes only 3 center’guard recruits. Reihner provides immediate help, but only for 2015.. Chances are that neither of other two guys they recruited will be ready to play before 2016 and one of them may never be ready. I hope they recruit at least one more guard (they seem to be set at center) with the remaining scholarships.
The last thing I want to see in 2016 is Mangiro starting at center with Gaia and Dowrey at guard.
The Nittany Turkey says
Reihner was certainly a great pickup for any number of reasons. JF seems to be opting for giant traffic cones, but he did get a couple of interior guys that Phil Grosz thinks can play in 2015. (Of course, Phil thinks he makes the decisions about red-shirting, I guess.) I’m pretty happy with the signings, but unless we pick up more we’ll continue to lack depth in some OL slots for a couple of years.
Maybe I’ll finish my coffee and rewrite this.
—TNT
Joe says
Another thing to keep in mind is the new NCAA HS requirements go in to effect for the 2016 class. While I think there is no chance this impacts the Lions recruiting, or for that matter any B1G school, it may have an impact on perhaps some SEC and Big 12 schools. While the requirements are not difficult, there are now requirements for coursework to be completed by the recruit’s senior year and that 2.3 just might be a problem in some cases.
This was posted on PennLive yesterday.
“Starting with this cycle of seniors, prospects will need to have a 2.3 GPA or better to avoid being forced to sit out and redshirt their first year on campus. They will also have to complete 10 of 16 NCAA required core courses before their senior year. Core courses are listed by the NCAA as follows:
4 years of English.
3 years of mathematics (Algebra I or higher).
2 years of natural/physical science (1 year of lab if offered by high school).
1 year of additional English, mathematics or natural/physical science.
2 years of social science.
4 years of additional courses (from any area above, foreign language or comparative religion/philosophy).”
Joe says
Also read somewhere yesterday that PS has 2016 offers out to over 90 recruits already, another 20+ to 2017 recruits and a handful to 2018 recruits. I guess they’re right when they say this aspect of coaching never ends!