Penn State earns praise for Class of 2015 as focus shifts to 2016
Penn State pulled in one of the best recruiting classes the program has seen in quite some time. James Franklin’s mission to dominate the state paid off in a big way with many of the top high school players choosing to stay in-state and play for Penn State. Between Penn State’s recruiting efforts and the work done by Pittsburgh, more of the top Pennsylvania talent opted to stay in the state than last year by a significant margin.
In 2014 five of the top 15 recruits in Pennsylvania went to a PA program (PSU, Pitt or Temple). This year, top 7 stayed in-state. 12 of 15.
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) February 4, 2015
Will this carry over into the Class of 2016? We shall wait and see.
The numbers are (not) bad!
According to the major recruiting services out there, Penn State put together a consensus top1 5 recruiting class. The only Big Ten school to do better, naturally, was Ohio State. Where was Penn State ranked?
Scout.com: 13th
247 Sports: 14th
ESPN: 14th
Rivals: 15th
James Franklin took some time to speak with various media outlets throughout the day, including ESPN, Big Ten Network, CSN Philly and FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel.
Nick Polak over at Black Shoe Diaries put together a very good feature on the new era of Penn State recruiting.
This year’s Blue-White Game will have a later start time than usual…
Jay Paterno with a nice throwback Thursday image of Beaver Stadium this morning (this is how it looked when I was first going to games)…
#TBT 1991 Beaver Stadium North deck (in pre-panoramic picture days)-Great view of @MtNittany without South upper deck pic.twitter.com/QR7ytqBBVE
— Jay Paterno (@JayPaterno) February 5, 2015
Penn State Recruiting Updates
With the Class of 2015 now set, Penn State still has two scholarships to play with if they choose to do so. Two scholarships for players that were under scholarship when the sanctions were levied no longer count against Penn State’s scholarship count. Still, I have an 85-scholarship roster in play, so I admit I am confused where the two extra scholarships would fit. In any event, the focus now shifts to the Class of 2016, where Penn State is already trying to stay ahead of the game.
I will begin to dig deeper into the Class of 2016 in the coming days, but Penn State already has four hard commits lined up for the next recruiting class; Pro-style quarterback Jake Zembiec out of New York, cornerback Lavert Hill out of Michigan, Woodland Hills running back Miles Sanders (No. 2 player in PA per 247)and defensive end Shane Simmons. All four are rated four stars on the 247 Sports composite rankings (Simmons is a five-star talent on 247’s own ranking, and Zembiec is rated three stars by 247). Penn State will likely not have as many scholarships available to hand out in 2016, but it can still put together a very solid class that continues to add quality depth. So far, it is off to a solid start.
Two-Minute Drill
The Student Section is loaded with signing day commentary; fundamental truths about recruiting and success; Michigan could have done worse, Purdue could have done better; BYU coaches enjoyed signing day, with a recruit this big why would they not; the raw emotion of signing day in one announcement… also from TSS, do you have to run the spread to be successful in the Big 12?… A wrap-up of signing day from College Football Talk… USC took top billing from Rivals and Scout, but Alabama remained on top from 247 and ESPN (nothing like a split mythical recruiting national championship)…
Let’s Get Connected
Nittany Lions Den is on Twitter, Facebook and FanCred.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
