Through Twitter, we asked fans to give us their biggest recruiting questions heading into national signing day and beyond.
Q.(@RoylerCougar): What’s the most realistic worst case scenario for this class?
A. The worst case scenario for this 2016 class would be for Simmons and Nordin to decommit and for us to lose out on Ferns, Nixon, Hamlin, and Hudson. Another problem would be not finding a replacement for the recently decommitted Dioubate.
Q. (@PSUrowe): What does an average in-home visit consist of? The big recruiting weekend on the 22nd, what all does that entail?
A. The average in-home visit will consist of an assistant coach or sometimes even a head coach having dinner with the family and the recruit. After that the coach will sit down with the recruit and his parents and talk about how that recruit fits in the scheme and program. Academics will be a topic of conversation and what the school offers to help the student athlete graduate with their desired degree. As for the big weekend at State College in a couple weeks, that will be a good mix of already committed recruits and top targets still left out there. All the kids taking official visits will get to meet the staff, present players, and possibly a few professors if they have any academic questions. They will all get to tour the facilities and Beaver Stadium. They will get meals paid for by the program and to finish the day off they will probably watch some film with their respective position coach. If they are staying over night, they will be bunking with a couple present players. I would not be surprised if Penn State landed a couple targets over that weekend.
Q. (@PSUrowe): Must get recruits in 2017?
A. This is an intriguing question. I expect the 2017 class to consist of somewhere between 15-20 commits with two already there with Dylan Rivers and Sean Clifford. There’s a lot of great talent in this class and Penn State has a good chance with a few of them. 5 star all purpose back D’andre Swift out of Philadelphia is probably the best back in this class and would be nice in Moorhead’s system. Eastern Pa standout wide receiver Mark Webb is the top WR target in this class. Pittsburgh Central Catholic 4 star linebacker David Adams would be a big addition to an already strong linebacker group. Lamont Wade, teammate of 2016 commit Aaron Mathews, is one of the best athletes in this class and could play both sides of the ball. On the offensive line I like Robert Hainsey of IMG and CJ Thorpe of Central Catholic, two 4 stars with outstanding upside. On the defensive line, IMG teammates, both formerly from Maryland, Josh Kaindoh and Cam Spence would be great gets.
Q. (@PSUrowe): Impact of Shoop leaving?
A. If you haven’t heard by now, defensive coordinator Bob Shoop was at Tennessee today interviewing for the same position. Nothing is official he is still at Penn State as of right now. The impact Shoop has on recruiting is surprisingly not that big, co- defensive coordinator Brent Pry is the top recruiter for defensive players and is a favorite amongst them. Shoop leaving could possibly impact how the team plays, but it shouldn’t affect recruiting that bad.
Q. (@PSU_strong): How does Penn State regroup after the decommitment of Karamo Dioubate?
A. This one seemingly came out of no where. Dioubate committed to Penn State in August and then he practically fell off the map. He doesn’t have a Twitter and didn’t visit Penn State once and then all of a sudden takes an official visit to Auburn and decommits a month later. Here’s the problem with this happening, it happened so late in the process. Penn State had cut off scholarships to defensive tackles, so most of them committed else where, there aren’t many top DT left on the east coast that aren’t committed. Franklin has three options. 1. Offer more defensive tackles who would be interested in playing for Penn State. 2. Recruit JUCO guys, notably Tyrell Chavis from Nassau Community College in New York. He is 6’4 320 and already 21 years old so he would be competing for a starting job this year. 3. The last option is to recruit Dioubate hard after the dead period ends, if that fails then Penn State could look to recruit defensive tackles who are committed else where and try to get a flip.
I hope this helped answer some of your recruiting questions as we head towards signing day on February 3rd.
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