Today is one of the biggest days in college football, when teams get to stock up on high school talent for their program. For Penn State, they entered the day with a top 20 class with multiple targets set to announce.
The day started at 7 AM when commits could start signing their letter of intent to the program they are committed to.
The day got off to a bad start when 4 star LB Brendan Ferns signed with West Virginia over Penn State.
Moments later, Shane Simmons and Will Fries signed their letters of intent.
Penn State was feeling good, more commits were faxing in their letters, but things got bad. 4 star safety commit Andrew Pyrts flipped his commitment from Penn State to Stanford. Moments later, former commit Lavert Hill signed with Michigan over PSU.
Later on, Penn State got a commit from JUCO DE Brenon Thift to help solidify the defensive line. All of the other commits signed their letter of intent.
Penn State missed out on 3 star WR Dredrick Snelson and 3 star DE Rashad Weaver to end the day.
This brought Penn State’s final number of members for the 2016 class at 20.
2016 Class
They are as follows (With consensus rank from the 4 major recruiting sites):
5 star (#1 RB) Miles Sanders (Pittsburgh, PA)
4 star (#1 OG) Michal Menet (Reading, PA)
4 star DE Shane Simmons (Hyattsville, MD)
4 star DT Ellison Jordan (Baltimore, MD)
4 star DE Daniel Joseph (Lake Forest, IL)
4 star OC Connor McGovern (early enrollee) (Lopez, PA)
4 star LB Cameron Brown (Burtonsville, MD)
4 star CB Zechariah McPhearson (Upper Marlboro, MD)
3 star JUCO DT Tyrell Chavis (Graden City, NY)
3 star QB Jake Zembiec (early enrollee) (Rochester, NY)
3 star TE Danny Dalton (early enrollee) (Marshfield, MA)
3 star OT Will Fries (Cranford, NJ)
3 star OT Alex Gellerstedt (early enrollee) (Dublin, OH)
3 star DE/LB Shaka Toney (Philadelphia, PA)
3 star P Blake Gillikin (Atlanta, GA)
3 star WR Dae’lun Darien (Baltimore, PA)
3 star DT Antonio Shelton (Westerville, OH)
3 star CB Anthony Johnson (Euclid, OH)
3 star K Alex Barbir (Cumming, GA)
2 star JUCO DE Brenon Thrift (Scranton, PA)
The Class- By the Numbers
7- The number of decommits: Penn State lost commitments from 3 star DT Christian Colon, 4 star CB Lavert Hill, 4 star DT Karamo Dioubute, 3 star DT Michael Dwumfour, 3 star K Quinn Nordin, 3 star ATH Aaron Mathews, 4 star S Andrew Pyrts.
8- The number of Penn State commits inside ESPN top 300 recruits.
19- Penn State’s average class rank, 247 had PSU at 18 while ESPN had them at 17, Rivals had them the furthest back at 22 and Scout had them at 21.
3- The number of Penn State recruits who were a 5 star for at least one recruiting site. Miles Sanders led the way being a 5 star for three different sites, while Michal Menet and Shane Simmons received a 5th star from 247 and Menet got one from Scout.
8- The number of states Penn State got commits from. Maryland and Pennsylvania the highest with 5 commits, Ohio followed with 3, Georgia and New York had 2, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey each had 1.
My Awards
Leader- Shane Simmons, the defensive end committed to Penn State way back in the summer of 2014 and he became a great recruiter getting friend Ellison Jordan to come with him. He also used his Twitter to recruit, but I’ll get to that.
Most Loyal Commit- Michal Menet, he rarely talked about his recruitment, up until he announced who his final schools would be and when he would commit. Once he committed to Penn State, he became a fan favorite and never wavered his commitment, although his position coach Herb Hand left Penn State.
Most Important Commit- Blake Gillikin, yes the punter. Gillikin brings a strong leg and the ability to punt the ball 70 yards( Its in his highlight film) to Happy Valley. Everyone knows Penn State has struggled punting the ball, and Gillikin should bring immediate relief.
Most College-Ready Commit- Miles Sanders, there’s a reason the Pittsburgh native is the best running back in his class. He brings quickness and explosiveness to the Penn State running game, which should allow him to share carries with Saquon Barkley next season to form the scariest running attack in the Big Ten.
Best Twitter- Had to go back to Shane Simmons, his love for trolling Maryland fans and spreading Penn State pride across the nation was a reason a lot of fans found faith in the program again and helped reel in commits. His mom, Jen, also runs a pretty good Twitter.
Best Hair- Antonio Shelton, most fans did not know about Antonio until late January, when Penn State offered him, but he’s got some vertical on his hair.
Drama Queen- Quinn Nordin, the top ranked kicker in this cycle committed to Penn State back in July with his wonderful music video featuring a private jet. By November, the Michigan native started visiting Michigan and other schools and started showing interest on his Twitter account. After his sleep over with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh(I cannot confirm if they watched Netflix), Penn State got fed up, so they went out a flipped Rutgers commit Alex Barbir to replace Nordin, Nordin decommitted a couple days later and signed with his beloved Wolverines today.
Fun Facts
Miles Sanders and Michal Menet are Penn State’s highest ranking duo since Christian Hackenberg and Adam Breneman in 2012.
They are also Pennsylvania’s highest rated duo since 2012 and the first time the #1 and #2 player in the state both signed with the Nittany Lions since Dan Connor and Anthony Morelli in 2004.
Penn State got the #1 player in 4 states with Sanders from Pennsylvania, Zembiec from New York, Dalton from Massachusetts, and Simmons from Maryland.
Hits and Misses
Penn State did a great job keeping Simmons and Jordan away from Maryland and landing their services. Penn State made quick work of Pitt as they reeled in Miles Sanders before his junior year even started. Penn State did do a good job getting Lavert Hill out of Michigan and Andrew Pryts away from Ohio State, but now that they are gone, it doesn’t matter.
Penn State also missed on a lot of top targets including 4 star TE Cary Angeline who out of no where committed to USC over his in state Lions who had long been the favorite. 4 star LB Brendon Ferns was another bad miss, Ferns may be a Nittany Lion to if the snow storm two weeks back had not interfered with his visit to Happy Valley that didn’t end up happening. Instead, he is with WVU. 4 star CB Damar Hamlin was another miss, early on in the process, Penn State seemed like the favorite, but a push by Pitt resulted in him signing there today. Penn State also missed with their top receiving target Tre Nixon, the 4 star is from Florida, so a northern school like Penn State had no real chance. Penn State also had a mess up with Khaleke Hudson, the Pittsburgh area 3 star safety wanted to commit to Penn State in November, but at the time Penn State had the position filled, when the position became available, it was too late, Hudson committed to Michigan instead.
National Ranks
Depending on what site you follow, multiple teams had the top recruiting spot. ESPN went with Florida State while 247, Rivals, and Scout went with Alabama. One thing was agreed on by all four, New Jersey DT Rashan Gary was the #1 overall player in the class. Gary, unfortunately for Penn State, was one of 30 recruits to sign with Michigan today, a group that includes three former Penn State commits and a couple more targets.
Penn State finished with the third ranked class in the Big Ten according to ESPN and 247, only behind Michigan and Ohio State. According to Scout and Rivals, Penn State was fourth with Michigan State a couple spots ahead.
Final Thoughts
This class is full of a lot of great talent and helped fill a need at offensive line with four commits in that area. Penn State was hurt by decommits and missing out on top targets. I do believe that this class could’ve been a top 10 class had they kept Pyrts and Dioubate and added Hamlin and Ferns, but James Franklin should be very pleased with those who stayed and the job he did to fill the voids left. I do believe that there are a lot of future impact players in this class, and as I stated above, some could make an impact as early as September 3rd. Penn State’s staff did a great job of recruiting the region getting players from 8 different states. The commitment of JUCO DT Tyrell Chavis was huge, because his 6’4 320 frame, along with college experience, allows him to play this year and give guys like Jordan and Shelton time to develop. Getting two specialists in a kicker and a punter is huge, Penn State struggled mightily in the special teams game this past season.
This group brings a lot of versatility to the team and allows them all to have a chance to make an impact at some point during their time at Penn State. Simmons and Joseph could combine to give Penn State a scary pass rushing attack, while Danny Dalton may be the pass catching tight end Penn State has been looking for since Jesse James. The possibilities are endless and that is what’s exciting about every new recruiting class.
There definitely is a buzz starting around this program again, and this class only helped that. Franklin now has a top 25 in all three of his recruiting classes at Penn State, and that will help the program restore its greatness.
2016 recruiting is now behind us, we move on to an intriguing 2017 group.
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