UNIVERSITY PARK — Bill O’Brien’s views on recruiting rankings are similar to those held by his predecessor, Joe Paterno.
Penn State’s new football coach has little use for the star system.
“If you look at our roster, we have guys that were highly ranked coming out of high school and guys that were not ranked at all,” O’Brien said Wednesday, when Penn State added 18 prospects to its Class of 2012 on the first day of the National Signing Period.
O’Brien was referring to the roster of his current team — the New England Patriots, who will meet the New York Giants in Sunday’s Super Bowl. His point was that it’s too early to evaluate his first class of Nittany Lions, which includes only a small handful of four-star players and is ranked in the 30s and 40s nationally.
“I couldn’t care less about player rankings,” O’Brien said during a conference call with reporters. “What I care about is that we found the right fit for Penn State with all these prospects. The credit goes to the assistant coaches for going out there and finding what we were looking for, which means good students, good citizens, good football players.”
The high-profile players of the class include Wilkes-Barre wide receiver Eugene Lewis, New York running back Akeel Lynch and Georgia quarterback Steven Bench. There is also the son of a former Penn State great — Jonathan Warner, a wide receiver from Camas, Wash., is the son of All-American running back Curt Warner.
O’Brien has repeatedly said his first recruiting goal is to get the best players in Pennsylvania, and his first class included four players from the Keystone State — Lewis, McKeesport tight end Jesse James (who enrolled in classes in January), Harrisburg defensive end Evan Schwan and Jessup linebacker Nyeem Wartman.
Schwan and Warner were two of eight players to commit after O’Brien was hired and filled out the majority of his staff in early January. O’Brien credited his assistant coaches — holdover Larry Johnson, in particular — with helping keep several of the previous commits in the fold as well as landing new ones, particularly while he shuttled back and forth between State College and Foxborough, Mass., during the last few weeks.
“It’s very easy to send film over the internet or shoot me a phone number,” O’Brien said. “We were able to find a couple other guys out there that fit Penn State. Not just position needs but good, solid football players that were going to go to class and get a degree.”
In a significant departure from years past, assistant coaches and players met with reporters Wednesday to discuss the new recruits. Running backs coach Charles London said the staff would meet as a group to discuss players to potentially offer, watch film on those prospects separately, then reconvene to make the decision on the offer.
Wide receivers coach Stan Hixon said Wednesday that all of the assistant coaches (O’Brien said he hopes to have the ninth and final spot filled by the end of next week) would hit the road to recruit at some point.
The current Nittany Lions, who have been hitting the weight room at 5:30 a.m. under the direction of new strength coach Craig Fitzgerald, praised the recruits for staying with the program through one of the most tumultuous periods in Penn State history, which started with the sexual abuse charges against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
“That means a whole lot to us just knowing that we have guys that are committed, figuratively and literally, to this team and will just block everything else out and focus on our goal here,” running back Silas Redd said. “Because our common goal is to win a national championship.”
O’Brien said Wednesday he was not aware of any Nittany Lions intending to transfer out of (or into) the program. He and his assistants have already made several offers to prospects in the Class of 2013. The focus Wednesday, though, was on a class that wasn’t highly rated but will be starting fresh, just like the returning players.
“We have a lot of respect for those guys and are happy to welcome them into our family,” linebacker Michael Mauti said.
“Obviously it’s been a couple tough months for us but we’re looking to move forward. Anybody that’s on board with us, that’s fine with us. We’ll take them under our wing, and we’re proud to have those guys. We’re moving forward and it’s starting right now.”
Jeff Rice can be reached at 231-4609.
