How the Penn State Nittany Lions find hidden recruiting gems, OL/DL depth, and more
Terry Smith doesn’t much care how recruiting sites rate players. But there’s still nothing Penn State’s defensive recruiting coordinator enjoys more than unearthing the class’s hidden gems, the players with few scholarship offers and little publicity.
“We take great pride in discovery,” he added Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period.
The Nittany Lions’ 2020 class, made up of 27 signees, is ranked as the No. 13 group in the nation, per 247 Sports. But Smith and the program aren’t focused on those numbers — and they’re pleased with their haul, even if some prospects don’t boast Under Armour invitations or never earned a fourth star.
Smith pointed to three-star cornerback Joseph Johnson III, an underrated 6-foot-2 prospect with nearly two dozen scholarship offers, as the epitome of that discovery.
“Joe Johnson didn’t blow up until we offered,” Smith said, explaining Penn State identified him as a serious target in mid-March. “He probably had three offers.
“We try to trust our process. We don’t want to sit there and look at the Internet ratings.”
That process has helped the Nittany Lions jump early on some talented bandwagons. While colleges were trying to convince three-star QB Trace McSorley to play defense, James Franklin saw a future quarterback. When the Nittany Lions earned an early commitment from an under-the-radar Justin Fields, he was still months away from transforming into a national prospect (before eventually decommitting). And when current starter Journey Brown had just two offers, from Syracuse and Temple, the Nittany Lions still envisioned a special player they needed to commit.
Smith said this class is no different. Norval Black, a three-star junior-college wideout, had no scholarship offers until Penn State stepped up over the summer. Tyler Warren, a three-star QB/TE, jumped onto Penn State’s radar during a camp two years ago before he even had a ranking on Rivals. Fatorma Mulbah, a three-star defensive tackle, still isn’t highly regarded — even if assistant recruiting coordinator Charles Walker thinks that’s a huge oversight.
“On film, he didn’t look great as a junior and he came into camp and nobody could stop him,” Walker said. “And then we go in and evaluate his camp and his testing numbers and his workout, and then his senior film comes out ... and his senior tape looks like a Power 5 prospect or five-star kid that everyone should be recruiting in the country and no one knows about. Tyler Elsdon is the same way.”
Penn State’s “process” is pretty simple: Get feedback, lots and lots of feedback. The recruiting staff will evaluate a prospect, then the coaching staff, then James Franklin. Before a scholarship offer is made, it needs to go through the position coach, the coach who oversees the recruiting area, the offensive staff (if he’s an offensive prospect), James Franklin and then the recruiting staff.
Everyone needs to sign off on a player. And, when they do, good things usually happen.
“Sometimes you just have to trust your eyes,” offensive recruiting coordinator Tyler Bowen said. “You can’t listen to the noise.”
Depth in the trenches
James Franklin joked he was still “scarred” from the lack of depth in the trenches when he first arrived — so he’s made sure that’s not an issue anymore.
In fact, with five offensive linemen signed Wednesday to go along with six defensive linemen, the opposite nearly holds true. Defensive recruiting coordinator Terry Smith even acknowledged Penn State has about two more defensive linemen on the roster than what’s needed.
“We just feel like offensive line and defensive line, you can’t turn those guys away,” Smith said. “You just keep recruiting because that’s the foundation.”
Added Franklin: “We’ve continued to make that a focus, and we’re in a pretty healthy spot right now.”
When Franklin first arrived in Happy Valley in 2014, he couldn’t even field two complete offensive lines in the annual Blue-White Game because of the scholarship reductions. Now, the defensive line is a yearly strength while the offensive line has slowly shown progress and is no longer team’s Achilles’ heel.
“You can never go over when you’re talking about the line of scrimmage, when you’re talking about both sides of the ball,” offensive recruiting coordinator Tyler Bowen said. “Offensive line is obviously a position that, when we first got here, we were obviously very light on. ... It’s really taken this much time to get back up to our number, to where we want to be.”
Next Micah Parsons?
Penn State signed three linebackers Wednesday, boosting the number of scholarship ‘backers on next year’s roster to nine. But defensive recruiting coordinator Terry Smith especially highlighted one LB.
He labeled Curtis Jacobs, the headliner of the class as the nation’s No. 44 overall prospect, as being “very similar” to Parsons.
Not only is the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Jacobs’ athleticism similar to Parsons. But Smith also said his mentality could make him elite.
“When you talk about elite guys, like Saquon (Barkley) or you talk Pat Freiermuth and you talk Micah Parsons, those guys’ mindsets are different,” Smith said. “KJ Hamler’s mindset is different. We have a lot of guys that are really good, but they don’t have the elite mindset. And that’s what separates the guys that have great success in the NFL as opposed to the guys who come in for 2, 3, 4 or 5 years in the NFL.
“So, with Curtis Jacobs, we feel like he has that. He has an elite mindset. He has an elite work ethic. His ball skills, his athleticism — we’re just excited to get him here and get him into the weight room and train him up.”
James Franklin also praised Jacobs, saying he has the ability to play all three linebacker spots for Penn State. He’s currently listed as an outside ‘backer, however.
No Rahne, no problem
Offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne left Happy Valley to become Old Dominion’s head coach just over a week ago, but his departure has had a limited impact on recruiting.
“Really, no one flinched,” James Franklin said.
Three-star offensive lineman Devin Willock did decommit after Rahne left, but that move wasn’t seen as related to Rahne. Willock officially became a Georgia Bulldog on Wednesday.
According to offensive recruiting coordinator Tyler Bowen, most recruits just wanted reassurance that Penn State still had plans for them. Overwhelmingly, the most-often asked question was, “Are you going to continue to do the things that you recruited me for?”
Once the staff told them that, yes, your skill-sets will have a place with the new coordinator, Bowen said the recruits seemed fine.
“Coach Franklin’s allowed us as assistants, and he did it himself, to be very transparent through the process,” Bowen said. “And I think that put a lot of people at ease.”
Penn State has still not hired a replacement offensive coordinator, but the Nittany Lions didn’t lose any commits as a result.
Notes
- Franklin said he anticipates that 11 players will enroll in January. Those set to enroll early include RB Caziah Holmes, WR KeAndre Lambert, WR Jaden Dottin, TE Theo Johnson, OG Nick Dawkins, DT Cole Brevard, DT Fatorma Mulbah, DE Bryce Mostella, S Enzo Jennings, CB Joseph Johnson III and LB Tyler Elsdon.
- Smith said, as it stands, Penn State has a “full class” with 27 commits. Franklin did say over the summer that he anticipated 30 commits, but fewer players departed — at least so far — than was expected. “Unless some guys leave early for the NFL, I don’t anticipate any moves,” Smith added. “But who knows in today’s times? If some blue-chip guy all of a sudden becomes available, we’re not going to turn away a guy that can help us immediately.”
- Three-star prospect Zuriah Fisher is penciled in at linebacker, although some schools were projecting him as a defensive end. He’s currently listed at 255 pounds, but Smith said there will be no emphasis on his weight. If he naturally adds more mass, then he’ll just move to end. But, for now, he’s a big linebacker. “He brings a physicality and a throwback mentality that we need on our defense,” Smith said. “We need a thumper, and that’s what he brings.”
- The Nittany Lions currently have one fewer safety than they’d prefer, but the coaching staff isn’t too concerned. The game plan with safeties is usually to recruit lengthy corners who can cover and, if they’re smart and/or physical enough, they can move to safety. Smith pointed out that both starting safeties this season, Lamont Wade and Garrett Taylor, were once cornerbacks. Smith sees juco safety Ji’Ayir Brown figuring into the rotation a la Jaquan Brisker, and he called freshman safety Enzo Jennings “a great fit for us.”
- Franklin said he doesn’t guarantee playing time to recruits. Never has at Penn State and likely never will. “We didn’t do that six years ago when we probably could’ve,” he added.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 8:13 PM.
