How Penn State football’s Kenny Sanders helped build a pipeline to his alma mater McDonogh
Penn State football recruiting coordinator Kenny Sanders and Maryland’s McDonogh School head football coach Hakeem Sule have known each other since 2000.
Sule was in eighth grade at McDonogh, while Sanders was a senior on the football team. Sanders went off to Gettysburg College and Sule played for the Maryland Terrapins after graduating from McDonogh in 2004. While Sule was at Maryland, he met then-Terrapins offensive coordinator James Franklin, who was set to be the coach-in-waiting.
Fast forward 21 years later, Sanders, Sule and Franklin have continued to link up as four current Penn State players called McDonogh their high school home. And there could be more to come in the future, as the Nittany Lions are targeting at least four current Eagles.
“One thing about Penn State in general is (that) we are looking for a certain type of athlete and individual,” Sanders said. “It has to check all of the boxes. They can’t just be a great football player — we’re looking for upstanding young men, guys that want to be active in the community, people that want to excel in the classroom. In a lot of ways, when you look at Penn State, I just see the next level of McDonogh.
“Coming from the MIAA conference (Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association), there’s a lot of academic schools there that also excel at athletics. That’s exactly what Penn State is. When you look at those four guys that we brought onto this team, it pretty much embodies what we’re looking for.”
Building trust and connections
There’s no shortage of Eagles and former Eagles walking around Penn State’s campus.
Defensive linemen P.J. Mustipher and D’von Ellies, along with linebacker Curtis Jacobs and offensive lineman Will Knuttson, are all current members of the Nittany Lions’ McDonogh contingent. Recruits Dani Dennis-Sutton, Mason Robinson and Antonio Tripp have all visited the university in recent weeks.
Mustipher and Jacobs are set to play a key role on Penn State’s defense this season. Mustipher, a senior, has 86 total tackles (seven for a loss) and two sacks over 31 career games, while Jacobs, a sophomore, has nine total tackles in five games played. Mustipher is penciled in as a starter for 2021, and Jacobs should see an uptick in playing time.
Jacobs sees Sanders as a mentor and a person who he can invest his full trust into. The two texted one another many days during Jacobs’ recruitment, with Sanders allowing him to go through the process without being too pushy. Even if Jacobs hadn’t chosen Penn State, he said he knew that Sanders would be “behind my back.” That same trust goes to his current teammates.
“I got to see how much it worked out for those guys,” Jacobs said of his former McDonogh and current Penn State teammates. “I’m still learning my way through Penn State with these guys. D’von is still my roommate. I’m moving in with him in August. We’re still a brotherhood, we’re still (McDonogh) teammates forever.”
Sanders returned to the Nittany Lions this spring, after a brief stint at Oregon. He had previously been Penn State’s assistant director of player personnel from 2014-19, contributing to five top-20 recruiting classes.
Sule understands the level of commitment that Sanders has to the Baltimore area. Penn State was one of the first schools to reach out to McDonogh about camp dates this offseason, and they’re actively recruiting multiple players on the team and at other schools in the region.
“I think he’s very familiar with the school, he’s very familiar with the league that we play in and their competition and with their location being approximately three hours away, he’s able to see those guys,” Sule said. “He’s there on the sidelines for Friday night football games. I think that’s a huge advantage for him at Penn State.”
Establishing familiarity with recruits
Dennis-Sutton could be one of Penn State’s biggest gets this cycle. The five-star Class of 2022 defensive end, per Rivals, has stood out from Day 1 at McDonogh. He stands in at 6-foot-5, 253 pounds and cleans up quarterbacks on a busted pocket. While he didn’t play last season, due to the cancellation of McDonogh’s season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has career stats for 11 varsity games played with 34 tackles (10 for a loss).
Dennis-Sutton has taken visits to Georgia (June 4), Penn State (June 11) and Alabama (June 18), but his ties run deepest with the Nittany Lions. The school has recruited him since the beginning of his high school career. He credits Franklin, Sanders and defensive line coach John Scott Jr. as driving factors in his interest in Penn State.
“I’ve been talking to them since my freshman year and they’ve been recruiting me heavily for the past two years,” Dennis-Sutton said. “I grew a bond the longest with them the most out of the three schools that I visited. So, that does play a factor in the relationship.
“Coach Franklin is a real guy and, obviously, he’s the leader of the team. John Scott is another guy who I’ve talked to a lot and because they’ve got some McDonogh guys. Kenny, I just talked to him and we chatted about legit stuff.”
Asked if his familiarity plays a role in his recruitment decision, Dennis-Sutton said, “absolutely.”
“We’ve got some McDonogh guys up there and I’m really comfortable,” Dennis-Sutton said. “It would be cool to play with my boys again, but at the end of the day, I have to do what’s best for me. I am pretty comfortable up there out of all of the colleges that I’ve been to other than Maryland or Georgia so far.”
Impact on potential future Nittany Lions
The 6-foot-3, 217-pound Robinson looks at Penn State as a program that is welcoming to McDonogh players.
Robinson only played junior varsity as a freshman, but has turned heads at a number of showcases. According to Rivals, he’s received offers from Boston College and Pitt in addition to Penn State, ranking as a four-star recruit in the Class of 2023. Robinson made his visit to Penn State on June 5, as well.
He believes that the path has already been forged by others, so that future Eagles can make a smooth transition into becoming Nittany Lions.
“It’s been done before. It’s not something new because you already have Curtis (Jacobs) up there and he’s a dog,” Robinson said. “You have P.J. Mustipher — he’s a dog. You’ve got D’von Ellies and Will Knutsson and they’re all dogs up there. This up and coming year, I can’t wait to watch them play.
“I can’t wait to watch them eat and Coach Sanders is from McDonogh, too, so we have a really cool connection. We always joke around, he’s really cool and very chill. The thing about McDonogh is that it doesn’t matter when you graduated, but we’re all family there.”
Incoming McDonogh defensive end Kamden Laudenslager went on his first college visits on June 5, touring Penn State and Wisconsin.
The soon-to-be 6-foot-3, 200-pound ninth-grader is one of the many McDonogh School players who have trekked Penn State’s campus. Whether it be through football camps, official or unofficial visits and even currently playing for the Nittany Lions, the ties between Owings Mills, Maryland, and University Park are many.
“Going there, it was awesome, meeting a lot of the coaches and getting to talk to Coach (James) Franklin a lot,” Laudenslager said. “Coach (Anthony) Poindexter, too. It was really cool to meet some of those guys that I’ve been seeing on TV.”
Penn State additionally offered McDonogh defensive lineman Kwan Williams and quarterback Preston Howard scholarships, prior to the former committing to Boston College and the latter to Maryland.
As for the current recruits, Sule believes that the sky’s the limit for what the Eagles can bring to their future colleges.
“I think that they would bring to any institution a tremendous work ethic in the classroom and the football field,” Sule said. “Those guys are talented kids, they work really hard in the weight room, they’re honor roll students and so, you’ll get a complete package with them.”
