After commending head coach James Franklin for signing one of the school's best classes ever, I examined all of Penn State's classes for the prior decade in depth. Go read that piece for a full summary. For this piece, a brief primer will suffice:
Paterno's Last Five Classes
2007: 39th (14 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 4 ★★★★, 9 ★★★)
2008: 40th (15 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 5 ★★★★, 9 ★★★)
2009: 19th (24 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 7 ★★★★, 16 ★★★)
2010: 13th (18 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 13 ★★★★, 5 ★★★)
2011: 31st (16 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 5 ★★★★, 10 ★★★)
The 2012 Class (Paterno, an exodus, then O'Brien)
2012: 47th (20 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 3 ★★★★, 16 ★★★)
O'Brien's Class
2013: 33rd (16 recruits, 1 ★★★★★, 3 ★★★★, 11 ★★★)
The 2014 Class (O'Brien, then Franklin)
2014: 24th (25 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 5 ★★★★, 20 ★★★)
Franklin's First Four Classes
2015: 14th (25 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 13 ★★★★, 12 ★★★)
2016: 20th (20 recruits, 1 ★★★★★, 7 ★★★★, 11 ★★★)
2017: 15th (22 recruits, 0 ★★★★★, 11 ★★★★, 10 ★★★)
2018: 6th (23 recruits, 3 ★★★★★, 12 ★★★★, 8 ★★★)
The 2019 class looked like it would be smaller than the preceding classes, but the quality of the recruits was right in line with Franklin's best groups even as he added a group of three-star recruits at the end of the cycle. As was the case last year, the point of this post is simple: the players that comprise the class are largely players targeted by elite peer institutions. Plus, it's helping me to deal with the disappointment of Nittany missing out on both Bryan Bresee and Julian Fleming in the last few weeks despite both of those elite 2020 prospects being in Nittany's own backyard. Here's the top five offers for each player in the Penn State class (using my own highly unofficial prestige rankings).
- ★★★★★ ILB Brandon Smith
- Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame
- ★★★★ RB Devyn Ford
- Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, USC
- ★★★★ G Caedan Wallace
- Clemson, Michigan, Florida, Auburn, LSU
- ★★★★ DE Adisa Isaac
- Alabama, Michigan, Florida, LSU, Miami
- ★★★★ RB Noah Cain
- Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Auburn
- ★★★★ WR John Dunmore
- Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida, Miami
- ★★★★ OLB Lance Dixon
- Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Texas A&M, Michigan State
- ★★★★ S Tyler Rudolph
- Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan, Florida, Virginia Tech
- ★★★★ QB Ta'Quan Roberson
- Ohio State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland, Syracuse
- ★★★★ OT Anthony Whigan (JUCO)
- TCU, South Carolina, West Virginia, Nebraska, Pittsburgh
- ★★★★ DT D'Von Ellies
- Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Florida, Nebraska
- ★★★★ G Saleem Wormley
- Notre Dame, Florida State, West Virginia, Tennessee, Pittsburgh (Yale, too)
- ★★★★ DE Hakeem Beamon
- Alabama, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, West Virginia
- ★★★★ CB Keaton Ellis
- Syracuse, Buffalo (Ellis is from State College, PA, and committed before his junior year)
- ★★★★ CB Joey Porter Jr.
- LSU, Miami, West Virginia, Nebraska, Pittsburgh
- ★★★★ S Jaquan Brisker (JUCO)
- Alabama, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Mississippi State
- ★★★★ TE Brenton Strange
- Ohio State, Notre Dame, Louisville, Maryland, Purdue
- ★★★★ QB Michael Johnson Jr.
- Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan
- ★★★ CB Marquis Wilson
- Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Florida State
- ★★★ WR TJ Jones
- Florida, Texas A&M, Miami, Oregon, Nebraska
- ★★★ DE Smith Vilbert
- Florida, Florida State, Oregon, Miami, Nebraska
- ★★★ DT Joseph Appiah Darkwa
- UCLA, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Indiana
- ★★★ CB Daequan Hardy
- Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Navy, Army
When I initially drafted this piece at the end of the fall, it appeared to me that Nittany would shed at least five players via the transfer window. Well now. Instead, the team lost 12 players to the transfer portal in addition to those players that had previously been kicked off of the team. I surmised that S John Petrishen, LB Dae'lun Darien, and CB D.J. Brown appeared likely to explore a transfer given their statuses on the depth chart, further noting that OLB Jarvis Miller, TE Jon Holland, and TE Danny Dalton could consider looking elsewhere for playing time; WR Cam Sullivan-Brown was an unconventional transfer possibility.
In the end, here's what happened:
QB Tommy Stevens (graduate) --> Mississippi State
WR Juwan Johnson (graduate) --> Oregon
TE Danny Dalton (graduate) --> Boston College
OLB Jarvis Miller (graduate) --> UMass
WR Brandon Polk (graduate) --> James Madison
CB Zechariah McPhearson (graduate) --> Texas Tech
S Isaiah Humphries --> Cal
DE Torrence Brown (graduate) --> Southern Miss
OT Alex Gellerstedt (graduate) --> Virginia
S Ayron Monroe (graduate) --> Temple
RB Mark Allen (graduate) --> Duquesne
OLB Dae'lun Darien --> Delaware
In addition to the above, both S Lamont Wade and WR Cam Sullivan-Brown entered their names into the portal but eventually elected to stick around, in part because other transfers opened up the depth chart. Penn State did add one incoming graduate transfer in D2 All-American WR Weston Carr.
Taken together and after adding a trio of upperclassmen walk-ons to scholarship, Nittany finds themselves entering the year with 80 scholarship players (or 81 if Carr is on scholarship).
The recruiting class turned out to be another strong one:
In the end, here's what happened:
QB Tommy Stevens (graduate) --> Mississippi State
WR Juwan Johnson (graduate) --> Oregon
TE Danny Dalton (graduate) --> Boston College
OLB Jarvis Miller (graduate) --> UMass
WR Brandon Polk (graduate) --> James Madison
CB Zechariah McPhearson (graduate) --> Texas Tech
S Isaiah Humphries --> Cal
DE Torrence Brown (graduate) --> Southern Miss
OT Alex Gellerstedt (graduate) --> Virginia
S Ayron Monroe (graduate) --> Temple
RB Mark Allen (graduate) --> Duquesne
OLB Dae'lun Darien --> Delaware
In addition to the above, both S Lamont Wade and WR Cam Sullivan-Brown entered their names into the portal but eventually elected to stick around, in part because other transfers opened up the depth chart. Penn State did add one incoming graduate transfer in D2 All-American WR Weston Carr.
Taken together and after adding a trio of upperclassmen walk-ons to scholarship, Nittany finds themselves entering the year with 80 scholarship players (or 81 if Carr is on scholarship).
The recruiting class turned out to be another strong one:
Franklin's Most Recent Class
2019: 13th (23 recruits, 1 ★★★★★, 17 ★★★★, 5 ★★★)
It's a good thing that Franklin brought in such a strong class because his gameday coaching continues to lag horribly behind his peers, especially those in the Big Ten East, and he'll need a number of young players to step into key roles this year given the voluminous departures of upperclassmen depth players. In particular, the Class of 2018 figures to play an especially prominent role for the 2019 team. That's not terribly encouraging, though there's still reason for hope. More on that in a bit.
For now, after compiling just one top-15 class from 2007-14, Penn State can celebrate their fourth such class in five full years under Franklin.
