The Penn State football program added some much needed depth to the offensive line on Monday when Pittsburgh native and standout four-star recruit Sterling Jenkins signed with the Nittany Lions.
Jenkins plans to enroll at the university in January 2015 and will be eligible to participate in all team activities during the spring semester.
A prep All-America offensive tackle, Jenkins signed and submitted his Grant-In-Aid agreement and will join Lackawanna College offensive tackle Paris Palmer as January enrollees. Jenkins will be able to participate in off-season conditioning, spring practice and the 2015 season, a big positive for both player and program. Palmer committed to the program about a week ago.
Jenkins is a 6-foot-8, 305-pound offensive tackle and is rated as a four star prospect by all four of the major recruiting services; 247sports.com, ESPN.com, Rivals.com and Scout.com. Jenkins accepted an invitation to play in the Under Armour All-American Game, which will be contested at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. on Jan. 2, 2015.
Jenkins is rated as the No. 1 player in the state of Pennsylvania, according to Scout.com and ESPN.com, and is ranked No. 4 and No. 9, respectively, among offensive line recruits nationally. Jenkins also is rated as the 57th player nationally by Scout.com and the 105th player nationally by ESPN.com.
While Jenkins ultimately chose Happy Valley as his home, he was courted by top football schools such as Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
Penn State has signed three offensive linemen for the incoming recruiting class as the Nittany Lions look to bolster a young and inexperienced unit in the season to come.
How long does it take to grow an offensive line?
“Oh gosh, a while,” Penn State offensive coordinator John Donovan said earlier this year. “That’s why you love to have ‑‑ ideally the kid hasn’t played redshirt sophomore, get him a couple of years of learning the system, getting bigger and faster. It’s such a different game up front. Especially for an offensive lineman. It’s like calculus to those guys. It’s very intricate, the defenses and what they do and how you need to block them. So not only do you need to be smart and be able to think fast you need to be strong enough and big enough to handle the one‑on‑one matchups.”
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