Pundits have long said Penn State would be unable to recruit while under NCAA sanctions. A four year bowl ban and a four year ban from the conference championship has given Penn State little in terms of a tangible objective to reach for each year.
As a result, the incentive of playing at Penn State would be limited to the experience, the education, and the chance to work with O’Brien and his NFL tenured staff.
The horror.
“It’s nearly impossible to recruit a great or even good player when he knows he can’t participate in the postseason until he is, at best, a senior,” Yahoo!’s Dan Wetzel wrote last July. “Any player worth his scholarship wants to compete for championships. Penn State players can’t. So why wouldn’t recruits just go to Michigan or Alabama or wherever?”
Wetzel is right in some respects, players have turned away from Penn State because of these sanctions, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Even so, the bottom hasn’t fallen out of Happy Valley’s recruiting train and the success Bill O’Brien has had on the recruiting trail has outperformed even the most optimistic fan’s expectations.
“What made Penn State good hasn’t changed.” Rivals anaylst Mike Farrell said. “The locker room hasn’t changed, the fans, the stadium, the history and tradition hasn’t changed. I knew Penn State would be better off with an active head coach. People don’t understand the limitations the staff was working with since around 2006 or so.”
“When kids took visits to campus they limited the amount of time they spent with Joe. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could bring out and say ‘he’ll be your coach for the next five years’, Bill O’Brien is a guy you can trot out front and center and say ‘Hey, this is our guy.’”
And having “their guy” has paid off.
Since the NCAA dropped its ruling on July 23 of 2012 Penn State has managed to yield the following results on the recruiting trail. (star ranking via scout.com)
- 2 five star recruits
- 4 four star recruits
- 12 three star recruits
- 5 two star recruits
How much one should value a star ranking is a debate that will continue as long as prospects are rated, but at the very least O’Brien is recruiting as well as the program ever has.
One would also have to assume that if the second year head coach is still in State College at the end of the four year ban, he and his staff’s recruiting performance would only improve. Depth, injury, and the actual performance on the field will continue to be obstacles, but O’Brien has proved capable of managing these hurdles as well as anyone in the field.
Currently the 2014 class continues to fill as the Nittany Lions added two more recruits, both with a four star ratings, to the fold this month. With only 15 scholarships to offer per NCAA sanctions, each of the six currently committed players will have the added pressure of performing well and performing early when they reach Penn State. That number might be even less depending on how O’Brien wants to go about getting to the 65 scholarship limit before next year.
For a pass-happy, offensive-minded coach like O’Brien, it’s fitting that his two biggest recruits in 2014 would be offensive weapons.
Troy Apke verbally committed only a week before the Blue-White game Saturday. The 6-foot-2, 175 pound receiver from Pittsburgh picked the Nittany Lions over the University of Pittsburgh where he would have become a legacy player.
Chris Godwin, a 6-foot-2, 200 pound receiver from Middletown, DE gave O’Brien his word Tuesday night according to multiple outlets. Godwin pulled down 42 receptions, 900 yards, and 12 touchdowns in 2012 and held offers from over 15 schools including Ohio State, Stanford, and Maryland.
O’Brien and his staff get the public credit, but with incoming freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg on the roster, it isn’t surprising that Penn State is finding offensive players with ease. Four of the six current verbal commits for the 2014 class are receivers; five of the six are offensive players. The final player? Fittingly a linebacker.
Hackenberg’s future success remains to be seen, but O’Brien’s transformation of walk-on Matt McGloin leaves little room to doubt O’Brien and quarterback’s coach Charlie Fishers’ ability to teach.
Regardless, whoever ends up playing under center this season will have the benefit of a roster loaded with offensive talent. Likely the best tight end core in the nation, the Big Ten’s best receiver, and a stable of running backs that are looking to make a name for themselves.
If Penn State can pull off eight or more wins, there is no reason to expect the recruiting to slow down anytime soon.
From here on out O’Brien will be working with a limited number of scholarships. With only a handful of scholarships remaining each prospect will be vetted to make sure the program is getting exactly what it needs. There is no exact science to this process but so far whatever O’Brien is doing is working.
