Penn State signed 22 members to its Class of 2023 on Wednesday, giving the Nittany Lions the No. 14-ranked recruiting class in college football, according to the consensus rankings of On3.
Eleven high school football stars in that group will enroll at Penn State in time for the 2023 spring semester. Of the 22 signees, 15 are rated four stars or higher.
After head coach James Franklin evaluated the class in a press conference at Beaver Stadium, five of his key recruiting staffers and assistant coaches provided their insight into the class and recruiting in this era of the transfer portal and NIL.
That quintet weighs in here with some of the top Signing Day takeaways from their perspective:
ANDY FRANK, General Manager of Personnel and Recruitment
1.) Expect 3 to 7 roster additions, either via late high school signings or portal transfer: “It depends on how many good players want to say yes to us. That is always a big piece of it. It’ll depend a little bit on how many (current Penn State) guys end up getting in the portal. I feel like we’re at a good place right now in terms of where the balance is at.
“I do think that we’ll have room for what we need to sign to get to where we need to be for next year and kind of balance things out. So, it could be three, it could be seven. It’s a big range, but it really will kind of play itself out, I think, whether it is three or seven. I feel confident that we’ll be able to have a roster that we’re looking for next year.”
2.) Team unity has limited the number of Penn State transfers compared to many other programs: “We feel really good about our culture right now. I think the team is in a really good place. I think that the guys enjoy being in the locker room. When you have that you’re going to have less attrition. The guys that end up leaving then, typically it’s for playing time, and not because they’re not happy for another reason. So, from that perspective, I’m not overly surprised our numbers are fairly small.”
TAYLOR STUBBLEFIELD, WR coach and offensive recruiting coordinator
3.) Don’t expect Penn State, which will have three scholarship quarterbacks in January with the addition of freshman Jaxon Smolik, to get another QB through the portal: “The magic number for [scholarship QBs on the roster] used to be five. That’s probably not going to happen anymore. I do not think a portal quarterback is a priority for us at all. That’s not necessarily something that we’re looking at.
“We feel very strong about our quarterback room, their development and what we’re going to get. I don’t want to say ‘never,’ because I’m not the head football coach. You just never know what happens. And if the right player hits and he is a fit for us, that’s a possibility. We got some competitors in that room. Do we have to make sure we have a D squad quarterback? Yeah, we have to make sure of that.”
4.) Penn State is looking for wide receivers in the portal, but Stubblefield also expects his current players to step up: Stubblefield said that Parker Washington leaving for the NFL “opens up the possibility for us in the portal as well as trying to get somebody else. At the same time, we are looking at some of the other guys in the room. This is where I see a KeAndre Lambert-Smith or a Trey Wallace or an Omari Evans or a Kaden Saunders. And some of the other guys — even a Jaden Dottin or a Malick Meiga — this is their opportunity.”
TERRY SMITH, CB coach and defensive recruiting coordinator
5.) The status of four-star cornerback Conrad Hussey of St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida, who has yet to commit to a school, may be in flux in part because of NIL money: “You ask a kid, ‘Well, show me the contract.’ There are no contracts. This is all verbal. Some of the schools, they’ll say anything, and it will confuse a kid. You know, that’s probably what’s going on with our other kid down south.”
KENNY SANDERS, recruiting coordinator for personnel and recruitment – national
6.) When it comes to offering NIL money to recruits, Penn State can be outbid: “Everyone has money. We’re going to be dealing with it, whether you like it or not. But for me, I still want the kid to come to Penn State because they want to come to Penn State. Because at the end of the day, with the transfer portal, if it’s all about the money, someone else is just going to outbid you on the next go-round. So, the ties to the kid and the family have to be deeper than that. We have a great product here. NIL is going to be a part of it, but it can’t be all of it. If it’s only about NIL, it’s probably not going to be a kid who is going to fit in our program — because for us, it’s got to be deeper than that.”
7.) If a recruit asks about NIL money first, he’s not a good fit for Penn State: “If that’s the first conversation, and that’s all it’s about, it’s probably not something that’s going to work out well for either side. Because you’re probably not going along with our values.”
ALAN ZEMAITIS, recruiting coordinator for personnel and a former Penn State cornerback (three-time All-Big Ten and second-team All-American in 2005)
8.) The biggest change in recruiting at Penn State is the facilities, but the message stays the same: “Penn State hasn’t changed very much, except the facilities are different, though it has always felt like home to me. We’ve obviously expanded; that’s awesome.
“When we OV (official visit), we don’t go for the bright lights. You’re going to have a good time, but we’re going to spend the weekend together. It was the same way when I was getting recruited. We didn’t do anything extravagant. You hung out with the team to see if there was a good fit, and hung out with the (staff and assistants) to understand what type of people were within these walls. It never was once about the facilities. You wanted to get a good education and play football. So, I literally talk about that to people. It’s not too much of a change, except for the facilities.”
