This Wednesday will mark James Franklin’s fourth National Signing Day in a little over three years at Penn State.
That’s quite a pace.
It is still too early to get an exact idea of how CJF likes to stock his roster and do long-term roster management.
There were still scholarship sanctions in place when he arrived on Jan. 11, 2014.
Plus, he had less than four weeks to get his first class signed. As it was, of the 25 players who signed on Feb. 5, 2014, 16 had already verbally committed to Bill O’Brien. That meant only nine were true Franklin recruits.
And there was a lot of building to do. As Franklin has pointed out, the Nittany Lions had only nine offensive linemen on scholarships when he came to town. (By comparison, if the verbal commits come in as expected on Wednesday, Franklin will have signed 16 offensive linemen since he came to campus.)
Throw in a big course correction as far as the scheming and subsequent position needs of Joe Moorhead’s offense go, and simply by counting numbers we still can’t be sure of Franklin’s overall philosophy in regard to building his team year after year via the draft…er, signing day scholarships.
But we’ll try.
Projecting to Wednesday’s signings — based on the latest from Blue-White Illustrated (click here for BWI’s full list) – we are getting an overall feel for Franklin’s signing day proclivities. Using Penn State’s official signing day lists for 2014 (25 scholarships handed out), 2015 (25) and 2016 (20), plus the 18 slated for the Class of 2017, Franklin will have handed out 88 scholarships in 37 months.
That doesn’t include the annual addition of walk-ons, or walk-ons who were later awarded scholarships. The 88 are the players Franklin wanted the most, at least at the time. The following lists are based solely upon what Penn State announced in February of the past three years, plus PSU’s four January 2017 early enrollees – Lamont Wade, Kahlee Hamler, Brelin Faison-Walden and Michael Miranda – and at least 14 more to come midweek.
Given those numbers, we are starting to get an overall feel for Franklin’s roster-stocking strategy, at least to date. (Again, 2014-15 was a totally different ballgame.) And they include the following:
1. He has given the most scholarships to linemen and defensive backs, and has perfectly divided his scholarships between offense and defense.
2. Players from Pennsylvania have received the most scholarships, with 25 of the 88 scholies (28% overall) going to Keystone State high school seniors, followed by New Jersey (12), Maryland (10) and Virginia (8).
3. And while Franklin may covet five-stars – Wade is his first Rivals five-star at Penn State – about 60% of his players have been three-stars and 36% have been four-stars.
Likely, things will continue to change down the road, as the roster reaches more of an equilibrium and the Nittany Lions’ wide-open offense, introduced by Moorpoints last spring, becomes more of the long-term norm.
But for now, here’s a closer look at how Franklin has stocked his roster via scholarships:
BY YEAR
Awarded — Franklin and his staff awarded 25 scholarships on signing day in 2014, 25 in 2015 and 20 in 2016. Right now, Blue-White Illustrated – part of the Rivals network – has the Nittany Lions at 18 for 2017. That’s 88 in all. But attrition via graduation, declaring for the NFL, transfers and leaving school has dropped the number below that.
Original scholarship players still on the official Penn State roster, as of Jan. 23 – 2013 (O’Brien’s second class), 5 of 17; 2014 – 18 of 25; 2015 – 22 of 25; 2016 – 19 of 20. The five from 2013 are: DaeSean Hamilton, Curtis Cothran, Parker Cothren, Brendan Mahon and Andrew Nelson.
BY POSITION
After Wednesday, under Franklin the Nittany Lions will have given out 18 scholarships to D-linemen, followed by 17 to DB’s and 16 to O-linemen. (Positions are based on what Penn State listed on its official signing day press releases. For example, Troy Apke and Nick Scott are currently safeties, but they came in as a wide receiver and running back, respectively, according to Penn State’s initial signing charts.)
Franklin has handed out 43 signing day scholarships to players Penn State originally listed as offense, and 43 to players originally listed as defense, plus one each to a kicker and a punter.
On offense, it breaks down this way: offensive line (16; 4 each year), wide receiver (11), running back (7), quarterback (5) and tight end (4).
On defense, the breakdown is: defensive line (18, including 7 in 2016), defensive back (17, including 6 in 2014) and linebacker (8).
BY STARS
If form holds on Wednesday, the average Penn State scholarship recruit will be above average. Based on Rivals’ annual rankings – and reported by Penn State in 2014-16 – the Nittany Lions will have signed 3 two-stars, 52 three-stars, 32 four-stars and 1 five-star (the aforementioned Wade.) Here’s a breakdown:
2017 – 9 three-stars, 8 four-stars and 1 five-star. 2016 – 2 two-stars, 11 three-stars and 7 four-stars. 2015 – 13 3-stars and 12 4-stars. 2014 – 1 two-star, 19 3-stars and 5 four-stars. Average rating: 3.35 stars.
BY STATE
After Wednesday, over the past four years Penn State will have handed out scholarships to players from 18 states, plus the District of Columbia and Canada. Only one has been to a high schooler west of the Mississippi (to Koa Farmer, from California, in 2014). And other than Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and Maryland, only six have come from states where other Big ten schools are located.
On the day he was hired, here’s what Franklin said his recruiting strategy would be geographically:
“I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but were going to dominate the state. That is the first thing that we’re going to do…” Franklin said, mentioning it for about the fifth time.
“Then obviously being able to recruit aggressively in this region as well. New Jersey, obviously Pennsylvania, New York, New England, Virginia, Delaware has been very good to Penn State traditionally. I think also we were going to take a national approach by position. We will do that as well. So everybody will have recruiting areas, everybody will be in the state. Every one of our staff members will have an area in the state. We’ll also have areas in the region and the states that surround Pennsylvania.
“We’ll recruit nationally as well, because I think you sell yourself short when you don’t do that. We could have a Penn State alumni in California whose son always grew up wanting to go to Penn State. So having the ability to recruit nationally so that we’re aware of where all the great players are in this country, I think that’s important. But our team will be comprised and mainly made up of Pennsylvania young men.”
Here’s the breakdown from 2014-17 (states listed are what Penn State reported on each player’s signing day; 2017 is based on reported verbal commitments); the list also includes four junior college transfers and their hometowns:
Pennsylvania 25, New Jersey 13, Maryland 10, Virginia 8, Ohio 6, Georgia 5, Alabama 2, Delaware 2, Florida 2, Illinois 2, Indiana 2, Massachusetts 2, New York 2, North Carolina 2, California 1, Canada 1, Connecticut 1, District of Columbia 1, Michigan 1 and Wisconsin 1.
