Justin Shorter and Ricky Slade, we hardly knew thee.
With the start of Penn State’s spring practice about a month away, the recent focus of the Nittany Lions’ 2020 offense has been on the three new assistant coaches who have joined that side of the ball.
Little hindsight — 20/20 or otherwise — has been spent on the two aforementioned five-stars who left that very same offense.
They had such promise, too. (Still do, I believe.)
Potential was their middle name. They were No. 1’s in their states and either No. 1 or No. 2 at their position in the country, according to ESPN and 247Sports.
Shorter and Slade were side-by-side on pages 110 and 111 in the 2019 Penn State Football Media Guide, the sections about their high school accolades so abundant they were best measured not in words but in inches.
Born 10 days part in April 2000, they were both high school five-stars — Shorter by ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports, and Slade a consensus 247 choice. Both were Under Armour All-Americans, Slade a Gatorade Player of the Year.
Slade, from Woodbridge, Va., was the No. 1 high school all-purpose back in the Class of 2018, according to the 247 composite, and ranked No. 2 by ESPN overall among running backs. Shorter, out of Monmouth Junction, N.J., was the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver, according to ESPN. See their rankings here and here.
Along with Micah Parsons, they were the crown jewels of what was James Franklin’s highest-rated recruiting class in his seven years at Penn State. That Class of 2018 was rated No. 5 in the nation.
The day they officially signed with Penn State — December 20, 2017, the first-ever “early” signing date — the PSU PR folks put out a press release, with quotes touting the new Nittany Lions’ success as prep stars and quoting their high school coaches. Here’s what they had to say:
Joe George, South Brunswick High School: Justin Shorter “is as talented a receiver as I have coached in 40-plus years and as talented as any I have seen at the high school level. Penn State is getting a special player.”
Tony Lilly of C.D. Hylton High School: Ricky Slade “has been one of the most talented student-athletes I have had the pleasure of coaching in my 22-year career. He brings the ability to run the ball out of the backfield with vision and an acceleration like none I have ever seen. What Ricky brings to Penn State is a player who is one of the hardest working players with the competitive nature that drives him to be successful.”
Franklin, who has coached college football since 1995, did them both one better when sharing his take on Shorter that signing day: “Justin Shorter is as good a high school wide receiver as I’ve ever seen on film and in person.”
THE QUESTION
So, what happened?
A combination of things, which is usually the fail-safe response by Franklin to complicated questions offered up by the media:
Injuries, competition, depth, drops, a tough time transitioning to college life, off-the-field challenges, position coach roulette, a lack of development by their coaches — who pride themselves on such things. Each item on that list had a hand in the players’ raising their thumbs and hitching a ride out of State College.
There are certainly other unknowns known only by the players and Franklin himself.
It may be most simply explained by that fact the Nittany Lion roster Franklin has assembled is so deep, so talented, so competitive as a result of consecutive recruiting classes ranked No. 12, 5, 11 and 14, that no one — not even a five-star — can be guaranteed to step in and start immediately, or even after awhile.
And that would be true as well.
Exhibit A: Miles Sander, the No. 1 recruit in Pennsylvania out of high school, who waited his turn behind the super nova that was Saquon, rushed for almost 1,300 yards as a one-year starter, then became a star as a rookie in the NFL.
As Franklin himself said the day that Slade and Shorter officially became Nittany Lions, “At the end of the day, these rankings don’t matter a whole lot once they show up on campus.
“I love,” he added, “that first practice or that first tire pull when the five-star or the four-star gets beat and the vet stands over them and tells them that no one cares about your five stars or four stars or whatever it is. We see guys go to the NFL that are two-star guys and all that. So, I get it.”
FIELD OF DREAMS
Both Shorter and Slade showed flashes of that potential in their two seasons at Penn State, Slade much moreso than Shorter on the field.
In 2018, Shorter was hampered early by injuries, and appeared in only four games, catching three passes for 20 yards. He played in three of the Nittany Lions’ final four contests, preserving a year of eligibility and garnering respect in the process. No less an authority than Trace McSorley gave Shorter mad props for his work at the end of the 2018 season.
“Justin Shorter had, in my mind, the best month I’ve seen out of any of those kids,” said McSorley, never the b.s. artist, said after the Citrus Bowl. “I mean, he grew by leaps and bounds.”
Shorter started the first two games of the 2019 season, and caught seven passes for 88 yards before getting a concussion early in Week 4 against Maryland. He sat out the next game, then had three starts and five catches in the next seven games. He never looked comfortable. The week of the regular-season finale against Rutgers, Shorter and his parents met with Franklin on a Tuesday morning and announced afterwards that he was transferring.
Slade had a bigger run, literally and figuratively. He scored a TD in first his game as a Nittany Lion, then lost a pair of fumbles in the rain against Pitt in Week 2. He rebounded a few weeks later with 94 yards and two TDs against Illinois, only to miss four of the next seven games, while carrying the ball just five times for 19 yards in the other three games. It was never clear exactly what happened.
Still, in the final two games of 2018 Slade had 25 carries for 91 yards and two TDs, giving him 257 yards and a gaudy 5.7-yard average for his freshman season. He entered 2019 as the starter in Penn State’s single-back offense, ahead of three other Lawn Boyz, who were equally adept at eating up the turf.
Slade started the first two games of 2019, gaining a desultory 17 yards on eight carries, then never was a regular again in the Nittany Lions’ four-back rotation, as Noah Cain and then Journey Brown emerged as Franklin’s bell cows. He rushed for more than a dozen yards in only four games of the 2019 season, 28 vs. Maryland, 48 vs. Michigan, 36 vs. Rutgers and 58 in the Cotton Bowl.
After a good part of his week in Big D saying he was staying, Slade hit the portal — destination unknown.
STARS, SCHMARS
This is true: There is no such thing as a sure thing. College is a big jump from high school, no matter how many stars you have. Of the 1.036 million high schoolers annually playing football, only 2.8% play Division I football, according to the NCAA. And only 1.6% of college players make it to the NFL.
As Franklin noted, Top 5 recruiting and multiple stars don’t ensure success. Franklin’s “worst” recruiting class — his first, in 2014, just after he arrived in Happy Valley — ranked No. 25. Eight players in that group were drafted by the NFL (Apke, Allen, Campbell, Gesicki, Godwin, McSorley, Oruwariye, Scott) and at least four more (Blacknall, Cabinda, Haley, Reeder) made an NFL regular-season roster. That’s a 48% conversion factor. Wow.
So, obviously: I’m not counting out either Shorter, who ended up at the University of Florida, or Slade. Both still have a good shot at being in that 1.6% — Shorter, especially.
Their departure does signal the night and day, and long and short (Shorter is 6-4, Slade is 5-9) of the actions and reactions of Penn State’s football players since the transfer portal opened for business on October 15, 2018.
BY THE NUMBERS
Last year, the Penn State portal stampede was one of quantity, as over 16 Nittany Lions transferred. There was quality, too: Juwan Johnson, Tommy Stevens, Jarvis Miller, and Brandon Polk all would have all made significant contributions to Penn State in the 2019 season, had they stayed.
The Penn State Portal Class of 2020 is much smaller, but the quality — based on high school stars hyping both Shorter and Slade — was even higher.
In practice, replacing their production should not be too challenging. Together, in 2019 they accounted for only 71 of Penn State’s 885 offensive plays in 2019, 8% — or once every 12 downs. And they had 446 of 5,355 total yards, about 8.3%.
In theory, it’s a bigger loss, since we don’t know what they would have, could have done had they stayed. They’ll have to make their big bang somewhere else.
As it is, the Nittany Lion running back room is filled with three solid vets and two promising rookies from Florida. The WR group is where their absence will likely be missed more. With KJ Hamler also gone, among wide receivers only Jahan Dotson — also of that 2018 recruiting class — had more nine receptions in 2019.
True, Franklin is bringing in five freshmen wide receivers — count ’em, five — to be tutored by his fourth WR coach is as many seasons. (Shorter’s lack of success and the coaching turnover played a role in PA five-star Julian Fleming’s decision to go to Ohio State, Fleming himself has said.)
The bottom-line: Penn State never really went smoothly for Shorter or Slade.
Of course, college isn’t really easy for any student — even if you’re a five-star. And, maybe, especially if you’re five-star.
