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Penn State Football: Recruiting Matters, but Transfers Set to Become Bigger Piece of the Pie

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Over the past few weeks Penn State football has added four transfers to its 2021 roster, a number that marks not only a change in the projected depth chart but what is likely a change in player management as well.

The reason? Likely to be approved in early 2021, an NCAA ruling that would allow any and all student athletes transfer once during their collegiate career without having to sit out the upcoming season. In short, leave School A and begin playing at School B the next day.

In the past while this occasionally was the case, any athlete that was not given a waiver would be required to sit out that upcoming season before becoming eligible again. [These transfers are permitted the same benefits fo immediate eligibility but as a byproduct of a COVID-19 related ruling.]

The other change? The transfer portal, a several year old spreadsheet of sorts that allows any and all student-athletes put themselves ‘on the market’ for schools to reach out to. In the past a student athlete needed the permission of a school or coach to check the open market, now they have the power to find their value without resistance.

With four new faces [Now former Temple defense end Aaronld Ebiketie, Baylor running back John Lovett, South Carolina corner Johnny Dixon and Duke defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo] supplementing Penn State’s 2021 class, the bigger picture question is simple: is this the new normal?

The answer is yes and no.

‘We’re not going to make a full-time living in terms of all our players coming from the transfer portal by any stretch of the imagination,’ Penn State Director of Player Personnel Andy Frank said early in 2020. ‘We’re still going to do the majority of our recruiting from the high school ranks. But we’re going to be active in the transfer portal and we’re going to be looking for guys who can help us to fill gaps. And then, in addition to filling gaps that we have  on our roster, create competition.’

And that makes sense, transfers are – much like recruiting – a bit of a gamble in terms of the end result. With a few exceptions such as Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, it’s rare that elite level players will start popping up on the market each offseason to head somewhere else. Players generally transfer looking for playing time, or in some cases for a needed change of scenery and aside from the latter factor, elite athletes are already seeing the field.

This could be true for players who are recruited out of high school as well, but ultimately the bond built through the recruiting process and player development can lead to its own positives that are harder to find with a gun-for-hire. 

Nevertheless, needs are needs, and a player that has spent time in a collegiate weight room and has some experience playing at the Division I level will most often have a leg up, and a head start, on a player fresh out of high school. Coaches will often tell you that the farther away from the ball the sooner you can play, so for teams looking for help in the trenches, a transfers is likely a more immediate solution to a problem.

And that’s a big change for a program like Penn State, that has – generally – not made its money with transfers beyond the occasional junior college pickups.

‘I think we all kind of realized that, in the past for us at Penn State, transfers were not a big part of our overall recruiting process,’ Frank said. ‘That will change.’

In turn it opens a bit of a two-phased recruiting window like Penn State has seen so far this year. First high school athletes will sign during the early signing period, and then as the college football season comes to a close through December, schools will have a chance to shop on the open market.

‘You’ll see some more activity in the second recruiting period [Signing Day is Feb. 3] as well as the transfer market, which is just really part of 2020 and where football is at and where football is headed,’ Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this year.

The dynamic will almost certainly supplement traditional recruiting, but it does make for a unique sales pitch opportunity. Speaking to the media earlier this year, Franklin was open for what Penn State wanted, broadcasting out to anyone who might be listening that the Nittany Lions were looking for X, Y and Z.

So much for covert, but no reason to be subtle if you don’t have to be.

“When you talk about transfers, we’re going to be looking at defensive ends, we’re going to be looking at defensive backs,” Franklin said. “… Or, in a second recruiting cycle, you know, those are areas that we’re going to be focused on. So any high school coaches or prospects that may be listening to this, those positions, as well as maybe some others, are going to be very, very important for us moving forward.”

Not long after, some of those answers started rolling in.