You’re a podcast guy, right? Watch the May 19 On3/BWI podcast with Sean Fitz. He says this staff has to learn how to recruit elite talent and that they are learning on the fly and it’s a mixed bag. That’s coming from a long time PSU recruiting insider. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
2027 Recruiting Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Just a word of caution that none of those online trackers really have actual figures but perhaps not far off in terms of ranking. I have read from those actually in the know that we are likely around 15 or somewhere in the bottom half of the top 25. The stadium is a drag on our abilities, as are the abilities of Kraft to organize all of this. Also read that PSU has the worst of the worst coordination between the different donors and groups, even the alumni association that guards their information like it is top secret. It’s quite possible that some of our wealthier alums have never heard of NIL. That is how disorganized it all is.
It is early in the cycle. No team in the country uses recruiting service rankings to evaluate the field. Hall and Taylor are just about identical on 247.
I’m fine with Hall, but the 24/7 composite rankings have Taylor ranked #13 at 96. Hall is #25 at 92. Not identical. Bottom line is that if Campbell wants to compete for the B1G championship yearly or highly compete on the national stage, he is going to have to be able to seal the deal with some elite recruits, and, yes, that is going to require spending money. That’s the reality of it all. Talent wins and money gets talent apparently.
The stadium renovations should motivate kids to come to PSU but not as much as $$$. My guess is the order of priority is:
- $$$
- Facilities
- Winning tradition, get to NFL
- Proximity to home
We have a high likelihood of landing the best 3 wr haul in 10-20 years at PSU with some combo of Dean, Taylor, Blum and Hall. You cannot expect better than that.
Based on our alumni base we should be top 5-8 at worse. I agree with you. The stadium, while needed, is a huge drag on PSU’s abilities and too bad it couldn’t have been done at a lower dollar amount as you said. As it stands right now if LSU, Miami, ND, OSU and perhaps a few others really want a player they will outbid us every time.
I don't know how you can make that claim
Taylor .97, 77th nationally, 13th WR
Hall .92, 202 nationally, 25th WR
Dean .89, 382 nationally, 50th WR
First off, it’s still early in the cycle on the and rankings aren’t done. I think out of the three, Dean may be the best. Secondly, the services have each rated somewhat differently from one to another. Third, based on the numbers you provided, there’s no difference in potential between Hall and Taylor. What does that even mean to be 13 verse 25 in terms of a high school talent? Does that mean that Taylor is definitively better than Hall? Of course not, it means that they both have a strong likelihood of being college starters and drafted by an NFL team. That is what those rankings mean. They’re not meant to evaluate one player versus another in the same star category. Lastly, there are very few people that actually do these rankings for each service. Each player is not particularly evaluated. The services do not actually see these guys play. Teams are sending scouts to high school games to evaluate talent and meticulously evaluating game tape.
Caleb Cooper - Providence Day School - Safety
Explore Caleb Cooper's athlete profile at On3.com. Get news and insights into their playing career, statistics, and achievements in sports.
As expected
It’s 24/7 composite ratings. It takes all the services into account.
Even the industry rankings are done differently from each service - very little difference between Taylor and Hall. And I say that knowing that there’s a lot more hope for Taylor this morning.
Khalil Taylor - Pine-Richland - Wide Receiver
Explore Khalil Taylor's athlete profile at On3.com. Get news and insights into their playing career, statistics, and achievements in sports.
If you say so. You keep saying it, so I guess it must be true. All of this is still a projection though.
Absolutely. They could all bomb in college. It sounds we will get at least one of the two uncommitted WRs in town soon - either today or this week.
Sesay and Taylor are uncommitted top level recruits sitting right in PSU’s back yard. Striking out on both would be a bad look for this staff.
Sesay will not happen. Out of our price range. Same money that was there for multimillion dollar deal (different money source) for Spell offer (who we still lost) is not there for Sesay. Sesay os not the same level of player and needs at least a year of college s&c to get on the field.
You are forgetting all that great "inside dope" LMT has access to. Like all that prescient dope he shared during the coaching search.
What happened to those gushers of cash and "NIL" money that were going to be bursting PSU ICA's cash registers - from those "nation-leading, first-in-class, precedent setting etc etc" deals that PSU ICA crafted with the likes of PlayFly and Adidas and Elevate?
Was that an oops?
Most players need at least one year in the college S & C program to get ready for the college game. That isn’t unique and should not be a disqualifying characteristic for recruiting if the player has talent. Look at our current commit list. How many of those players do you think will/could contribute next season? Not very many. A very small number.
How is the stadium a drag on our ability to recruit?
I'm pretty sure that all of our wealthy alums have heard of NIL. I can't comment on how effective PSU has been at soliciting donations.
I read that the Addidas deal is worth $300 million over 10 years ($30 million per year). It's my understanding that some of that will go towards their NIL agreements and their ambassador network. That become effective on July 1st but I assume it's already being used to attract prospects to PSU.
A lot of people think Campbell can pull a Cignetti and win with lesser talent. I think that's quite optimistic.
Just curious.....were you on board with the Matt Campbell hiring or did you have another first choice for HC?Only time will tell if we have "got us to the big game Matt." Then will he be "big game Matt?"
You must be in it.....to win it.
Will we get what we deserve?
The ability to recruit is largely based on your ability to pay. Our ability to pay is not top 10. Large donations have been funneled to the stadium rather than NIL. It is as simple as that. Fundraising has not been organized sufficiently and is silo’d.
Spell is a day 1 superstar able to compete at the highest level as a freshman. We even went the reclassification route to entice him to commit . A tall lanky edge like Sesay is not ready to compete or play day 1. He may be a superstar in year 2 or 3 but PSU does not have the cash to pay a multimillion dollar contract to sit and potentially transfer anyway. We are not repeating the same mistake as we did with Olesh who got a mill to sit for a year because he was 30 pounds too light to compete.
You avoided the point of my post. How many kids play day 1? 10% or less? That should not be a disqualifying attribute for acquiring talent. I don’t see anyone on the current PSU commit list that is likely to play day one. A whole lot of top level schools are willing to get Sesay and let it work out. You also glazed over my post asking you if you had seen the Sean Fitz podcast saying this staff needs to learn how to recruit elite talent and they are doing it on the fly. Sean Fitz has been around for awhile. If he is questioning it, it isn’t just little me in a random fan board. There seems to be some legitimate concern by the insiders on Campbell’s ability to recruit elite talent.
Some people are down on everything, every effort, and are opinionated experts on PSU football.
Sesay and the kid from Indiana seem to be their only two options at Edge, which is a major position of need. At some point, they have to be willing to pony up for positions like Edge, QB, WR.
We are trending to get at least 1 but quite possibly both WRs. That would potentially be the best wr class ever at PSU.
Well, first of all, the Campbell hiring was a complete surprise. I recall immediately after JF was fired...
It went Rhule, then Urban Meyer was "interested"....but Kraft wasn't . LOL Then the morons here took over.
Marcus Freeman
Curt Cignetti
Mike Elko
Who could forget the BWICAC opening praying for Deboer to lose at Alabama so he would come to PSU to win? LOL
then came the Sitake embarrassment
Josh Heupel
Jeff Brohm
Eli Drinkwitz
Brent Key
and briefly Alex Golesh.
I honestly don't recall Matt Campbell being discussed much if at all into he fell into Kraft's lap and saved his *** for the moment.
Once Kraft had completely screwed up the process, I did hope he would get Bob Chesney. I suppose it's a toss up between Chesney and Campbell. My take is that Campbell is probably the higher floor and Chesney the higher ceiling. I just thought being a PA native and coal region product would have created a lot of buzz.
Unfortunately, my belief that for PSU to improve on Franklin's performance is more about (increased NIL to lure studs) $$$ considered anti MC. If the coach were Marcus Freeman and we're still recruiting as in the past.....why would you predict "excellence at the highest level?"
Wiltfong says Notre Dame. Rivals says Sesay's NIL value is $250k.
If we lose Sesay we will have struck out on the top 4 in PA, the top 5 in MD, and the top 5 in NJ. That's a really bad outcome and it can't all be money. It seems to me that we ought to have enough money to attract a few OSU's second choices. Our money isn't that far behind the top 10.
Playing for a stadium is so 1970. These kids would play in a parking lot if you throw the most cash at them and demonstrate the ability to get them to the NFL.
I don't think the problem is Campbell. It's how the whole thing went down. PSU was the first top school to have an opening and the last to name a new coach. Time was critical as our recruiting class disintegrated.
Every school has a Addidas or Nike agreement. This does not set PSU above the top 10 spenders. Why would Addidas give PSU a better offer than it would be willing to give OSU or UM? Oregon is flush with NIke bucks.
It comes down to NIL money. PSU is not in the top 10. Perhaps not even 15. This was not the appropriate time to build luxury boxes. Too much on the landscape of college football is unsettled. The donations could have put more talent on the field.