Penn State coach James Franklin talks Lions 2023 recruiting in early October
The twist and turns of a recruiitng cycle can make even the largest, tallest, and most twisting roller coaster seem tame. Momentum comes and goes. Schools like Penn State pick up commitments and then could lose them. Big On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine leads can vanish in a heart beat. And, the success or lack thereof in any given season can change things in a hurry.
It’s why college coaches must be able to roll with the punches year over year, month to month, and day by day. Name, image, and likeness rules have changed things dramatically. So has the transfer portal. It can both fill an obvious need or create a massive one at a moment’s notice.
All of this is to say that the way coaches evaluate how a particular recruiting class is shaping up is different than it used to be. So, where are the Lions about two months from the early National Signing Day in December?
“One of the things that helps is when you get guys that have already applied and already paid their acceptance fee,” head coach James Franklin said Tuesday. “That’s helpful, that’s pretty telling, that’s pretty strong information. “And then you get a good indication about how guys are communicating, how responsive they are, you get a pretty good idea.
“The red flags for most of us in whatever industry you’re in, they’re there you gotta be willing to see them and read them. But I think we have a pretty good idea, we have a pretty strong group, we obviously had some changes in our class.”
With 20 Class of 2023 commitments, Penn State currently sits at No. 12 in the On3 Consensus team recruiting rankings.
Portal will impact Penn State and everyone else
One big difference this year compared to year’s past is that players cannot enter the portal at their leisure. Instead, they have two opportunities to do so. One stats the day after the College Football Playoff title game and runs for 45 days. The other lasts from May 1-15.
Franklin is adamant that Penn State will not be a program that is built on the portal as some of its counterparts are. But, there is no question that it must both use it to improve its roster and be ready to adapt when defections cause roster management issues.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever be a huge transfer portal thing the way we are currently built. But, again, part of that depends on what happens to our roster,” Franklin said.
“I would hope guys stay and battle it out, and the answer isn’t always that the grass is greener somewhere else, a lot of times it’s where you water it and I think there’s a ton of value in that. But from time to time it’s not going to play out that way. And, we need to be prepared for it.”
Penn State returns to the field next Saturday at Michigan. Kickoff is at Noon ET. FOX will broadcast the game. The lead crew of Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt, and Jenny Traft will be in the booth at the Big House in Ann Arbor
