Penn State Recruiting Mailbag: What's the plan of attack along the offensive line?

The early signing period officially ends later today, but for Penn State, the action has already come and gone. There was a little bit of negative drama Wednesday, as offensive tackle Andre Roye ended up signing with Maryland. The St. Frances prospect had been committed to Penn State for a few months.

Despite that, there’s plenty for Penn State fans to be excited about, as the Nittany Lions remain at No. 7 overall in the On3 Consensus team rankings.

We haven’t completely turned the page to 2023 yet, as the staff will continue to look at unsigned players nationally. It’s still too early to pinpoint anyone specific, but names will emerge in the weeks ahead. Of course, the transfer portal is also alive and well.

Let’s get into this week’s mailbag questions below.

With how the Penn State O-line class finished for 2022, do you think the staff will look to sign five for 2023? – @Poncho570

It’ll certainly be a priority position for Penn State, but I still think it’s too early to know the count.

First off, we’re definitely going to see incoming offensive linemen via the transfer portal. It’s the staff’s most important position of need in the portal. I think we could see both an interior lineman and a tackle added via the portal if all falls into place for Penn State.

On Wednesday, Director of Player Personnel Andy Frank made it clear that offensive line is going to be a position Penn State pursues just about every year in the portal.

“I think, more often than not, [O-line] is going to be a position that we’re going to be interested in the transfer portal,” he said. “The reason for that is it’s a developmental position. It takes a while to get guys to where they can play in games for you. As a result, every year you’re going to be looking at a guy that can maybe beat somebody else out on your roster or create depth for you. You can fix holes there a lot easier in the transfer portal than you can coming out of high school.”

Frank also discussed that the staff doesn’t really set its projections for the following class until February. In addition to the 2022 class being finalized, they’ll also know which players have declared for the NFL Draft by then.

Without knowing specific numbers at the moment – we still don’t know if more outgoing transfers will come – I would think that five may be a bit high, just because, again, they want to get guys in here who have experience. It’s also a very guard heavy class. They’ll get quality guards, but it won’t be easy getting quality tackles in 2023. There are some out there – Chase Bisontis, Evan Link, Luke Montgomery, Samson Okunlola – but they’re all coveted by the very best programs.

Out of those four, I think Link is incredibly important for Penn State. He feels like the most realistic out of that group, visiting twice already.

Is Penn State moving towards where the portal becomes more important in getting players than signing 25 high schoolers every year – @Jkauff55

High school talent will always be where Penn State makes up the majority of its classes. I think that’ll be the case for just about all the top programs. They want to mold guys under their coaching, their leadership, their way.

However, I do believe that filling out your scholarships with all high school players is becoming less important each year. I don’t know specifically how many they held back for this year, but I am confident in saying that Penn State absolutely held back a few scholarships the past two years for the portal. A lot of schools are doing that.

Last year’s class was always going to be small, but they ultimately signed just 15 players after Lonnie White opted for baseball. In retrospect, they likely would’ve signed a few more high school players. I don’t believe Penn State was expecting as many outgoing transfers as they ultimately saw last season, which was 10.

That’s why, with the current recruiting calendar, this is incredibly tricky. The NCAA did make a rule change that allowed schools to go over the 25 scholarship initial counter limit, but at some point, the calendar has to be changed. The transfer portal and the early signing period just make it incredibly hard to predict your numbers.

That’s why I think we’re going to see the early signing period go away. In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if we just saw the last early signing period in college football. It’s had way too big of an impact on the coaching carousel, and when you add in the transfer portal, there’s a large group of college coaches who want the calendar to change.

But yes, to answer your question, schools are absolutely saving scholarships for the portal. I don’t see it ever being a 50/50 split, but I do get the impression that it’s becoming more important to Penn State each year.

Do you think the portal will really pick up once the bowl season is over or do you think we are in the thick of things now? – @TFiddy123

Just like the coaching carousel, these moves are happening earlier and earlier. I don’t know the exact count as of Friday morning. I believe the number of undecided players in the portal is somewhere around 650 at the moment.

That’s a lot. I’d love to know how many of those players don’t end up on scholarship somewhere next season. That number will absolutely be in the hundreds.

So, I do think we’re in the thick of it right now.

As for incomings, last year John Lovett was the first to commit to Penn State, and that came on Dec. 21. John Dixon, Arnold Ebiketie and Derrick Tangelo all followed between Dec. 28-31.

From what I’ve gathered, it feels like a similar timeline is realistic this year in regards to when we’ll start learning about some incoming transfers.

There will absolutely be more outgoings after bowl season, not just for Penn State, but nationally. However, it’s hard for me to see 600-plus additional entries in the first few weeks of January.