In shifting NIL landscape, bold, aggressive Penn State approach stressed

The start of Kaden Saunders’ recruitment to Penn State began more than three years ago.

A soon-to-be ninth-grader, the receiver landed at a Nittany Lion summer football camp. Developing into the nation’s No. 109-ranked prospect in the Class of 2022, Saunders signed a letter of intent to play at Penn State Wednesday.

In that interim, from budding prospect to a bona fide four-star with offers across the nation, a key change has taken place with the introduction of name, image, and likeness rules this past summer. And to Penn State cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, meeting with reporters at the start of the early signing period on Wednesday afternoon, it’s a monumental one.

“NIL was nowhere to be seen or heard of,” Smith said. “And now, you look at what was offered to the kid that flipped and went to Jackson State. There’s a million-dollar offer for him to go there… So it has changed the game.”

In the wake of a shifting landscape, Smith and head coach James Franklin are asking whether or not Penn State has changed with it.

Asked later in his signing day press conference how he has addressed the topic with prospective recruits, including the ones just signed into the program, the Nittany Lions’ leader stressed its importance. 

Not often included among the higher-profile stories that have emerged since individual states enacted laws in July regarding compensation for student-athletes for the use of their name, image, and likeness, Franklin noted an internal sense of urgency to include Penn State in that broader conversation.

“NIL is something that we’ve been pushing hard with, really since this became an opportunity in college football,” Franklin said. “It’s something that I think as a university and specifically an athletic department, that I think we’re going to have to be a lot more aggressive in. 

“There are things that you can do as a university and as the athletic department and as coaches, and there are things that you can’t do. But this is an area that I think we’re all seeing, every single day, is a major factor in the recruitment process as well as the current players on your team.” 

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Just back from the road recruiting as an entire staff, that sense has become more evident as changes continue to take shape.

And according to Smith, a former Nittany Lion himself who played at Penn State from 1987 to 1991, the program needs to make changes to keep pace. 

“As Penn State, we have to stay ahead of the process. We can’t directly provide these opportunities, but we have to be able to connect dots where these guys can get their opportunities,” Smith said. “You see the number one player in the country leaves a major university for an HBCU, and that is the sole reason.

“This thing’s here. We got to adjust to it. And we got to make sure that our guys are able to receive what the expectation is to get NILs and to get things that they’re worthy of. We have to adjust to it.”

Announced on July 1 as a program called STATEment within Penn State intercollegiate athletics, the initiative was described as putting a “focus on entrepreneurship and education” for the university’s student-athletes.

Partnering with two apps, INFLCR and Spry, as well as creating a portal for student-athletes to match with former student-athletes for business opportunities, initial returns have been limited in the scope of publicity.

According to Franklin, that will need to change.

“It’s something that we need to be bold and aggressive in,” he said. “And it’s something that I think is going to be very, very important, not only today but moving forward.”