Penn State Recruiting: At Some Point, The Sky Begins To Fall

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Maybe it was Mangiro, I don’t know, but LJ Sr told a recruit that his written offer was sent already, while Joe Paterno had not even signed it yet. There’s definitely a disconnect up there right now — an already inefficient system is being further compromised.

That’s what seems to be missing. Momentum seems to be a bigger and bigger deal each year, with recruits wanting to make an impact right away and wanting to be part of success early on.

What I’m really looking forward to is the tell-all from spanier when he finally retires or whatever. It’s amazing, really, how absolutely in the dark they are able to keep everybody about everything.

I was hopeful Savon Huggins would sign with PSU, but Rutgers Al is throwing the kitchen sink.

Saaaaaavon, Saaaaaaaavon….

But I admire the way Penn State has changed their message in recent years. They used to sell Paterno. Now they sell the school. They tell kids don’t come play for Joe Paterno. Come to play for Penn State and everything you see around you.

I think it’s a message that rings with kids. Who can guarantee that Greg Schiano or Dave Wannstedt will be around three years from now? It’s no different anywhere you go.

The day Bobby retired, we were 43th in recruiting. Finished 6th. 37 place improvement in 3 weeks.

or just not a stellar year like last year? I mean, we had 4 and 5 star kids throwing themselves at us last year, seemingly committing just about every other week over the summer. The year before we had so many scholarships that we could offer everybody and then had some late guys decommit and join us. Holding this class up to those two years, it will probably look bad, but will it be a bad class in general? It’s a long ways until Feb, so I’m not going to call it dead just yet, though right now it seems like we are in a deep coma. All I know is that this would have probably been a good year to let my subscription to Fight On State lapse and not have to look at that train wreck.

PSU puts together one or two small, weak-by-the-numbers classes every 5 years. I really don’t view that as a problem. PSU will have a championship-caliber team in 2011-2012, thanks to the amount of young talent already on the roster. A light recruiting year will not undo that.

Also, Penn State didn’t have spring camps for high schoolers this year. That means players are going to be getting on board here later than at other schools. So, a weak class at this stage of the game is to be expected. Whether or not we reap the rewards of individualized attention later in the game remains to be seen. This seems like a questionable strategy with the recruiting game moving earlier and earlier, but I’ll trust the coaches. I imagine it will certainly work to their advantage if the pre-July 1st restriction on scholarship offers is made official.

As for Joe’s health: it doesn’t concern me at all that he chose not to push it in order to go to the “evening with Joe” events. I think the events were handled poorly, resulting in more bad press than was necessary. And honestly, if he’s going to get sick like he did, you couldn’t pick a better time than May and June. Still, the fact that Joe remained sick for months rather than days or weeks is a troubling reminder of his age. If he can stay healthy from August until January, I wouldn’t care if he had to be cryo-frozen for May, June and July. But, if a bug like this hits in the middle of the season, we could have a problem.

If PSU pulls in two or three poor recruiting classes in a row, start worrying.

was the smallest of the decade for any NCAA program—eleven players. The 2008 class had fourteen players.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll try to remain optimistic. Maybe I’ll speculate: JoePa is planning to retire in 2010, so he’s leaving the cupboard open for the new coach in 2011.

How many points for a groundhog (Lots of groundhogs in PA, I think I saw one near a shopping mall)? I’d say at least a seven.

Yes! I should have formed a betting league or something for this, because I would have won!

Like it or not, 75% of the recruits are going to be “me-first little bastards”. It’s almost impossible for them not to be — the entire process consists of millionaire coaches who are on national TV every weekend, begging the recruits to join their little fraternity. The very best recruits get harassed by Scout and Rivals reps, local newspaper reporters, coaches, assistant coaches, etc. Even the most level-headed kid could fall prey to that sort of nonstop attention. Sadly, there’s no real alternative that also consists of (1) winning (2) in a major football conference. You gotta play the game, and the game includes the head coach taking on a significant portion of the duties and showering attention upon recruits. If Joe Paterno won’t do it, someone else will.

As for the “Evening With Joe” stuff, it’s a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure deal…but I think he’s sick. If he’s not, and just doesn’t feel like doing the events, he needs to be on TV somewhere telling the world that he’s healthy and ready to roll. Otherwise, they’ve left the door open for all this speculation by you, me, recruits, media, etc.

We’re counting on your inside information. Do I take it to mean that Joe is all better now and just doesn’t want to travel?