Lost in all the buzz of the Outback Bowl hype was the fact Penn State landed two verbal recruits.
Joe Suhey is a 6'2" 200 lb athlete from Loyola Academy in Wilmet, Il. He has an impressive resume having been selected to several all area teams in various sports. But his 4.6 speed and constant battle with injuries caused many recruiting magazines to rate him pretty low and he didn't get much attention from big time programs. He played various positions in high school, but he is projected to play wide reciever at Penn State.
You may recognize the name Suhey. That's because there have been about 423 Suhey's that played for Penn State. Let there be no doubt this is a legacy recruit. Suhey's dad, Matt, was an All American fullback for Penn State. His grandfather, Steve, was a captain on the 1948 Penn State squad, and his great grandfather, Bob Higgins, was an All American and coach at Penn State. I imagine someday Joe's kids will be going to Penn State too.
Many fans in the message boards instantly jumped into action bashing this kid as a waste of a scholarship. Some people even bashed him in print. Surely people are associating him with Kevin Suhey, who is buried at #4 or #5 on the QB depth chart of the current roster. Or maybe they associate him with other coaches kids named Paterno or Ganter that never really did much for the program. But before we go bashing all legacy recruits, let's keep in mind that Larry Johnson and Jordan Norwood are both legacy recruits and they turned out pretty good.
Also giving his verbal commitment to the Lions last week was Ako Poti. Poti is a junior college transfer from City College of San Francisco. The 6'5" 300 lb offensive lineman is expected to enroll at Penn State in January and challenge for a starting roll immediately.
It's rare that Penn State raids junior colleges, but this signing shows how desperate the situation is for next years offensive line. Poti will provide instant depth to an offensive line about to be depleted by departures of Levi Brown, Robert Price, Chris Auletta, and Greg Harrison.