The ink is barely dry on the letters of intent for the class of 2011, but the Penn State coaches have been already working on the class of 2012 for months now. With Fugi giving you all the basketball coverage this spring, I'm freed up to give you all more recruiting coverage. So let's take a quick peek at what Penn State has to accomplish this year in recruiting.
Before we can talk about specific position needs, let's figure out how many scholarships Penn State should have to work with. Here is the list of players who will be graduating after the 2011 season.
| RB - Stephfon Green | OT - Quinn Barham | DE - Jack Crawford | CB - D'Anton Lynn |
| FB - Joe Suhey | OG - Johnnie Troutman | DE - Eric Latimore | CB - Chaz Powell |
| WR - Derek Moye | OL - DeOn'tae Pannell | DT - Devon Still | S - Drew Astorino |
| TE - Andrew Szczerba | OT - Chima Okoli | LB - Nathan Stupar | S - Nick Sukay |
So that's 16 guys right there. Plus, tight end Mark Wedderburn is probably not coming back next year, so that makes 17. Factor in a transfer or two, maybe a few guys decide not to come back for their fifth year and I think it's likely that we'll see Penn State bring in 20-21 players in this class.
We'll spend some time in the coming weeks going through each position of need, but by my rough back-of-the-evelope estimation, here is how I see the scholarship allocation playing out.
| Quarterback | 1 |
| Running Back | 2 |
| Wide Receiver | 1 |
| Tight End | 2 |
| Offensive Tackle | 2 |
| Offensive Guard/Center | 2 |
| Defensive Tackle | 3 |
| Defensive End | 1 |
| Linebacker | 2 |
| Safety | 2 |
| Cornerback | 2 |
| Kicker | 0 |