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Ladies and gentlemen, Fred Hansard!
Stats
Hometown/High School: Princeton, NJ/Hun School
Height/Weight: 6-foot-3, 310 pounds
Recruited By: Brent Pry and Sean Spencer
Starz ‘n Sheetz
Rankings: 4-star on Rivals, ESPN, and Scout; 3-star on 247Sports
Offers: Penn State, Alabama, Arizona State, Boston College, Cal, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Florida, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Pitt, Purdue, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee Texas A&M, UCF, UCLA, USC, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin
Cinema
(Editor’s Note: Embedded video may not be working, here is a link to Hansard’s senior film.)
The Tale
Hansard was one of the first prospects Penn State offered in the 2017 class, as the New Jersey prospect landed his offer in June 2015. Since then, Hansard has been a consistent visitor in Happy Valley visiting for the Lasch Bash and Blue-White game, and being on hand for the Iowa and Michigan State game this season, despite being committed to Florida.
It’s long been reported that Hansard’s grades weren’t quite up to snuff, which caused some schools — Penn State included — to back off throughout his recruitment. But with his grades improving, the Nittany Lions had a renewed interested in the talented defensive tackle, and eventually flipped him following his official visit this past weekend.
The Outlook
During Franklin’s tenure, Penn State has been known to take bigger defensive ends, and turn them into defensive tackles — Kamonte Carter, Kevin Givens, Robert Windsor, and perhaps even Daniel Joseph and Damion Barber fit the bill. Hansard is, obviously, much different as he’s a natural 300-pounder. While he displays some solid pass rushing skills, his greatest strength is clearly as a run-stopper, and should find himself a home as a 1-tech DT.
Fortunately for Penn State, the Nittany Lions are scheduled to be returning all six of their top defensive tackles next season — Cothren, Cothran, Windsor, Givens, Chavis, and White — so a redshirt year for Hansard looks like a certainty. After that, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he could find himself in the two-deep behind Windsor in 2018.
Welcome to the family, Fred!