THE SKINNY
Height/Weight: 6-foot-6, 290 pounds
Hometown/High School: Baltimore, MD (Gilman H.S.)
Ranking: ★★★ (0.8559 247Sports Composite)
Notable Offers: Arizona, Duke, Louisville, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Utah
HIGHLIGHTS
THE TALE
Zachary Franks camped at Penn State on June 23 and his performance impressed James Franklin and Matt Limegrover enough that he walked away with an offer. While Franks is not a super highly rated player, this staff has done a great job of identifying players at camps and extending offers.
Franks plays for powerhouse Gilman High School in Baltimore. Gilman has been good to the Nittany Lions in the past as 2016 team captain Brian Gaia and current defensive tackle Ellison Jordan both played at Gilman. Playing at Gilman, Franks faces some of the best high school competition in the country.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that Franks was a take right now. Each of Penn State’s top offensive tackle targets remain on the board and this is shaping up to be a smaller recruiting class. That said, with the Nana Asiedu news the team may look for an extra offensive tackle in this class and this coaching staff has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to camp offers.
OUTLOOK
Franks is a player that will take a few years to develop as an offensive tackle so a redshirt in 2019 is an easy call. Franks will likely also require another year or two of development before he is ready to compete for playing time.
There are times that Franks plays a little high, and because of that, he could use more knee bend when in his pass blocking set. Franks, however, is a very aggressive and physical blocker, and certainly has the tools to become a player at offensive tackle.
Welcome to Penn State, Zachary!