Penn State Football Recruiting News: James Franklin and Co. Focusing on the Trenches for Rebuilding Lions
ByThe Penn State Nittany Lions' 2015 recruiting class is notably un-notable, as James Franklin and his staff are going for low profile, depth buffering moves instead of big splashes.
According to ESPN's National Signing Day coverage, Penn State has 25 commitments as of Wednesday morning and they are nearly split down the middle on four- and three-star status with no five-star prospects. The Lions only have one offer out on a five-star recruit, cornerback Iman Marshall, though he does not have an official visit to Happy Valley on record.
Of their 11 four-star recruit commitments, four are offensive linemen and four play defense. In looking through their class on the whole, Penn State is clearly looking to build depth on the defensive and offensive line while shying away from high-profile offensive positions.
As Ivan Maisel wrote for ESPN, National Signing Day is an important day for a football program rebuilding its team upon seeing their scholarships restored. Some may look to make a statement by targeting the nation's top recruits while others, like Penn State, will play for the future.
One of Penn State's most glaring weaknesses during the NCAA sanction seasons was the offensive line. Christian Hackenberg, a former five-star quarterback recruit, could not stay upright. Franklin told Maisel about some of the extraneous effects of depleted scholarships.
"You don't have enough scholarship offensive linemen," he said. "They're mostly walk-ons, and they're going against your first-team scholarship defensive line, and they can't even come close to blocking them, so now it stunts the development of your backup quarterback. Well, if it stunts the development of your backup quarterback, that stunts the development of your defensive backs, because they're not getting the look in practice that they normally have."