Franklin: Recruiting not up to standards
As happy as Penn State football coach James Franklin is to be getting back on the gridiron again in a little more than a month from now, he’s concerned about the longterm health of his program because of recent recruiting that he admitted on Thursday was not “up to the standard that we normally have.
“I can make excuses, I can come up with a lot of reasons for that,” Franklin said in a press conference to follow up the announcement the day before that the Big Ten was reversing course on suspending the football season, “but we haven’t gotten it done the way we normally have gotten it done.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into that, but that’s just the reality of it.”
Franklin pointed to the inability to visit or host recruits due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
Penn State has lost out on many key in-state targets, including Lackawanna College’s De’Jahn Warren, widely considered the nation’s top junior-college cornerback.
“I’m a huge believer that we are, in my mind, what you think of when you think of the true college town on a postcard,” Franklin said. “But it’s one of those things you’ve got to come and see and appreciate firsthand.
“People explain it to you all they want, but you’ve got to come and see it, and part of seeing it, a big part of our experiences, are our fans and the support that we get, not just for football. You go to a volleyball game on a Tuesday, you go to a wrestling match on a Wednesday, or whatever it may be.
“I think that those are the things that make Penn State so special. So it’s been different. There’s no doubt about it.”
That said, Franklin and the Nittany Lions still have a chance to turn what has been a mediocre class, ranked just 33rd in the nation by 247sports as of Thursday, into a very good one by the next signing period in December.
“Moving forward, it’s complicated,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t have official visits, you don’t have unofficial visits, you don’t even have the spring game.
“We’ve got to be able to adjust. We’ve got to be able to make some strategic changes and find a way to get it done to be successful. But up to this point, we have not lived up to those thing, and I can point out a
lot of reasons.
“But at the end of the day, you get the job done or not.”
Penn State still is believed to be in the running for top Pa. recruits such as Gateway safety Derrick Davis and Wexford tight end Khalil Dinkins along with defensive end George Rooks of St. Peter’s (N.J.).
The Nittany Lions are off to an encouraging start to their 2022 class, however, having already received a commitment from defensive end Ken Talley of Northeast High in Philadelphia.
Morning Call reporter Nick Fierro can be reached at 610-778-2243 or nfierro@mcall.com.