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Big Game James Franklin Took his Recruits to Virginia Tech, Leaving Penn State with the 150th-Ranked Recruiting Class on Signing Day
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At 247 sports, Penn State ended signing day as the 150th-ranked team in college football with two commits:
The Nitters landed three-star quarterback Peyton Falzone out of Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley, and four-star EDGE Jackson Ford out of Malvern Prep, which is Kyle Scott’s alma mater.
Most of Penn State’s big recruits flipped their commitment and followed Big Game James Franklin to Blacksburg, giving Virginia Tech the 22nd-best recruiting class in the nation at 247, and 25th-best at On3. The VPI Hokie Chokers pulled 23 commits, including four-star Coatesville linebacker Terry Wiggins and three-star athlete John-Patrick Oates out of La Salle College High School. A couple of PSU’s commits ended up at North Carolina and various ACC and Big 10 schools while WVU poached four-star PA players Matt Sieg and Kevin Brown.
On the surface, nobody should really be surprised by this. Talented recruiter leaves a program and takes the commits with him? We’ve seen this movie before.
The bigger story is Penn State’s inability to get a coach in place before signing day, someone to get on the phone with these guys and convince them to stay, because Penn State will always be a better place to play than Va Tech. This isn’t 1999. Michael Vick and Lee Suggs ain’t walking through that door. Problem is, obviously, that most of the big jobs have been filled, like LSU, Auburn, Florida, etc, and the Lions don’t have much to choose from. The list is dwindling and the recruits are leaving. There’s always the transfer portal, but they’re behind in that regard as well.
Penn State’s resources, atmosphere, and history are always going to be a big sell, and they’re not going to bottom out here, not ever. But this dip is a little bit too much and it was avoidable. They’re making it harder on themselves than it needed to be. Still, firing James Franklin was the right move. The guy had 10 years to win the big one and never did. How much time did he deserve? 15 years? 20 years? 25 years? Job for life until he finally gets over the hump? Come on, man.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com