Penn State In Maryland: A Retrospective Look

With the ridiculous recruiting of LJSR in a state that is in the process of changing its name, I got to thinking: why the sudden surge? Of the eleven commitments Penn State currently has, six are from LJSR's territory.

Well where were these guys last year?

Of Maryland's Top 20 players in 2008, PSU was considered* by recruit #4, #6 and #11...but received commitments from none of them.

Same goes for 2007, consideration was only given by #2, #5, #6 and #15 (this is really strange considering the #10 prospect went to Akron). Again, none of them are currently in State College.

So the trend probably continues into 2006, right? Um, not so much:

(source: Rivals.com)

That's seven of the top nine. So this type of dominance isn't totally unprecedented, but still a bit strange considering how inconsistent PSU has been in Maryland.

So why the sudden influx of players? Could this just be the result of a decent shot a freshman playing time? Or have the recruiters taken some notes over the past two years of relatively weak classes and decided to change the game plan a little bit?

*To be honest I don't know if the inclusion of PSU on the list means they were offered or are considering. Does Rivals eliminate a school from the list of the player decides to take that offer out of consideration? I don't know.

Big Ten Recruiting Review

Below is the final Pryorless rankings of all Big Ten teams. I also included Pitt to make our class look worse. The way Pitt out recruits us is troubling to say the least, but then again the way Whanstash manages to suck so bad with good recruits is a bit troubling as well. One thing worth pointing out here is that these services rank based on 'points', so a bigger class is going to outscore a smaller class of the same level of talent. Penn State brought in the smallest class of any Big Ten team by far, just 14 players compared to an average of 21. This includes Minnesota with 30 recruits and Illinois with 28. This is a result of Penn State not losing very man scholarships and therefore not having many to give...it's obviously cyclical. So while our class isn't knocking anyone's socks off, keep in mind we are getting punished in these rankings for bringing in so few kids. Per Rivals, number of recruits in quotes:

Rivals
#9	OSU	(19)
#10	Michigan	(24)
#17	Minnesota	(30)
#23	Illinois	(28)
#29	Pitt	(19)
#41	Wisconsin	(24)
#42	Penn State	(14)
#47	MSU	(21)
#53	Iowa	(24)
#63	Purdue	(25)
#73	Northwestern	(20)
#78	Indiana	(19)

Not to get too bitchy, but really looking at this list makes me wonder why I think college ball is so superior to pro. Indiana's prize recruits are a couple of three star kids, while Ohio State doesn't even bother going after kids that low on the list. Why this is considered "pure" is beyond me, but it doesn't change the fact that I do in fact like NCAA football better than the NFL.

As for Penn State, you never like to see Minnesota that far ahead of you, especially after their one for the ages shitty season.

Let's take a look at how Scouts listed the Big Ten:

Scouts

#7	OSU
#8	Michigan
#18	Illinois
#25	Pitt
#26	Wisconsin
#28	Minnesota
#41	Penn State
#42	Iowa
#49	Purdue
#56	MSU
#63	Indiana
#69	Northwestern

This site seemed to be a bit more optimistic about the Big Ten, but not really about Penn State. They also didn't buy into the Minnesota class quite like Rivals did. All in all there aren't really any surprises here. Zook really is bringing Illinois up to a respectable level. Northwestern and Indiana still suck. Penn State continues to be mediocre in more ways than we realize, and Ohio State and Michigan continue to dominate recruiting by a large margin.

This year's recruits take 2 or 3 years to really have a full impact, so there's no immediate threat to a team's success. Pryor might be an exception, he will start day one at Michigan and you bet your ass Paterno would play him somewhere if he chooses Penn State.

I guess we'll see.