Defensive Line:

Current Grade: C+
Current verbal commitments: Sean Stanley


With the recent departure of Phil Taylor and Chris Baker, the defensive line has gone from one of the deepest and most talented in the nation, to a very good one defensive line with new questions.  The DT and DE depth still remains quite impressive with multiple players capable of playing on Sundays.  A few short weeks ago, securing a stud DT was seen as luxury; now it has  become a necessity to secure 2 premium DT prospects.  However, since PSU had been targeting only the very elite DT prospects, they have now found themselves in a precarious position to land even one DT.  Early DT targets such as John Simon (Ohio State verbal), Tyler Stockton (Notre Dame verbal) and Terrance Stephens (Stanford verbal) have chosen their respective schools already.  Other DT prospects such as NJs Isaac Holmes and Maryland native Raynard Randolph appear to be nothing more than a pipe dream at this point.  Holmes hasn't shown much interest at all in PSU, and Randolph hails from the same school as Phil Taylor...in other words, Randolph is not coming to PSU.  Making the matter even more bleak is the absence of any other DT prospect on the PSU radar, elite or not.  PSU will again, have to rely on the genius talent evaluation skills of Larry Johnson Sr. to find a couple more under the radar type kids.  Perhaps PSU could take another look at prospects such as Steel High's Jordan Hill (Rutgers verbal) or other committed kids.

With the need to sign at least one pure DE in the Class of 2009 PSU has spread a decent sized net.  They missed out on March offer DeOnte Arnett as he decided to stay home and play for the Maryland Terrapins.  Early on Penn State also targeted NJ DE Anthony Lalota (6'6 255 lbs) and was in good company as he is considered by many the top player in NJ.  PSU recently was named to Lalota's top 7 and he actually visited PSU unofficially last month.  Besides PSU Lalota is considering Boston College, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Virginia.  He has said that he may announce his decision in August but that is not set in stone.

It is unclear when exactly PSU offered MD DE Jason Ankrah (6'4 250 lbs) but it is crystal clear that Ankrah holds the Lions in very high regard.  While anything can happen in recruiting, the prevailing sentiment is that Ankrah favors the Nittany Lions.  This was proven when in mid July he visited Happy Valley for 5 days.  Besides PSU Ankrah is choosing between schools such as Maryland, Michigan, NC State, and West Virginia.  It is unclear as to when Ankrah will be announcing his decision as he has been a little vague with his timetable.  His college announcement could be made at any time.

At the PSU Summer camp in June the staff was impressed by a then relatively unknown and now fast rising DE prospect in Milton Hershey's Garry Gilliam.   Larry Johnson Sr et al were so impressed by the 6'7 245 lb Gilliam that they offered him in writing at the conclusion of the camp.  In addition to PSU the ultra athletic Gilliam has offers from Virginia, Pitt, UConn, Temple, Villanova and Akron.  He is raw (as would be expected) as he only began seriously playing football 2 years ago.  Gilliam's stock is certainly rising as more and more schools get film of his junior season in which he had over 70 tackles and 10 sacks.  It is believed that PSU leads for Gilliam but he apparently is far from making a decision.

The only verbal commitment to date for PSU along the entire defensive line, is tweener DE/DT Sean Stanley (6'2 250 lbs).  This really is not too surprising given the depth of the entire DL.  Stanley is an elite prospect and we project him as a DT, though he could easily be projected as a 6-2 265-270 strong-side DE as well.  Stanley is a very quick and strong player who had offers from elite schools throughout the country.  It is easy to see why Stanley garnered these elite offers (from schools including Georgia, Virgina Tech, Rutgers, Nebraska, and Illinois), as his junior year stats of 70 tackles, 37 tackles for loss and 17 sacks are ridiculously good.

Due to the recent defections PSU must land 2 legit DTs as well as one more DE to refresh the current DL talent.  The recruiting net has been cast wide enough that the staff should be able to land another DE if not two.  But DT is another matter.   The staff has a lot of work to do if they want to maintain recruiting balance along the Defensive Tackle spot.  To there credit they have done a good job of this in the recent past along the DLine.  But recruiting is a "what have you done for me lately?" business.  As of now if PSU doesn't add a DT or two to the Class of 2009 the Defensive Line grade drops quickly into the low D range.



Linebackers

Current Grade: Incomplete
Current verbal commitments: None


With the recent haul of the three "Mikes" (Mauti, Zordich and Yancich) the LB stock at PSU has been replenished.  Still, the Lions lost Dontey Brown to a transfer and will graduate Tyrell Sales after this season.  Therefore, it would be a good idea to continue to add elite LB prospects albeit on an extremely selective basis.  Again, recruiting balance is important here.  And LB is the one position that the PSU staff has repeatedly hit home runs at during this decade.  If there ever was a position at which we as fans were to "trust the staff" it is at Linebacker. Thankfully, selective recruiting is exactly what the Lions appear to be doing.  The staff did miss out on Gateway's Dorian Bell, who committed to Ohio State in April but still appears on track to fulfill the LB needs for the Class of 2009.

Currently, the Lions are in great shape with Maryland super elite OLB Jelani Jenkins (6'1 210 lbs) as well as a stud inside LB candidate in New Jersey native Glenn Carson (6'3 225lbs).  Both are extremely talented and capable of excelling wherever they decide to go.  Jenkins appears to be leaning toward Penn State but as you would expect from a kid who many consider the top OLB prospect in the nation he has his choice of suitors.  Carson recently announced that he will be making his college choice between Penn State and Rutgers.

The Lions are also targeting MLB Dan Mason from Penn Hills and it appears as if his decision will likely come down to either PSU or Pitt.  Expect hometown Pitt to win this battle, especially if Carson should choose to pick the Lions before a decision from Mason. 

This class grade could easily go from incomplete to an A+ should the Lions land both Jenkins and Carson.  Both are a luxury at this point and while losing them would be a blow, it wouldn't be the end of the world.  But as was mentioned earlier recruiting balance needs to be a focus here and with 25+ scholarships available for the Class of 2009 PSU needs to sign at least on LB.  One thing to keep in mind is that uber elite high school junior LB Mike Hull (a Nittany Lion legacy), appears to be a near lock to attend PSU when his time comes next year.



Defensive Backs:

Current Grade: C+
Current verbal commitments: Stephen Morris, Derrick Thomas, Darrell Givens, Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, Malcolm Willis


The Nittany Lions will have to replace corners Lydell Sargeant and Tony Davis as well as safeties Anthony Scirrotto and Mark Rubin, essentially 3/4 of the secondary.  Well, PSU appears to have somewhat replaced these starters with some effective personnel, especially the corners.  Highlighting the corner class is elite athlete Darrell Givens who had offers from every elite school on the East Coast.  Givens is more athlete than technician, similar to a younger, smaller AJ Wallace.  Joining Givens is perhaps the best cover corner in this class in Stephen Morris.  Although short at only 5-9, Morris appears to have elite coverage skills, especially in man to man.  If Morris were around 6-0 like Givens, he would have offers from any school he wanted.  Still in his own right, Morris has several elite offers, despite his smallish size.  Joining Givens and Morris, is Derrick Thomas (who could easily be a WR at PSU) who is a prototypical zone corner.  Thomas has good size and speed and should find a place at PSU whether it be at WR or CB.  He has enough talent to play either position.

The PSU staff has to be given credit for their CB recruiting this year as outside of Jordan Love (Georgia verbal) they landed just about every other CB prospect that they offered.  That is an impressive closing rate at a position of great need.  MD native Travis Hawkins is the only other CB prospect left on the board (and he could be a WR as well).  Hawkins is thought to be a Maryland lean at this time but is also looking at PSU amongst many other big time offers.

Joining the Corners are in the Class of 2009 are Safeties Stephen Obeng-Agyapong and Malcolm Willis.  While the Corners appear to be a pretty good haul, the safeties appear to be marginal at best.  Both appear to lack high end speed but that is nothing new at PSU, where safeties usually are a step slow.  (Quick, who was the last pure PSU safety to latch onto an NFL team for a few seasons?)  SOA hails from the same school as speedster RB Stephon Green so perhaps PSU found lightning in a bottle...again.  But realistically finding a sleeper like Green is much more the exception than the rule.  The 5'10 175 lb SOA chose PSU in Mid may at the PSU nike Camp over offers from Iowa, UConn, Buffalo, and Maryland.  SOA ran track this past season and the best documented time that was found was an 11.4 100m. 

The other safety is MD native Malcom Willis (5'11 195 lbs) whose only offer was PSU.  Willis' highlight film is void of any skill that translates into effective safety play.  The case has been made several times that Willis is earning his scholarship by helping recruit other Maryland talent to Penn State.  I am sorry, but this just in from the "Department of Redundancy Department"....that just isn't good enough.  When a kids best contribution over a fully paid 4 or 5 year career is expected to be his recruiting of fellow Marylanders, that spells recruiting mistake. 

At this point, both SOA and Willis appear to be career back-up types at PSU and will most likely have to be recruited over.  Such is the case for a variety of positions these days at PSU.  Basically if you graded only the safeties in this class the grade would be F.  Missing out on NJ stud Gerald Hodges (Rutgers commit) was a big blow on two fronts as he was at one point considered a strong PSU lean and PSU has no other safety prospects on the board who are on his level. 


CURRENT FINAL GRADE:  C

PSU got out of the gate quickly this recruiting season garnering 16 verbal commitments before the start of fall practice.  It is clear that the PSU staff wants to get as much recruiting as possible done before the regular season begins.  Unfortunately when you look at the overall talent level top to bottom the class right now as is is average.  Admittedly the current class is better than we expected it to be when the spring evaluation period started.  But make no mistake about it, this class does not help us overtake our primary conference rivals (those of course being Ohio State and Michigan).  And the way that some other schools are recruiting (Michigan State and Illinois for example) it won't be long before PSU is behind them as well.  Right now Penn State needs to do better. 

In breaking down the quality of the current class, there are maybe 4 legitimate big time kids (Eric Shrive, Darrell Givens, Sean Stanley, and maybe Mark Arcidiacono), a number of mid level kids (some of which we think have fantastic upside)who may or may not pan out as top end prospects (Curtis Dukes, Brandon Felder, Nate Cadogan,  Adam Gress, Stephon Morris, and Derrick Thomas) and a few kids who quite honestly should not be offered a PSU scholarship so early in the process (Curtis Drake, Christian Kuntz, Frank Figueroa, Ty Howle, Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, and Malcolm Willis). 

The strength of the current version of the Class of 2009 is clearly along the OL and with the CBs.  The staff deserves kudos for snagging 3 or perhaps even 4 future starters along the OL.  That positive is somewhat offset by 2 perceived mistakes but you still can't sneeze at the Offensive Tackle corps in this class.  It is the best that PSU has landed at the position in many years and it was a huge position of need.   For that the staff deserves credit. 

The staff also deserves credit  for addressing the needs at Cornerback.  This class doesn't do much for recruiting balance at the position, but "it is what it is." The current CB needs were filled.  Bear in mind that if any of these current CBs decommits then opinions certainly will change.  But again there is no denying the level of success that PSU enjoyed this spring and summer in recruiting the Cornerback position.

In looking at the breakdown of numbers there is a disproportionate number of reaches and sleepers as opposed to bonafide top end talents.  This is a recipe for problems in the future.  The Penn State staff seems to favor these days going for the "exception to the rule" as opposed to the rule itself.  And when you factor in Penn State's inability to land any top end skill talent on the offensive side of the ball there looks to be serious problems in the near future in Happy Valley.   PSU is the only BCS school in the nation not to get a QB over the past 2 years.  Two years!  And it isn't inconceivable that it will become 3.  This is beyond unacceptable!  And when you couple this issue with the WR recruiting problems it is safe to say that trouble is brewing.

The PSU staff needs to do better and needs to better immediately.  Whether this current staff is able to do so under the current leadership is a major question in itself.   But that is a story best addressed in another column.  That being said, the apparent decisions by the current PSU staff to pursue so many "sleepers" and "projects" should raise red flags for even the most ardent Penn State supporter.