UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Any hopes Penn State's coaching staff had of rounding out a strong 2014 recruiting class hinged on the newly hired assistants and James Franklin being holed up across town at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.
"It was a scramble," Franklin recalled this week. "Going through human resources and everything, half of our staff wasn't allowed to come to Lasch until they cleared all the background checks and all that kind of stuff so legitimately we were like sequestered in the Penn Stater for I don't know how long. It was basically me coming over, walking around Lasch Building by myself. It was a scramble."
Franklin and staff had three weeks and plenty of spots to fill, which of course meant re-recruitng the players who previously committed to Bill O'Brien, like Marcus Allen, Jason Cabinda and Mike Gesicki and making sure they'd quickly develop a relationship with the player and his family. It also meant selling Penn State to Vanderbilt commits who were already onboard with the staff, but needed to see if Happy Valley was the right fit.
Countless days filled with phone calls and questions from parents and players kept the staff humming around the clock. It was more chaos than clean and organized, Franklin said.
"It was a difficult, tough transition for all of us," cornerbacks coach and defensive recruiting coordinator Terry Smith said this week. "I'll use Christian Campbell as an example. Christian didn't take an official visit here [until after signing day]. He was a guy that Vanderbilt was recruiting him prior to coming here. ... Christian trusted his relationship with us as a staff and signed on signing day without actually coming to Penn State's campus to take a visit so it was that hectic. We tried to piece together a really good class and I know at my position in particular with Grant (Haley) and Christian, those guys were instrumental to what we do on the defensive side."
Penn State's once chaotic class will come full circle Saturday afternoon when the Nittany Lions send off their senior class, a group that includes seven fifth-year seniors who experienced the coaching change first hand, plus the 2014 signees who either followed Franklin and staff on a limb from Vanderbilt to Penn State, or had to learn about the staff in a matter of weeks. It's a group that helped bring Penn State back to national prominence, one that includes the fifth-year seniors who were sold on the Croke Park Classic in Ireland because there was no promise of a bowl game and one that paved the way for the rest of Penn State's highly-touted recruiting classes.
The Christian Hackenberg, Adam Breneman class of 2013 will forever be remembered as the group that chose O'Brien and Penn State during the university's darkest days. That class included DaeSean Hamilton, Brendan Mahon, Andrew Nelson, Parker Cothren and Curtis Cothran, five players who will all be introduced on Saturday. The 2014 group, a combination of players who hailed from Alabama, Florida, California plus areas within Penn State's usual tri-state footprint, made for one of the more unusual recruiting classes given the timing of O'Brien's departure, the continued fallout and recovery from NCAA sanctions and the uphill climb the program faced.
"Coach Franklin called me, I think it was whenever, like the first day that he was able to contact recruits and all that kind of stuff and we talked on the phone for probably about 20, 30 minutes," senior Mike Gesicki said. The highly-touted tight end picked Penn State over Ohio State and committed to Penn State and O'Brien three months before Franklin got the job. "Just able to kind of discuss the basics and how much he was excited about me coming to Penn State and all that stuff. And he came to my basketball game a few weeks later, came to my house for dinner and all that kind of stuff."
It was a quick process because it needed to be, but it also helps explain why Franklin, who prides himself on establishing strong relationships with players and their families, spent much of his first two seasons at Penn State discussing the need to tear down the walls that were built between players who were already here before he arrived and the coaching staff. The walls went up as a revolving door of coaches came and went before Franklin and staff stabilized the program.
"Back then we didn't have anywhere near the amount of chemistry that we have now," fifth-year senior DaeSean Hamilton said this week. "In 2014, we had a whole lot of older guys who really were just trying to get their own and obviously they were teaching the young guys the ropes and things like that, but it wasn't their coaching staff so it wasn't something that was really that close to them or they didn't feel as comfortable with that coaching staff. ... It took them a while to warm up to them."
It helped early on that the 2014 class included a human icebreaker in vivacious safety Marcus Allen . With Allen's constant smile, light-hearted nature and big hits -- someone Franklin said has "never had a bad day in his life" -- the staff landed a four-year starter who brought as much to the culture in the locker room as he did on the field. And, that's certainly saying something since it was Allen who blocked the field goal in last year's upset of No. 2 Ohio State that was then returned by his classmate Haley, the corner who in a roundabout way ended up at his mom's alma mater despite once readying to sign with Vanderbilt.
"You can hear him anywhere you are in the locker room," said fifth-year senior Brandon Smith said of Allen. "He'll be making people laugh and just joking around and having a good time."
Walking across the field on Saturday for senior day is a moment Allen has long looked forward to. The Maryland native missed most of his senior year of high with an injury and therefore couldn't take the field one final time four years ago.
"Last time playing at Beaver Stadium I'm still going to feel emotional. That's me. I'm an emotional person and that's just because of my love of the game," Allen said. "I love Penn State. I gave it my all. I gave everything to this school so I just want to show it one last time in Beaver Stadium."
The 2014 class also included an in-your-face type of leader in middle linebacker Jason Cabinda, a charismatic and well-versed player who actually didn't pick up a scholarship offer from Penn State until late September of his senior year. At the time Penn State was strapped for scholarships and once Cabinda landed an offer he flipped his pledge from Syracuse to the Nittany Lions. It's difficult to imagine where the program would be if they didn't have their defensive signal caller.
"You think about the guys in that class how significant they've been in our success and our turnaround," Franklin said. "The percentage of guys in that first class that really had an impact here compared to most recruiting classes where a new coach gets a job, that's not typically how that plays out. We've been really fortunate."
With the chance of closing out the regular season at 10-2 and landing in a New Year's Six game the legacy of this class is still unfolding. But, after a Big Ten title, trip to the Rose Bowl and rising as high as No. 2 in the AP Poll, this group accomplished more than even the most optimistic outside expectations.
"We're a group of guys that never stopped fighting, even when adversity hit. We kept striving for greatness," Allen said. "Even when people doubted us we still believed in each other. ... We stuck together as a family."