Analysis: Landing Parsons, top-five class, has Lions 'making progress'

By Audrey Snyder

Dec 20, 2017 • 8:07 pm

2.9K

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The students shouted "Penn State!" as the suspense drew in a facility in Harrisburg with five-star Micah Parsons waiting to make his choice.

The impact of the Nittany Lions' success the past two seasons stretched across the state up into the Lehigh Valley where they netted four-star wide receiver and former UCLA verbal pledge Jahan Dotson. It spanned back down to the mid-state where tight end Zack Kuntz made his commitment official and signed his binding National Letter of Intent as well.

When it was all said and done -- at least for the first day of the 72-hour NCAA early signing period -- Penn State had 21 signees to show for their year's worth of efforts, a consensus top-5 group and Penn State's most highly-touted class since the recruiting rankings started in 2000.

"Making progress," James Franklin said. "We're still not where we want to be. But we are making progress. I'm really proud of all the hard work that went in from the coaches and the support staff off the field, and really our current players.

"I think our current players are a big part of that. How they are when they host these guys, how they are when the parents come on campus and we do panels and those guys -- we leave the room and the parents can ask our players any question they want."

AUDREY'S THREE THOUGHTS

1. What will the rest of the class include?

The next 48 hours and the lead-up to the final signing day in February could result in a frenzy, at least that's how Franklin views it. With the recruits who haven't signed now prized commodities for all the schools who still have spots to fill it could get a little overwhelming for prospects in the coming hours and six weeks.

"I think we'll have some more action in the next day or so, and then I think we could have some more action, guys that we're still involved with for the second signing day that we knew they were going to wait until the second signing day," Franklin said. "So there are still some moving parts out there."

The only verbal pledge who didn't sign with Penn State on Wednesday was wide receiver Shaquon Anderson-Butts. He was at the signing ceremony for Parsons, his high school teammate, but Anderson-Butts didn't have an announcement scheduled for Wednesday anyhow. So, look for him to wait it out and perhaps the staff could be waiting to make sure everything checks out with him before the biding letter is signed. That's the only reason I can think of why a longtime verbal pledge wouldn't sign today when all of his other classmates did.

Penn State is still in the running and eyeing defensive ends and offensive tackles, including Jayson Oweh, Tyreke Smith and Rasheed Walker. But, perhaps they're facing a challenge trying to land them as other schools look at the holes on their rosters or perhaps are looking around if a player they expected to sign on Wednesday didn't put the pen to the paper.

"I worry a little about the second signing period because there are a few guys and a bunch of schools that want those few guys," Franklin said. "In the past, those schools were trying to chase 20 guys, and now you're going to have 20 schools chasing one guy. It's going to get interesting."

It's interesting and unprecedented so as much as Franklin and staff study trends both on the field and in recruiting, there's no data to pull from for this one so buckle up as the Lions round out this class. Also, it's unclear how many spots remain in this class as Franklin pointed to the inexact science of the team's overall scholarship number that while it remains at 85 will fluctuate based on NFL departures and off-season transfers.

"I'm going to make sure I travel in numbers, because if a fight breaks out in the front lawn of a recruit, I want to make sure that Sean Spencer and Tyler Bowen who is 6'7" is there with me," Franklin joked. "But seriously, I think it's going to be interesting. This next couple weeks and this last signing day is going to get really aggressive. I have a little bit of a concern about that, obviously, for the recruits. They're under enough pressure and their families to make what is probably the biggest decision they've made at this point in their life."

2. Coaching hire No. 10 is on the way. Just ask Ricky Slade.

Penn State landed five-star running back Ricky Slade without any hiccups down the stretch. That's made even more impressive since Slade doesn't know who his position coach will be at Penn State. While Slade isn't among the team's six early enrollees, the Lions have to fill the 10th assistant spot and have a vacancy since Charles Huff departed this month to head to Mississippi State with Joe Moorhead.

While losing a head coach and losing an assistant or position coach is drastically different in terms of change, Franklin said Slade still had to trust him and that he'll be making a hire here soon in early January when all FBS teams are allowed to bring on that 10th assistant coach. So how did Franklin and staff have to sell slade on the place he's been committed to despite not having a position coach in place when he signed?

"That goes back to Ricky, to Ricky's coach, to Ricky's mom and dad trusting us," Franklin said. "I'm able to say to Ricky, 'Look, this is not the ideal situation. I had a 10th coach in house who was going to be our special teams coordinator, so it made sense to get us back to whole as quick as possible. Put that guy on the road recruiting, and wait on the running back position. You just have to trust me that you see the type of men that I surround myself with.' ... I said you just have to trust that I am going to hire someone that's not only going to be a great fit for Penn State but also going to be a great fit for you. It makes no sense for me to bring you here and not have a coach that you're going to be able to identify with and work with."

Franklin did say that he shared some information with the Slade family that he hasn't with anyone else, likely helping to reassure them that they'll have a hire in place soon and that it'll be someone they can quickly connect with. Phil Galiano was added as the team's special teams coordinator after serving in an advisory role last season, making him the in-house hire Franklin alluded to.

"They were comfortable with that," Franklin said of the Slade family. "I haven't shared that with anybody else, but I wanted them to be as comfortable as they possibly could be. But they've been great. They really have. We're going to make some decisions on this here pretty soon. We've got the convention coming up. ... I'm actually flying to go meet with some people on Friday as well. I think we'll have this decision with the running back decision made pretty quickly."

3. Micah the Mike linebacker?

Landing a verbal pledge from Micah Parsons was one thing. Keeping him happy during his recruitment was another. Signing Parsons on Wednesday meant a lot of schools had to sweat it out along with the coaches gathered in Penn State's signing day war room.

"Fortunately, for us at the end of the day we built a strong relationship with mom. We've built a very strong relationship with dad by the end of the process, the high school coach, and a bunch of people in that community," Franklin said. "I think it helped he has a high school teammate in our program now that's doing really well. I think there are a lot of factors. I think the fact that we've been involved with him since he was in ninth grade, I think it will be an interesting -- it will be in my memoirs when I'm retired and hopefully sitting on a beach somewhere, writing my memoirs or writing this book or reciting this to someone else to write the book, he will have a number of pages in it."

So where will the five-star signee and No. 4 player in the country start his Penn State career? That'll be at linebacker, specifically at the Mike linebacker spot that's currently occupied by senior Jason Cabinda. At 6-3, 245 pound the Nittany Lions recruited Parsons as an athlete and while he's played receiver and running back as well as defensive end, they're going to give him a shot at Mike linebacker in spring ball to see how it goes, Franklin said.

If it doesn't work out they know they can still use him at defensive end, but right now the need at linebacker is more pressing.

While I projected Parsons would be a linebacker at the next level, I assumed he'd be more of an outside linebacker as opposed to the Mike linebacker. With Ellis Brooks in the fold for the future and the uncertainly on the outside because of suspended linebacker Manny Bowen this group will have some holes to fill moving forward, wherever they put Parsons.

"There is no doubt in my mind he could play defensive end," Franklin said. "We have a challenge that we need to solve some linebacker depth issues that we have. We think with him graduating early, he's got a chance to kind of learn it and have a chance to truly compete for the job come the fall. So it's a combination of both. It's a talent, but it's also a need. Don't get me wrong, we have great guys in our program that we think are going to be competing for that job as well. But we don't have maybe the returning starters. So we want to make sure we have enough competition that whoever wins the job we know is going to be able to play at a very, very high level."

WHO SIGNED ON WEDNESDAY?

Nana Asiedu

OL | Stafford, Va. | North Stafford High School | 6-5, 275

Judge Culpepper

DT | Tampa, Fla. | H.B. Plant High School | 6-4, 275

Jahan Dotson

WR | Nazareth, Pa. | Nazareth High School | 5-11, 170

Bryce Effner

OL | Aurora, Ill. | Metea Valley High School | 6-5, 280

Pat Freiermuth

TE/H | Merrimac, Mass. | Brooks School | 6-5, 250

Daniel George