STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- When James Franklin sat at the front of the room in January of 2014 and reiterated three words heard across the Keystone State, there was no taking it back even if he'd wanted.
"We're going to dominate the state," Franklin said during his introductory news conference at Beaver Stadium, the slogan then promptly popping up on T-shirts in Happy Valley. "That is the first thing that we're going to do. I believe in the high school coaches in this state. I know how well players are coached and developed. I know how talented this state is, as well. I know how important football is here. I think that's very, very important. So that is the first thing we're going to do. We're going to work very, very hard and put a staff together that will help us dominate the state of Pennsylvania."
For the past three years now, Penn State has signed the top football prospect in Pennsylvania as Miles Sanders, Lamont Wade and now Micah Parsons helped fulfill Franklin's bold Day 1 promise. Perhaps more interesting is that the Nittany Lions haven't even scratched the surface of seeing what Sanders and Wade will do and, once Parsons enrolls in January, he'll have a chance to shed the five-star ranking and compete for a starting spot at mike linebacker right away.
These are the instant-impact recruits who can sway the trajectory of programs and push recruiting classes over the top. They are also the wins on the recruiting trail that help programs distance themselves from one another. That's what likely could continue happening here in-state given how Franklin's staff approached recruiting since their arrival and how, thus far, they've dominated the state both with the on-field product and in the star rankings.
Penn State's 2018 class, which still will grow in February, is ranked No. 4 in the nation per 247Sports, the program's highest placement since recruiting rankings started in 2000. It's comprised of the fourth-best player in the nation in Parsons and boasts a roster of talent that's assembled in-state with seven signees from Pennsylvania and nationwide.
It's one that few can challenge nationally and one that, within the region, sheds a harsh light on just how wide the gap continues to be between Pitt and Penn State.
The Panthers' 2018 class checked in at No. 54 in the nation, per the 247Sports rankings. And using that same system, the Panthers' highest-ranked player is a three-star prospect while the Lions have three five-star talents in Parsons, running back Ricky Slade and wide receiver Justin Shorter. Penn State also signed nine four-star prospects, per that same rankings system. It's a class where the Lions' average ranking per prospect is 91 while Pitt's is 85.
"Over the last four years (the class average) has been a class that's ranked 13th in the country, and the four-year average before we got here was 34," Franklin said.
That 34th ranking came at a time when Penn State as an institution was at its lowest point after NCAA sanctions from the Jerry Sandusky scandal were supposed to leave the program in shambles. At once, it was thought that, should the program get the death penalty, it would have been better off than the crippling effects the sanctions were meant to have.
Now, five years later with a Big Ten title under their belt, back-to-back trips to New Year's Six bowl games and a loaded roster of homegrown talents and national standouts, the Lions have their best class to date. What was considered to be an in-state sleeping giant toward the end of the Joe Paterno era never took that lengthy slumber. The program stayed afloat and now is thriving in part because of players who stayed because of their loyalties to the school, but also because of those they recruited in-state and beyond who bought into a vision that wasn't crystal clear.
One of the biggest reasons for Penn State's success in this 2018 class is because of what the Lions landed in 2016 and 2017 from right in Pitt's back yard with Sanders, the Woodland Hills standout, and Wade the highly-touted Clairton cornerback.
"I want to thank Miles Sanders for that," Franklin said of the Lions' success in the state. "Miles Sanders is a guy that jumped on board with us at a time that we were really kind of trying to get this thing rolling. He got it going, and the following year it was Lamont Wade, and now this year it's Micah Parsons from different parts of the state."
Sanders is expected to fill Barkley's shoes next season should Saquon Barkley, a projected first-round pick, declare for the NFL Draft after the Fiesta Bowl. If that happens, Sanders will be running behind center Connor McGovern, a four-star Pennsylvania product, left tackle Ryan Bates, also a four-star Pennsylvania standout, and likely another in-state player in highly-touted four-star lineman Michal Menet. They'll have a pair of redshirt freshman backups from Pennsylvania working behind them, too, in four-star lineman CJ Thorpe and three-star lineman Des Holmes.
All were among Penn State's top signings since Franklin's arrival, another piece of evidence that suggests the Lions' hold on the state is only getting tighter. Of course to succeed at the highest level means going well beyond the state and the region, too. Still though, when the talent is there in the state -- as it was in this 2018 cycle -- it's important for Penn State to own it, and they have.
"Being able to keep the best players home is really important," Franklin said. "I think Miles got this thing started. Very appreciative of Miles and his mom for kind of getting it going. Miles made it cool to stay home and play at Penn State. Kind of the sexy thing to do now, Miles and Lamont, and now Micah. ... But as you know in my initial press conference how important we feel like this is, not only in this state, but also in this region."
While the Lions' biggest signing of the Franklin era hasn't been the top-ranked player in the state but rather the former four-star prospect Barkley, Barkley's success coming from the Lehigh Valley continues bolstering Penn State's recruiting pitch to other players within the state. That's a large bargaining chip. That helped Nazareth four-star wide receiver Jahan Dotson flip from UCLA to Penn State this week, adding another name to a growing in-state recruiting haul during the Franklin era that's unmatched elsewhere in the state and in the region.
"For a kid in that region, they're basically five minutes from each other, and for him to see Saquon Barkley come here and thrive in so many areas, it just makes sense," Franklin said. "It makes sense for local kids to come here. It's good for Penn State. It's good for the kids and their families. It's good for high school programs and it's good for the community."
It's also good for Penn State's chances of sustaining success.
Winning and recruiting go hand in hand and perhaps that's why Franklin's Day-1 slogan was so jarring. Up to that point Penn State was still facing an uphill climb but still had the resources -- including the 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium and droves of alumni -- backing it. They had tradition, somewhat recent success given the trip to the Rose Bowl at the end of the 2008 season but still had to overcome unprecedented NCAA sanctions that included bowl bans and scholarship limitations.
If Pitt couldn't lock down the region on the recruiting trail when Penn State was at its worst, then when can it?
What Penn State landed during the program's darkest days, and what it was able to keep despite the poaching of other schools, helped pave the way for this unusual rebuild of sorts.
The two schools certainly aren't recruiting directly against one another, but at various points when it comes to top in-state talents they are. That's where Penn State has gained the upper hand more times than not and when recruiting classes translate to on-field talents -- and yes, that's always a big if -- then the margin between these two programs is one that likely will be sizable given what Penn State signed since Franklin's arrival.
"We have 44 four-or five-star recruits in the last four classes," he said. "The previous four classes, there was a total of 16. ... We're really making some good progress there."
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