Phil Grosz's PSU recruiting analysis

[The Ancient Enemy]

It's an appropriate question at this point: Why the wide difference of opinion between recruiting services for this year's Penn State recruiting class?

It is not hard to determine that all three national recruiting services had a wide variance of opinion of the quality of football prospects available in the Northeast area of the country for the Class of 2009.

Three perfect individual examples are the rankings by Rivals, Scout and the G&W Recruiting Report of OL Mark Arcidiacono (6-5, 292) from Philadelphia (Pa.) St. Joseph's Prep, Ath. Curtis Drake (6-0, 175) from Philadelphia (Pa.) West Catholic and RB Curtis Dukes (6-2, 235) from Philadelphia (N.Y.) Indian River.

Rivals.com has Arcidiacono rated as a marginal 2-star prospect while, on the other hand, Scout.com ranks Arcidiacono as a quality 4-star recruit.

The G&W Recruiting Report also has a very high evaluation of Arcidiacono, ranking him in its 2008 December report as the 20th best overall prospect in the Northeastern section of the country.

Rivals', Scout's and the G&W Recruiting Report's evaluations of Drake and Dukes are very comparable. Rivals gives Drake a 2-star ranking, as compared to Scout's high 3-star ranking.

The G&W Recruiting Report doesn't list Drake among its top 25 prospects in the Northeast in its 2008 December report, but will be listing him as Pennsylvania's No. 1 "sleeper" in the Northeast section of the country in its post-Signing Day Report, mailed out Monday, Feb. 16.

The difference of opinion is just as dramatic with Dukes. Rivals rates Dukes as a low 3-star recruit. Scout has Dukes rated as a solid 4-star recruit, and the G&W Recruiting Report had him ranked as the 15th best overall prospect in the Northeast for the Class of 2009.

Keeping that difference of opinion at the forefront, and knowing the fact that eight members of Penn State's Class of 2009 had different star evaluations, it's not hard to understand why there isn't a consensus of what type of production Penn State will receive from members of its Class of 2009 over the next four or five years.

Personally, I'm convinced Penn State's Class of 2009 will end up performing more like the 10th-ranked recruiting class in the country rather than 25th-ranked class according to Rivals.com.

What drove me to that opinion was the fact Penn State put forth its best recruiting effort in its four areas of biggest need.

On offense they did a superb job of landing a top five dual-threat quarterback prospect in Kevin Newsome, who perfectly fits the Nittany Lions' Spread HD offensive philosophy.

Penn State also recruited seven very talented wide receiver prospects to replace the departed Deon Butler, Jordan Norwood, and Derrick Williams, plus the Nittany Lions landed the seven offensive line prospects that would be essential for the Nittany Lions' Class of 2009.

Defensively, with the entire starting secondary graduating, Penn State needed to land no fewer than five or six cornerbacks and safeties in this class. This is exactly what happened.

I realize there are some BWI subscribers out there who believe I over-emphasize the value of recruiting for need, but I can't tell you how impressed I've become with how well Joe Paterno and his assistant coaches addressed the team's biggest recruiting needs with its Class of 2009.

To illustrated my point, let's take a position-by-position look on both offense and defense at how well Penn State met its recruiting needs with its Class of 2009. Let's begin with the quarterback position on offense.

QUARTERBACK: If Penn State had not been able to land Newsome, Paterno would have been staring in the face of the prospect of Daryll Clark being the Nittany Lions' only scholarship quarterback on its roster going into spring practice.

Personally, I think it would have been much better for Penn State to recruit a second quarterback in this class, but it should turn out to be a big help that Newsome enrolled at Penn State in January and will participate in the Nittany Lions' 2009 spring practice session.

Another real positive at the quarterback position is the fact the Nittany Lions have already received a verbal commitment from Pennsylvania's top rated quarterback prospect for the Class of 2010, Paul Jones (6-4, 233) from McKees Rocks (Pa.) Sto-Rox. Jones also plans to become an early enrollee at Penn State in January 2010 at the beginning of the 2010 spring semester.

RUNNING BACK: With redshirt junior Evan Royster, redshirt sophomore Stephfon Green, redshirt junior Brent Carter, redshirt sophomore Joe Suhey, sophomore Brandon Beachum and possibly redshirt freshman Michael Zordich (Jr.) on the roster as capable of playing at the running back position, Paterno and Company felt they needed to recruit one running back capable of playing either the tailback or fullback position in Penn State's Spread HD offensive scheme.

That's exactly what they accomplished by signing Dukes. He's 6-foot-2, 235 pounds and has 4.8 speed. On find Penn State's coaching staff believes Dukes has the potential to become the Nittany Lions' best "big back" since Curtis Enis.

WIDE RECEIVERS: Penn State recruited seven quality wide receiver prospects in Justin Brown, Drake, Brandon Felder, Shawney Kersey, Christian Kuntz, Devon Smith and Derrick Thomas.

All seven grouped together provide Penn State with size, speed and flexibility to fit perfectly into the Nittany Lions' Spread HD offensive philosophy.

Brown (6-4, 210), Felder (6-3, 175) and Kersey (6-3, 193) are perfect for the split end or flanker positions. The provide size, speed and the ability to stretch opponents' secondaries vertically down the field. Kersey, as a sophomore, posted a 10.6 100-meter time in track.

Drake, Smith and Thomas provide speed and flexibility with all three capable of filling the slot wide receiver or flanker position.

Smith was the fastest high school football player in the country in 2008. He has 10.3 100-meter speed, has run a 4.19 40-yard time and posted, in January, a 6.19 second 55-meter time in track.

Drake played quarterback at West Catholic and could run the "Wildcat" formation probably better than Williams, and Thomas is a superb wide receiver / cornerback prospect. He has all-Big Ten potential at both positions.
Kuntz, with his 6-foot-5 frame, brings a Brett Bracket-style of possession receiver to this unit.

TIGHT END: With seniors Mickey Shuler Jr. and Andrew Quarless, plus redshirt sophomore Andrew Szczerba and redshirt freshman Mark Wedderburn, Penn State really didn't need to recruit a tight end.

In Garry Gilliam (6-7, 258) Penn State landed a possible tight end prospect that received 2nd team USA Today All-American recognition.

OFFENSIVE LINE: With A.Q. Shipley, Gerald Cadogan and Rich Ohrnberger all graduating, Penn State felt it needed to recruit at least six offensive line prospects in its Class of 2009. Paterno and Company landed seven.

This unit is led by three 6-foot-7 offensive tackles spearheaded by AA Eric Shrive (6-7, 302). Shrive, Adam Gress (6-7, 304) and Nate Cadogan (6-7, 282) comprise the biggest trio of offensive tackles the Nittany Lions have recruited in one class during the Paterno Era.

Arcidiacono, Frank Figueroa (6-4, 282), Ty Howle (6-2, 290) and John Urschel (6-3, 275) are all guard and center prospects.

SECONDARY: With Tony Davis, Mark Rubin, Lydell Sargeant and Anthony Scirrotto all graduating, besides A.J. Wallace, Devin Fentress and Knowledge Timmons all graduating following the 2009 season, recruiting three cornerbacks and three safetys became priority No. 1 on defense.

In AA Darrell Givens, Stephon Morris, Mike Wallace and possibly Thomas, Penn State believes it landed three, and possibly four, quality cornerback prospects. Givens hopes to press for a starting cornerback spot this fall.

In AA Gerald Hodges, Stephen Obeng-Agyapong and Malcolm Willis, Penn State feels it filled all its needs at both safety positions.

This big plus here is Hodges' early enrollment in January. Hodges stands 6-3, 220 and has been very impressive during winter workouts. He's expected to be a contributor at the strong safety position this upcoming fall.

LINEBACKER: Penn State will enter the 2009 season three-deep at all three linebacker positions. That's why recruiting just one inside and one outside linebacker was needed in the Class of 2009.

In AA Glenn Carson, Penn State landed the inside linebacker that was at the top of their recruiting board. Where Penn State came up short was at one outside linebacker spot.

With Sean Lee and Navorro Bowman moving on to the NFL following the 2009 season, failing to recruit AA LB Jelani Jenkins (6-1, 220) from Olney (Md.) Good Counsel created the Nittany Lions' biggest recruiting loss in the Class of 2009.

Jenkins, despite the underclassman depth that exists at all three linebacker positions, would have pressed for playing time as a freshman and challenged for Bowman's starting outside linebacker position for the 2010 season.

DEFENSIVE LINE: With the graduation of Josh Gaines and the early departures of Maurice Evans and Aaron Maybin, recruiting at least two defensive ends became a priority on defense.

Penn State might have come up a little bit short here landing Gilliam and Sean Stanley (6-2, 240) from Gaithersburg, Md.

At defensive tackle just senior Jared Odrick will graduate following the 2009 season among Penn State's seven defensive tackles listed on the spring practice depth chart.

That's why landing just 3-technique defensive tackle Jordan Hill (6-3, 290) from Steelton, Pa. filled all of Penn State's needs in the Class of 2009 at both defensive tackle positions.

Certainly an impressive group of wide receivers. Labeled by BWI the best group ever to be recruited in one recruiting class during the Paterno Era

Combine that with a top five dual-threat quarterback, seven offensive line prospects and six possible defensive backs, I think you get the picture why BWI believes Rivals.com has short changed Penn State's Class of 2009.