Penn State Recruiting Insanity Vol. 16

[The Ancient Enemy]

I think we all have mixed feelings about PSU's approach to recruiting. It is never more apparent, actually, than right now. 11-1 and 2 BCS berths (Big Ten titles, no less) in a 4 year span. A legendary coach. A great college QB who is returning. 3 WR's who broke tons of records, and they are all graduating. An almost guaranteed top 10 standing when 2009 starts, and should be Big Ten favorites.

Where are the recruits?

Let's talk a little about that.

As I posted a couple months ago, DE Jason Ankrah and CB Travis Hawkins were both looking at Penn State. Both are now 4-star prospects, at the time Ankrah was a 3-star that was getting enormous reviews. The Lions offered both, and it was basically a package deal for the two of them. Jason Ankrah called the staff and told them he wanted to be a Lion. They turned around and told him, "well, we are looking at a few other kids." Ankrah was justifiably frustrated. Penn State offered him a scholarship, then when he wanted to accept it, they told him he basically wasn't as good as the other kids they had on their radar. Well, guess what. Those "other kids" were Anthony Lalota, a 4-star DE from New Jersey, and Gary Gilliam, a 2-star DE/TE from Milton Hershey. I dont know what in the hell happened with Lalota, but the rumor is that Penn State told him "no" as well. The day after they told Ankrah he wasn't good enough, Lalota committed to Michigan. As it stands now, Ankrah is a Nebraska lean, and Hawkins committed to Maryland. Did they honestly think they still had a chance with Hawkins after doing what they did to Jason Ankrah, his good friend? Rationalize this.

Last year (or maybe 2 years ago, I forget) I was one of many fans who was irritated that Penn State was blowing their class and chasing RB ghosts all over the country at the last minute, after they "crapped" the bed with the kids they should have had all along. Guess what. Now we are thin at WR.

Penn State went after Bryce McNeal, who decommitted from Michigan. McNeal's grades are not that great, so Penn State told him sayonara this week. He was a 4-star WR. What they did was put all their eggs in the Justin Brown basket, and I cannot even fathom what the hell this staff has seen on Brown that makes them think he is anything overly special. Brown is loving the recruiting spotlight, and was supposedly a PSU lean. Guess what. Tonight, Brown was picked up by Rutgers QB Tom Savage and accompanied Savage to the Rutgers dismantlement of Louisville tonight, 63-14. All they did was throw the ball all over the field all night. If Justin Brown comes to Penn State, I will be extremely surprised. They were so worried about Brown going to Rutgers tonight that some of the assistants drove to Brown's house today and dropped in for a visit.

The QB situation? All eggs in the Kevin Newsome basket. Newsome is a VTech lean. The staff is now spinning its wheels again and thinks they are in 1st place with 2010 Sto Rox stud Paul Jones. Are you kidding me. Do you actually think Paul Jones is coming to Penn State when they can't even put together a great class after an 11 win, conference championship season? What do you think is going to go through Jones' head when Florida and Alabama offer him a scholarship?

5-star LB Jelani Jenkins was a PSU lean. He is the top defensive player in the nation. There is no chance in hell that kid does not end up at Florida. You know why? Because the PSU staff does not understand this recruiting stuff yet. I dont think they ever will, to be honest.

There are 6 scholarships left. To be perfectly honest, I think they will have a hard time filling those 6 spots. Penn State is once again late in the game, and behind in the game.

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Signed up for Blue and White Illustrated recently, and that was probably a nice waste of money. The stuff the staff writes is good, and I very rarely post in the forum because of how the other posters act. I said I was a little concerned at how they treated Ankrah, who has been saying publicly that they gave no explanation as to why they stopped contacting him. The kid is 18 yrs old and he is frustrated that coaches who buddied up to him have stopped talking to him. Wouldn't you be questioning them as well? Its not like he's calling the staff names, he just said he never got a reason why they treated him the way they did. Its bad business. Last year, PSU was chasing Michael Shaw from west Ohio. He ended up committing to PSU, and then signing with Michigan. If you remember, I was very upset at how Jay Paterno would not answer his phone that whole weekend when Shaw was set to visit. His explanation was "I forgot to turn my cell phone on." Are you ****** kidding me. Anyways, I posted about how I was concerned about the Ankrah screwjob. There is an immediate attempt to get me into a pissing contest with a guy on there who seriously has over 20,000 posts. 20,000!!!!! You can make your own guess that this guy is beyond extreme when it comes to Penn State. But that's what the whole site is full of. Tons of people who are basically the Penn State equivalent of X-Files conspiracy theorists, and the other half are people who probably don't even understand the basic rules of football to begin with. You can't even post in there. I never knew there were so many Penn State fans who were that ridiculous.

You should see how those idiots trash Greg Schiano and say they dont want him at penn State. Their justification for this reasoning is seriously as bare bones as "he can't coach". Really? Because he took the worst program in the history of the sport and made them conference contenders every year. They won 6 straight this year to close the reg season after losing at first due to severe offensive injuries. Rutgers right now is playing like a team who could have won that conference. But the idiots want Tom Bradley, who has never been a head coach, and has cost us multiple games with his stubborn secondary approach.

The bad part of Penn State is that winning only makes people think their approach is correct. Why change something that is working? How can you even argue when they won the conference twice in 4 years? There are so many deficiencies I can't even count them.

It's harder being a Penn State fan than you'd think.