Blue and White Roundtable: Recruiting

It’s the post-recruiting edition of Blue & White Roundtable, which means the band is getting back together for one more show before we struggle through the remainder of winter and start looking toward Blue/White weekend.  The usual suspects are all here:

Black Shoe Diaries  /  The Nittany Line  /  William Yurasko  /  The Nittany Notebook  /  There Is No Name On My Jersey

Also, it seems we have two new combatants:

The Big Eleventh  /  Tangled Up In White And Blue

Seriously, there are about fifty Penn State blogs now, which is great.  This blog is still less than two years old, and it seems that the last six months have seen an explosion of new sites.

We’ve expanded.

How well did Penn State address their needs with this recruiting class?

It’s the classic double-edged sword scenario — we signed some very good players, but left many needs unaddressed. We needed multiple running backs, and signed one who may or may not grow into a fullback. We needed a quarterback, and uh…well, still working on that one. We needed multiple offensive tackles and signed two, one of which probably won’t be ready to contribute for a few years. We needed multiple defensive backs and wide receivers, and signed one of each. Got three highly-rated linebackers, though!

It was a small class, and the coaches would’ve had to hit at a high percentage to fill every single need. Next year is the crucial class for Penn State’s future, with as many as 25 scholarships likely to be available.  The 2009 class is an entirely different problem, because nobody seems to know who will be in charge of the actual recruiting.

Who was the big fish that got away? The kid you really really wish we had landed?

Deion Walker was a big loss, especially because he showed so much interest in Penn State for a long time. It can also be argued that losing out on USC’s Broderick Green, who caused so much Signing Day anguish last February but wanted to transfer to Penn State a month before Signing Day 2008, only to be turned away by Joe Paterno, could be potentially devastating given the thin RB depth chart.

As the days go by, it seems that Michael Shaw isn’t the big loss I initially thought he might be (despite my frantic emails to Brian Cook which said that the loss would be devastating).  Apparently, Penn State had Shaw pegged similarly to Michigan, as a slot receiver and not a running back.  It makes Penn State’s running back recruiting a little more questionable, but I can deal with losing a potential slot receiver who doesn’t have the best hands in the world.

You’re NCAA President Miles Brand. Take a break from counting your BCS cash for a minute. What would you do to improve the recruiting process?

I’ll just adopt the entirety of the proposal put forth by Vijay at IBFC. The system is obviously broken and benefits nobody except for Scout, Rivals, and ESPN rumor mills. It practically invites skullduggery and controversy, and puts way too much pressure on kids who don’t yet know how to handle it.

Now you’re Joe Paterno. So I guess prepare to dodge the question. What would you change about Penn State’s recruiting strategy?

Penn State is always going to have a relatively difficult time reeling in kids from distant, non-coastal states.  We’ve always been fortunate recruiting in places like Maryland, Virginia, and even the Carolinas, but outside of that, Penn State specializes in the mid-Atlantic states.  In my opinion, the next head coach will be tasked with what Penn State really needs to do — repair relationships with many high school coaches in Pennsylvania, and get back to establishing a heavy recruiting presence in New Jersey.  Ohio is always going to be a difficult place for us, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore it, either.

Lightning Round

Where will Terrelle Pryor go to school? Or should he just live off the hype for the next few years and directly enter the NFL draft in 2010?

I still think he ends up at Penn State, but it’s far from a certainty.  Not that Pryor will ever be a man without a program, but it looks like there’s something weighing down each of the remaining contenders.  Ohio State seems to be moving on and resorting to “we didn’t need him anyway!” mode, Rich Rodriguez’s antics seem to have turned off Pryor and Charlie Batch, and Penn State may not have the coaching stability that Pryor seemed to be enamored with right before Signing Day. 

It seems that Penn State still has a slight lead, but absolutely nothing would surprise me at this point.  Nothing.

Which member of this class stands the best chance to make an immediate impact?

D’Anton Lynn. A heavy hitter who walks into a muddled cornerback situation. A.J. Wallace and Lydell Sargeant still haven’t proven they can cover on a regular basis. If there’s an injury to either player, it’s anyone’s guess who would take their place.