Recruiting: PSU hurt by Paterno's absence
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Five months ago, Penn State put the finishing touches on a strong 2010 football recruiting class that many experts ranked among the top 10 in the country.
Since then, the Nittany Lions have been slow to secure prospects for their class of 2011. They have just three verbal commitments, the fewest among Big Ten Conference schools.
Scout.com has Penn State at No. 64 in its 2011 recruiting rankings and No. 10 among 11 Big Ten schools.
Texas is No. 1 with 22 commitments and 11 top-100 prospects, followed by No. 2 Ohio State with 17 and five. Indiana leads the Big Ten with 20 verbal commitments, which are not binding until national signing day in early February.
"Penn State is lagging behind this year in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio, states where they are normally very strong," said national recruiting expert Tom Lemming of CBS College Sports and Maxpreps.com. "I don't expect Penn State to have a real good year in recruiting, unless they go outside of their normal states.
"The majority of the good kids already are gone in Pennsylvania, and there weren't many to begin with. There still are a few good ones left in New Jersey, but it's a pretty weak year there, too. And many of the top players are gone in Ohio. If things don't turn around soon, Penn State could find itself in sort of a panic mode."
Mike Farrell, a recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said there's a major reason why the Lions have fallen so far behind.
"Penn State was a little slow out of the gate," Farrell said. "A lot of the major prospects had written offers from colleges as juniors. But Penn State had only sent out three written offers as of February and didn't reach double digits until late March. Meanwhile, schools such as Pitt, Rutgers, Florida and Ohio State all offered much earlier and were much more aggressive."
Penn State received a verbal commitment May 26 from Delaware tight end Kyle Carter, rated a two-star recruit (out of five) by Scout.com. It was another 36 days before defensive end Shawn Oakman from Lansdowne, Pa., became the second to commit. Defensive end Jordan Kerner from Fairview joined him six days later. Oakman is rated a four-star recruit by Scout.com; Kerner a three-star recruit.
First Published July 18, 2010 12:00 am
