Wednesday, May 26, 2010
First Commit
I guess JoePa read the blog and wanted to shut me up. We received our first verbal commitment for the 2011 class today. Kyle Carter, a TE from Delaware, selected Penn State over offers from Bucknell and Delaware.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
2010 Recruiting Update
Got word today that Penn State has added a late addition to their 2010 recruiting class. Alex Mateas an offensive lineman from Ottawa. For those confused, Ottawa is in Canada. This is not another walk-on situation, Mateas will be on scholarship.
I have been receiving a lot of flak recently for the negative tones to my posts. There are two reasons for this. I would like to see Penn State win a national championship again in my lifetime. Also, I am scared about the upcoming season.
This is the first season since 2000 where I felt we have no chance of going undefeated. We are going to get smashed at Alabama, we are going to get smashed at Iowa, and we are going to get smashed at Ohio State. While that may be cool with JoePa, that is not cool with me.
Email me mailbag questions to 717Rizk@gmail.com.
Let's go State!
I have been receiving a lot of flak recently for the negative tones to my posts. There are two reasons for this. I would like to see Penn State win a national championship again in my lifetime. Also, I am scared about the upcoming season.
This is the first season since 2000 where I felt we have no chance of going undefeated. We are going to get smashed at Alabama, we are going to get smashed at Iowa, and we are going to get smashed at Ohio State. While that may be cool with JoePa, that is not cool with me.
Email me mailbag questions to 717Rizk@gmail.com.
Let's go State!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Mailbag!
SickOLBs,
I know it is impossible to predict at this point but if anyone can do it, you can. So who all is leaving State early for the NFL this season?
-Tony from Baltimore
Tony,
If this were five years ago I'd say nobody but we've seen recently quite a few Nittany Lions leave early for the League with Justin King (after the 2007 season), Mo Evans and Aaron Maybin (2008) and Navorro Bowman (2009). Keep in mind, King was the first Nittany Lion to forgo college eligibility to turn pro since LaVar Arrington did eight years before him.
I'm going to say we lose one and that one will be junior defensive tackle Devon Still. You might be thinking...he didn't even start last year!?! And while that's true, it was due to a lack of experience brought on by a rash of injuries throughout the early part of his career. Still showed immense talent and vast improvement to the point where he started the Capital One Bowl at the end of last season. Jared Odrick is gone (first round pick) and Still and fifth year senior Ollie Ogbu will form one of the best DT duos in the country with Still most likely being the star of the show.
SickOLBs,
LOVE the blog. What's really good regarding recruiting?
-Matt from Lansdale
Matt,
To be honest, nothing, at least recently. Over the past seven months Penn State has done very poorly. To be fair, Penn State had quite the class built by the end of recruiting season but this is a "what have you done for me lately" world that we live in. Let's take a look at the facts:
Dominique Easley - Decommitted from Penn State and committed to Florida, he was ranked as the #3 overall player in the nation by ESPN. Easley would have starred at DE at Penn State but will play DT at Florida.
Adrian Coxson - Decommitted from Penn State and committed to Florida, he wanted to be a Nittany Lion but WR coach Mike McQueary didn't like his attitude and told him to find another place to play ball. This is the kid I had compared favorably to Michael Crabtree and said I would be surprised if he didn't end up being the best wide receiver in school history. Don't blame me, I'm not the one who pulled his schollie.
Kenny Stills - Stills wanted to visit officially for the Ohio State game but the staff would not allow it because they didn't want to waste their time with a kid they were convinced wasn't leaving the state of California. Stills enrolled early and starred in the Oklahoma spring game last month. Ooops.
Levi Norwood - Younger brother of legendary wide receiver Jordan Norwood, Levi projects at the same position and has been described as a taller version of Jordan with more upside. Levi's commitment was the reason the staff felt comfortable telling Coxson to pound sand and Stills to go fly a kite. Norwood was released out of his signed Letter of Intent and will now be enrolling at Baylor (where his father, Brian, is the defensive coordinator) instead of Penn State. Anybody sensing a trend here?
Brice Schwab - JUCO All-American was a USC commit until Pete Carroll left the Trojans for the NFL. Schwab, orginially from Pennsylvania, wanted to go to Penn State after he decommitted but the staff told him "no thank you". Chose Arizona State two weeks before signing day. I feel as though Schwab would have came in and started in 2010 here as offensive tackle is a major weak spot for us.
Brad Bars - A DE from Tennessee, Bars shocked Nittany Nation by committing a few days before Signing Day. Bars chose Penn State over Army, Navy, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern. You cannot make this stuff up.
Shyquawn Pullium - A corner from Erie, Pullium selected Penn State two days after Bars did. Pulliums other offers included Pitt and Maryland and word on the street is Pullium will need to go to prep school for a year before enrolling.
Marcus Lattimore - Scout.com's top ranked running back, Lattimore made his commitment the day before Signing Day. Penn State was in it until the end, but they weren't in it at the end. USC beat out Penn State again for a recruit. This time it was the other USC as Lattimore chose to play for The Old Ball Coach and the hometown Gamecocks. The silver lining here is that I think Lattimore is overrated.
Michael Thornton - Thornton would have been the third big time DT in our class (Evan Hailes, DaQuan Jones) and Nittany Nation was expecting a Signing Day commitment. What we weren't expecting was for that commitment to be to Georgia.
To review, we closed our class out by losing three commits (one classic decommit, one where the staff told to go elsewhere, and one where the kid had a change of heart after the fact), whiffed on another three (one we thought we had no chance with but may have, and two where the staff thought we were going to get and then we didn't, and one at a position of need that we told no thank you to), and two commits (one a virtual unknown, and one who we won't see for another year).
These results lead me to question the staff. We have an unqualified quarterbacks coach, Jay Paterno, who does a garbage job in his recruiting area of Ohio and only has his job because of who his daddy is. We can't pull anybody without Penn State ties who has an offer from Ohio State from Ohio but Ohio State does arguably better in Pennsylvania than we do. (Terrelle Pryor says hi) We have an offensive coordinator, Galen Hall, who does not recruit at all as evidenced by 2010 quarterback commit Robert Bolden asking "who?" when a reporter asked him what he thought about Hall. I can't blame Hall though, he essentially is a glorified babysitter who is there to make sure Baby Jay doesn't do anything too stupid and is also in charge of the running game, which is doing just fine. And we have a head coach who absolutely refuses to visit recruits. Thornton and Lattimore would have been ours had JoePa visited, same with Jelani Jenkins the year before, and on and on and on. Folks, this happens every year.
What about 2011 recruiting? As of now we have no commits and every couple of weeks one of our top targets falls off the board. Top linebacker prospect Lawrence Thomas has already selected Michigan State over a slew of offers including Penn State and a couple weeks ago Pennsylvania native Ben Koyack, a top tight end prospect, ended his recruitment early by picking Notre Dame over Ohio State. I don't know what's worse, losing this year's top in-state target to Notre Dame, or Ohio State finishing ahead of us yet again for the services of a Pennsylvania player that the coaching staff really wanted. And a lot of times when a kid chooses Columbus over State College it is because they feel more comfortable in an urban environment...this kid is from Oil City.
I know it is impossible to predict at this point but if anyone can do it, you can. So who all is leaving State early for the NFL this season?
-Tony from Baltimore
Tony,
If this were five years ago I'd say nobody but we've seen recently quite a few Nittany Lions leave early for the League with Justin King (after the 2007 season), Mo Evans and Aaron Maybin (2008) and Navorro Bowman (2009). Keep in mind, King was the first Nittany Lion to forgo college eligibility to turn pro since LaVar Arrington did eight years before him.
I'm going to say we lose one and that one will be junior defensive tackle Devon Still. You might be thinking...he didn't even start last year!?! And while that's true, it was due to a lack of experience brought on by a rash of injuries throughout the early part of his career. Still showed immense talent and vast improvement to the point where he started the Capital One Bowl at the end of last season. Jared Odrick is gone (first round pick) and Still and fifth year senior Ollie Ogbu will form one of the best DT duos in the country with Still most likely being the star of the show.
SickOLBs,
LOVE the blog. What's really good regarding recruiting?
-Matt from Lansdale
Matt,
To be honest, nothing, at least recently. Over the past seven months Penn State has done very poorly. To be fair, Penn State had quite the class built by the end of recruiting season but this is a "what have you done for me lately" world that we live in. Let's take a look at the facts:
Dominique Easley - Decommitted from Penn State and committed to Florida, he was ranked as the #3 overall player in the nation by ESPN. Easley would have starred at DE at Penn State but will play DT at Florida.
Adrian Coxson - Decommitted from Penn State and committed to Florida, he wanted to be a Nittany Lion but WR coach Mike McQueary didn't like his attitude and told him to find another place to play ball. This is the kid I had compared favorably to Michael Crabtree and said I would be surprised if he didn't end up being the best wide receiver in school history. Don't blame me, I'm not the one who pulled his schollie.
Kenny Stills - Stills wanted to visit officially for the Ohio State game but the staff would not allow it because they didn't want to waste their time with a kid they were convinced wasn't leaving the state of California. Stills enrolled early and starred in the Oklahoma spring game last month. Ooops.
Levi Norwood - Younger brother of legendary wide receiver Jordan Norwood, Levi projects at the same position and has been described as a taller version of Jordan with more upside. Levi's commitment was the reason the staff felt comfortable telling Coxson to pound sand and Stills to go fly a kite. Norwood was released out of his signed Letter of Intent and will now be enrolling at Baylor (where his father, Brian, is the defensive coordinator) instead of Penn State. Anybody sensing a trend here?
Brice Schwab - JUCO All-American was a USC commit until Pete Carroll left the Trojans for the NFL. Schwab, orginially from Pennsylvania, wanted to go to Penn State after he decommitted but the staff told him "no thank you". Chose Arizona State two weeks before signing day. I feel as though Schwab would have came in and started in 2010 here as offensive tackle is a major weak spot for us.
Brad Bars - A DE from Tennessee, Bars shocked Nittany Nation by committing a few days before Signing Day. Bars chose Penn State over Army, Navy, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern. You cannot make this stuff up.
Shyquawn Pullium - A corner from Erie, Pullium selected Penn State two days after Bars did. Pulliums other offers included Pitt and Maryland and word on the street is Pullium will need to go to prep school for a year before enrolling.
Marcus Lattimore - Scout.com's top ranked running back, Lattimore made his commitment the day before Signing Day. Penn State was in it until the end, but they weren't in it at the end. USC beat out Penn State again for a recruit. This time it was the other USC as Lattimore chose to play for The Old Ball Coach and the hometown Gamecocks. The silver lining here is that I think Lattimore is overrated.
Michael Thornton - Thornton would have been the third big time DT in our class (Evan Hailes, DaQuan Jones) and Nittany Nation was expecting a Signing Day commitment. What we weren't expecting was for that commitment to be to Georgia.
To review, we closed our class out by losing three commits (one classic decommit, one where the staff told to go elsewhere, and one where the kid had a change of heart after the fact), whiffed on another three (one we thought we had no chance with but may have, and two where the staff thought we were going to get and then we didn't, and one at a position of need that we told no thank you to), and two commits (one a virtual unknown, and one who we won't see for another year).
These results lead me to question the staff. We have an unqualified quarterbacks coach, Jay Paterno, who does a garbage job in his recruiting area of Ohio and only has his job because of who his daddy is. We can't pull anybody without Penn State ties who has an offer from Ohio State from Ohio but Ohio State does arguably better in Pennsylvania than we do. (Terrelle Pryor says hi) We have an offensive coordinator, Galen Hall, who does not recruit at all as evidenced by 2010 quarterback commit Robert Bolden asking "who?" when a reporter asked him what he thought about Hall. I can't blame Hall though, he essentially is a glorified babysitter who is there to make sure Baby Jay doesn't do anything too stupid and is also in charge of the running game, which is doing just fine. And we have a head coach who absolutely refuses to visit recruits. Thornton and Lattimore would have been ours had JoePa visited, same with Jelani Jenkins the year before, and on and on and on. Folks, this happens every year.
What about 2011 recruiting? As of now we have no commits and every couple of weeks one of our top targets falls off the board. Top linebacker prospect Lawrence Thomas has already selected Michigan State over a slew of offers including Penn State and a couple weeks ago Pennsylvania native Ben Koyack, a top tight end prospect, ended his recruitment early by picking Notre Dame over Ohio State. I don't know what's worse, losing this year's top in-state target to Notre Dame, or Ohio State finishing ahead of us yet again for the services of a Pennsylvania player that the coaching staff really wanted. And a lot of times when a kid chooses Columbus over State College it is because they feel more comfortable in an urban environment...this kid is from Oil City.
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