Penn State’s signing day war room was slightly less crowded than usual on Wednesday.
Typically coach James Franklin is flanked by his assistant coaches throughout the morning and early afternoon as they hold video calls with all of their incoming recruits to celebrate them officially joining the program.
But while Franklin still had plenty of recruiting staffers to help him out and talk to players and their families, the assistants were busy elsewhere. Namely, preparing for Saturday’s Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon.
It made for a unique start to the early signing period, which is now earlier than ever. With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams and starting on Dec. 20-21, the early window for recruits to make things official moved up two weeks.
This year also marked a change that saw the traditional letter of intent abolished in favor of contracts in the NIL era with schools tentatively set to pay players directly starting next season.
Penn State ultimately welcomed 26 players into the fold on Wednesday, checking in with the nation’s No. 16 class according to the On3 Industry Team Rankings.
“I’m pleased with the class,” Franklin told reporters in State College after practice on Wednesday evening. “I was also very, very pleased with the staff in general. This is a very different signing day. It was just me and the recruiting staff. Usually it’s our whole staff. But we can’t afford to do that right now. So, the rest of the staff was on football all day. I came in early and will stay late to make up for the time that I missed on football.
“And the recruiting staff and the administrative staff did a phenomenal job having everything set up. You’re talking about, not only was that different, but not having National Letter of Intent this year, NIL contracts — all kinds of stuff — make it very, very challenging. And for us to not have any hiccups or any issues, to me, was impressive from the organization.”
Penn State’s class is led by top-100 overall recruit Malachi Goodman, a top-10 tackle in the country for this cycle and the No. 1 tackle in New Jersey.
The Lions had some tougher sledding than usual with in-state recruits. They’re waiting on a decision on Friday from the state’s top prospect, Southern Lehigh tight end Andrew Olesh, who previously committed to Michigan but is deciding between the Wolverines, Lions and Oregon.
Spring-Ford quarterback Matt Zollers (No. 2 overall in the state) is headed to Missouri and Philadelphia edge rusher Zahir Mathis (No. 3) is delaying his decision until the traditional February signing window after decommitting from Ohio State. Penn State made a push for Pittsburgh linebacker Bradley Gompers (No. 4), but he kept his original pledge and signed with former Lions defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, now the head coach at Duke.
Penn State signed six Keystone state recruits on Wednesday in Greater Latrobe linebacker Alex Tatsch (No. 5), Imhotep running back Jabree Coleman (No. 7), St. Joseph’s Prep linebacker Cam Smith (No. 8), Imani Christian edge rusher Dayshaun Burnett (No. 11), Aliquippa running back Tikey Hayes (No. 12), Pittsburgh Central Catholic cornerback Xxavier Thomas (No. 14) and North Catholic offensive lineman Brady O’Hara (No. 16). Hayes helped lead Aliquippa past Dallas in last year’s PIAA Class 4A championship game.
Coleman is Penn State’s top-rated skill position recruit, followed by Matt Outten, the No. 1 ranked wide receiver out of Virginia for this cycle.
Beyond that, the most recognizable name for Penn State fans is LaVar Arrington II, son of the freakishly athletic All-American for the Lions who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2000 draft.
The younger Arrington will also start out at linebacker like his father, though his 6-foot-3 frame could potentially make him an edge rusher down the line a la Abdul Carter.
The process isn’t over yet as a few high-profile recruits will wait to make their decisions.
Besides Olesh, the Lions are still pushing for North Carolina quarterback Bryce Baker. Olesh and Baker had verbally committed to Michigan and North Carolina, respectively, but both popped up on Penn State’s campus for games in the past month.
Penn State is on a tremendous run of developing tight ends — all five starters in Franklin’s tenure have been drafted, with three of them selected in the second round. Tyler Warren, a finalist for the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end, will make it six in the spring. The Wolverines, though, got a big boost last week when quarterback Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class, flipped from LSU to Michigan.
The Lions’ success at the position did bear fruit in the past few days, though. Ohio tight end Brian Kortovich visited Penn State over the weekend just as his first choice, Purdue, was set to fire coach Ryan Walters. Kortovich decommitted from the Boilermakers and announced for the Lions on Tuesday before signing on Wednesday.
“We took the visit this past weekend, and my dad and my brother and I went up, and we absolutely just love the place, love the coaching staff and love the culture,” Kortovich said during Penn State’s livestreamed signing day show. “I just can’t thank them enough for giving me an opportunity, and I’m blessed to be a part of the program.”
Baker, meanwhile, is considering the Lions after the Tar Heels announced that veteran coach Mack Brown wouldn’t return next season. With UNC’s staff in flux, Baker has been in contact with both Penn State and LSU while he takes some time to decide whether he wants to stick with the home state Heels or sign elsewhere.
The Lions do have a quarterback already in the bag for this class, but the well-traveled Bekkem Kritza is something of a question mark. The 6-foot-5 Arizona native was playing in Colorado when he committed to Penn State last November, but he has spent his senior season playing for two different schools in Florida.
Things didn’t start off well for Kritza as he was benched early in the season at Miami Central before being eligible to play at Chaminade-Madonna after a transfer. Things have gone better with his new team, which is playing in the FHSAA Class A state semifinals on Friday.
Penn State had taken some late runs at flipping a few other blue-chippers but came away empty. Maryland cornerback Brandon Finney and New Jersey wideout Quincy Porter both stuck with their original picks and signed with Big Ten rivals Oregon and Ohio State, respectively.
The Lions were also interested in Pittsburgh linebacker Bradley Gompers, but he elected to also stick with his verbal commitment, signing with former Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, now the head coach at Duke.
On the other side of the ledger, the Lions suffered one late loss themselves as Kansas edge rusher Jayden Woods flipped to Florida on Friday. They also fended off a challenge for another edge prospect when they won a late tug-of-war with the Buckeyes for Ohio native Chaz Coleman.
“We’ve been able to kind of go across the entire offense and defense and make sure that we have some young, talented players that we can develop for the future,” Franklin said. “And we pretty much filled all those buckets. Some positions a little bit more than others. In terms of numbers, we always want to make sure that we have enough offense and defense alignment. Because, if you fall behind in those numbers, it’s hard to fix that problem fast. You can do it now in the transfer portal a little bit.
“We want to make sure we have the numbers there, and then, I think you know, if you look at our program, we’re trying to identify what are the other positions based on how we want to play offense and defense that are critical? So we may over-sign at those positions as well to make sure we’re going to have the talent needed to compete for Big Ten and national championships.”
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