2018 Recruiting Thread
- Thread starter MilesBarkley
- Start date
Is football recruiting moving to using analytics and large data sets to project players growth and development in the way MLB is? More of a backroom operation than traditional scouting.
I've read more and more about non coaching staff numbers growing for major programs and would suspect some of the growth is 'numbers' guys.
Would anyone be aware of recruits this year that are projected by 'raw data' numbers to be a recruit and I mean excluding the traditional testing numbers.
Anyone that has some info and can share would be appreciated. ( Also want to get this thread back on the 1st page )
I've read more and more about non coaching staff numbers growing for major programs and would suspect some of the growth is 'numbers' guys.
Would anyone be aware of recruits this year that are projected by 'raw data' numbers to be a recruit and I mean excluding the traditional testing numbers.
Anyone that has some info and can share would be appreciated. ( Also want to get this thread back on the 1st page )
CODY ROMANO
- S
- 6-1
- 201
- CLASS OF 18
Cody Romano Timeline Events
February 14, 2018: Commitment
Cody Romano commits to Penn State Nittany Lions as a walk-on
More than walk-on. Like his highlights. Complete package: ball skills, blocking, crushing tackles, football I.Q. Long and strong. Natural safety
Cody Romano visiting Penn State
Farrell with a position by position ratings of the B10 recruits that fit best at the B10 schools based upon the systems they run. Gordon at Safety? No mention of Oweh? He has some strange ideas.....
https://bwi.rivals.com/news/big-ten-spotlight-commit-fit
https://bwi.rivals.com/news/big-ten-spotlight-commit-fit
“Most of the recruits fit better at blessed Notre Dame”-MIke Farrell
https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/02/15/michigan-recruiting-ohio-state-big-ten-east
Another Down Year Could Put Michigan in a Dangerous Hole
Michigan’s 2018 recruiting class is, judging by the simplest measures available, a letdown. On National Signing Day, the Wolverines watched their top-ranked offensive line target, Berkeley (Fla.) Prep five-star Nicholas Petit-Frere, sign with rival Ohio State even after they practiced at his high school in advance of their bowl game on New Year’s Day. Within a half hour, a coveted linebacker who’d been verbally committed to Michigan since June 2016, Lee County (Ga.) High’s Otis Reese, had flipped to Georgia.
Those two decisions left the Wolverines’ 2018 haul with zero players ranked in the top 100 in the nation and a team ranking of No. 21 in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.
That said, as SB Nation’s Bud Elliott has detailed using his Blue-Chip Ratio, today’s national champions are fueled by four- and five-star recruits, and Michigan’s 2018 class has seven fewer of those than its 2016 class did and 14 fewer than its 2017 class did, according to the 247Sports Composite.
It’s who joined other Big Ten East heavyweights. Ohio State (No. 2) and Penn State (No. 5) both signed classes ranked in the top five nationally, with 19 top-100 high school players combined, according to the 247Sports Composite. The Buckeyes and Nittany Lions now check in first and eighth, respectively, in Bill Connelly’s two-year recruiting rankings, compared to 15th for Michigan.
Another Down Year Could Put Michigan in a Dangerous Hole
Michigan’s 2018 recruiting class is, judging by the simplest measures available, a letdown. On National Signing Day, the Wolverines watched their top-ranked offensive line target, Berkeley (Fla.) Prep five-star Nicholas Petit-Frere, sign with rival Ohio State even after they practiced at his high school in advance of their bowl game on New Year’s Day. Within a half hour, a coveted linebacker who’d been verbally committed to Michigan since June 2016, Lee County (Ga.) High’s Otis Reese, had flipped to Georgia.
Those two decisions left the Wolverines’ 2018 haul with zero players ranked in the top 100 in the nation and a team ranking of No. 21 in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.
That said, as SB Nation’s Bud Elliott has detailed using his Blue-Chip Ratio, today’s national champions are fueled by four- and five-star recruits, and Michigan’s 2018 class has seven fewer of those than its 2016 class did and 14 fewer than its 2017 class did, according to the 247Sports Composite.
It’s who joined other Big Ten East heavyweights. Ohio State (No. 2) and Penn State (No. 5) both signed classes ranked in the top five nationally, with 19 top-100 high school players combined, according to the 247Sports Composite. The Buckeyes and Nittany Lions now check in first and eighth, respectively, in Bill Connelly’s two-year recruiting rankings, compared to 15th for Michigan.
FC/some or all of these were probably reported on earlier. Also may not be complete list.
Summary of 2017 & 2018 Preferred Walk-Ons:
Grayson Kline QB 2/8/18
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/02/penn_state_adds_another_prefer.html
Hollidaysburg kicker and PIAA Class 5A all-star pick Vlad Hilling 1/29/18
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/01/penn_state_lands_all-star_kick.html
Blairstown, N.J., Blair Academy linebacker/safety Cody Romano
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/02/penn_state_football_cody_roman.html
State College (Pa.) offensive lineman Collin De Boef 1/31/18
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/Article/Penn-State-football-adds-2018-State-College-lineman-as-PWO-114459984
Boerne, Texas punter Cade Pollard 1/22/18
https://www.landof10.com/penn-state/cade-pollard-commits-penn-state
State College PA, Brandon Clark (PSU Bruce Clark’s son) 10/13/17
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/Article/PSU-Legacy-Recruit-Brandon-Clark-On-Preferred-Walk-On-Commitment-108869757
Summer 2017 PWOs: Joe Calcagno LS, Oak Park, IL 6/25/17: CB Drew Hartlaub, Hanover, PA 6/26/17: LS Chris Stoll, Columbus, OH: DB Justin Neff, Mill Hall, PA: OG Crae McCracken, Williamsport, PA
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/ContentGallery/Meet-the-Walk-ons-Five-new-Nittany-Lions-53332053
Summary of 2017 & 2018 Preferred Walk-Ons:
Grayson Kline QB 2/8/18
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/02/penn_state_adds_another_prefer.html
Hollidaysburg kicker and PIAA Class 5A all-star pick Vlad Hilling 1/29/18
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/01/penn_state_lands_all-star_kick.html
Blairstown, N.J., Blair Academy linebacker/safety Cody Romano
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/02/penn_state_football_cody_roman.html
State College (Pa.) offensive lineman Collin De Boef 1/31/18
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/Article/Penn-State-football-adds-2018-State-College-lineman-as-PWO-114459984
Boerne, Texas punter Cade Pollard 1/22/18
https://www.landof10.com/penn-state/cade-pollard-commits-penn-state
State College PA, Brandon Clark (PSU Bruce Clark’s son) 10/13/17
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/Article/PSU-Legacy-Recruit-Brandon-Clark-On-Preferred-Walk-On-Commitment-108869757
Summer 2017 PWOs: Joe Calcagno LS, Oak Park, IL 6/25/17: CB Drew Hartlaub, Hanover, PA 6/26/17: LS Chris Stoll, Columbus, OH: DB Justin Neff, Mill Hall, PA: OG Crae McCracken, Williamsport, PA
https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/ContentGallery/Meet-the-Walk-ons-Five-new-Nittany-Lions-53332053
Last edited:
Gots to luv the LS from Columbus, Ohio! He knows where it's at!!
Quite a haul of PWOs....Icing on the cake for already elite 2018
this new group will not be short on personality
fine with me, and I know Coach Franklin will rein them in when necessary
It's been over since Dan Marino left school.
Wow that seems high. Franklin really proving his eye for talent. That class was only ranked 24. Wish I could read that article.
Penn State is just about in that position where when they offer a scholarship everyone offers a scholarship .
thanks for the update on SA-B; so, what, if any, is the nature of his commitment to PSU?
Did he sign an LOI? Does an LOI become void after a period of time?
Do he and PSU start over in recruitment?
Did he sign an LOI? Does an LOI become void after a period of time?
Do he and PSU start over in recruitment?
He states in the post his recruitment is open to all schools.
Then it sounds like he will need a qualifying test score (or that he's getting bad advice from someone).
If you could give a high school junior only one piece of advice about the recruiting process, what would it be?
“Keep your grades up." - GREAT ADVICE!!
https://www.landof10.com/penn-state/penn-state-recruiting-will-levis-nittany-lions-updates
Will Levis spent the early weeks of summer 2017 in conversations with Penn State coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. The 6-foot-4, 222-pound quarterback prospect saw his recruitment explode in June, and now the Nittany Lions wanted a closer look.
Then a rising senior at Xavier (Middletown, Conn.) High School, Levis added scholarship offers from Florida State, Iowa, North Carolina, Ole Miss and Syracuse in June. It became clear that a July 14 camp session at Penn State would determine whether the reigning Big Ten champions would also enter this pursuit.
“They were talking me through what was going to happen and basically indirectly said ‘You’re going to know if you have an offer by the end of the day,'” Levis recalled during a discussion with Land of 10.
By the time more than a dozen a future Nittany Lions players gathered July 15 for Penn State’s annual Lasch Bash barbecue, Levis was a member of the 2018 Penn State recruiting class. Now three months away from enrolling at the university, he looked back at the recruiting process with Land of 10.
Levis, who threw for 2,771 yards and totaled 33 touchdowns in 2017, detailed his rapid rise on the national recruiting trail, what led him to Happy Valley, and some observations from life as a Power 5 college football prospect.
Be sure to check out our Penn State recruiting notebook (7:20 p.m. ET, Monday-Friday) this upcoming week for more content from our interview. First, here’s Levis’ review of key recruiting topics.
Land of 10: What was your reaction when those offers began arriving in bunches last June?
Levis: “I knew that I was working toward that and that’s the kind of caliber player I am, so I hoped that things would fall into place and kept a positive mindset. I did my best, put my head down and knew those opportunities would come. I had a chance to really put myself out there at some camps, add some legitimacy to my name, and that’s when things started coming my way. Then it was just like huge momentum last offseason. It really blew up for that one little period of time, and I’m grateful it got me to where I am now.”
How did you handle the pressure of make-or-break camp sessions when scholarships were at stake?
“Every offer I got felt like something I had to go out there and earn. Almost all of the Power 5 offers I had were a product of me going to camp at those schools. It’s part of the quarterback position. All the eyes are always on you, and whenever anything goes wrong you’re to blame. I didn’t really let it get to me and did my best to have fun with it, whether it was the media or coaches watching me. All the camps I was at there were guys around me who I just had fun with and that kept me from worrying about the other circumstances. I’m going to treat every workout the same, whether it’s trying to get a scholarship or just a Sunday morning on the field with my boys. Go out there, do my thing. If they like what they see, then it is what it is. If not, then it is what it is.”
You had to prove yourself again at the Penn State camp in July. What was that weekend like for you?
“After all the testing and throwing, they brought me back up to the coaches’ office. It was kind of late at night and I sat down with Coach Franklin. That’s when he offered me. I talked to my parents about it because we’d been to Penn State a few times and kind of anticipated that if an offer came I was going to accept it. That Friday night we didn’t tell them, but Saturday morning we got there early and I gave my commitment.”
https://twitter.com/will_levis/status/886230615661608961
Will Levis@will_levis
Officially committed to Penn State University! I am a Nittany Lion! #WeAre
9:26 AM - Jul 15, 2017
Twitter Ads info and privacy
There were several Nittany Lions commits on campus that weekend. How did they interact?
“[Tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Zack Kuntz] are two guys who’d been committed for a while, and guys I’d seen at camps. Both of them made the point to introduce themselves to me knowing that I was a potential target coming into the camp, then getting as many reps with me as possible. It was a lot of fun throwing to them, then making the commitment the next day and conversing with them and the other commits who were there for the Lasch Bash. That was a really cool experience.”
Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead left after the regular season to take over as Mississippi State head coach. How did you and the staff handle this change?
“Coach Franklin made it a point to the tell committed players there’s going to be opportunities for other coaches. Whether it’s [defensive coordinator Brent] Pry or Coach Moorhead, there’s a possibility of them leaving for another job. That’s something that was always in the back of my head, and in the back of the other recruits’ heads, because Coach Franklin always made sure we understood that. It wasn’t much of a shock to me. When Moorhead announced he was going to be the head coach at Mississippi State, he was actually scheduled to make an in-home visit with me the next morning. That was pretty funny. He called me up, explained the situation. I wish him the best, he’s a great coach and deserves every opportunity he gets.”
Will Levis worked under the direction of Joe Moorhead on July 14 before securing a Penn State offer. (Tyler Donohue/Land of 10
Approximately six weeks before you committed, Penn State lost a pledge from 5-star QB Justin Fields. Did that dynamic enter your mind at all?
“No. I think they’re going to take the guy that they want. They put their trust in me and they offered me. They think I’m right for their system and I trust them. I know Justin, he’s a great kid and he did what’s best for him. He’s a really good player, but I think if I do my thing I can play at just as high a level as anyone else. That’s what I look forward to doing at Penn State.”
What school was ultimately your No. 2 option behind Penn State?
“I would say Iowa. Just the Big Ten feel and family feel there. It was pretty similar to Penn State but I liked the aspects of Penn State a lot more compared to Iowa.”
What’s a recruiting rumor that took you by surprise or wasn’t true?
“Before I’d even visited Penn State [in July], I was already a 100-percent [247Sports] crystal ball pick to end up a Penn State commit. That was before I’d even got an offer, so that was pretty funny. I was kind of like ‘What the heck?'”
If you were in charge of the NCAA, which college football recruiting rule would you add or change?
“I think if you’re committed to a school, you should be able to take more than one official visit to the school. You can take five, but Coach Franklin isn’t going to let us take other official visits if we’re committed. We’re kind of missing out, so we might as well be able to take a couple of official visits to the same school.”
View image on Twitter
https://twitter.com/will_levis/status/939616930616442882
Will Levis@will_levis
MY Heisman Trophy winner @saquonb21
5:05 PM - Dec 9, 2017 · State College, PA
Twitter Ads info and privacy
What is your best James Franklin story … so far?
“OK, so this is back when I camped at Penn State before my freshman year. I think it was only Franklin’s second year there, and I went there as a camper coming off eighth grade. He kind of tells a variation of this story a lot, but it’s something I’ve taken with me since because I’ve always been a competitive guy and kind of take things too far from some people’s perspective. Coach Franklin helped make me understand that’s the right mindset to have because he said you always want to be competitive and you always want to win no matter what. His exact quote that day I think was ‘If you play your grandma in checkers, you better beat her.’ I liked that.”
If you could give a high school junior only one piece of advice about the recruiting process, what would it be?
“Keep your grades up. That’s one thing you don’t want to have holding you back and keeping you away from getting an opportunity to achieve your dream.”
“Keep your grades up." - GREAT ADVICE!!
https://www.landof10.com/penn-state/penn-state-recruiting-will-levis-nittany-lions-updates
Will Levis spent the early weeks of summer 2017 in conversations with Penn State coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. The 6-foot-4, 222-pound quarterback prospect saw his recruitment explode in June, and now the Nittany Lions wanted a closer look.
Then a rising senior at Xavier (Middletown, Conn.) High School, Levis added scholarship offers from Florida State, Iowa, North Carolina, Ole Miss and Syracuse in June. It became clear that a July 14 camp session at Penn State would determine whether the reigning Big Ten champions would also enter this pursuit.
“They were talking me through what was going to happen and basically indirectly said ‘You’re going to know if you have an offer by the end of the day,'” Levis recalled during a discussion with Land of 10.
By the time more than a dozen a future Nittany Lions players gathered July 15 for Penn State’s annual Lasch Bash barbecue, Levis was a member of the 2018 Penn State recruiting class. Now three months away from enrolling at the university, he looked back at the recruiting process with Land of 10.
Levis, who threw for 2,771 yards and totaled 33 touchdowns in 2017, detailed his rapid rise on the national recruiting trail, what led him to Happy Valley, and some observations from life as a Power 5 college football prospect.
Be sure to check out our Penn State recruiting notebook (7:20 p.m. ET, Monday-Friday) this upcoming week for more content from our interview. First, here’s Levis’ review of key recruiting topics.
Land of 10: What was your reaction when those offers began arriving in bunches last June?
Levis: “I knew that I was working toward that and that’s the kind of caliber player I am, so I hoped that things would fall into place and kept a positive mindset. I did my best, put my head down and knew those opportunities would come. I had a chance to really put myself out there at some camps, add some legitimacy to my name, and that’s when things started coming my way. Then it was just like huge momentum last offseason. It really blew up for that one little period of time, and I’m grateful it got me to where I am now.”
How did you handle the pressure of make-or-break camp sessions when scholarships were at stake?
“Every offer I got felt like something I had to go out there and earn. Almost all of the Power 5 offers I had were a product of me going to camp at those schools. It’s part of the quarterback position. All the eyes are always on you, and whenever anything goes wrong you’re to blame. I didn’t really let it get to me and did my best to have fun with it, whether it was the media or coaches watching me. All the camps I was at there were guys around me who I just had fun with and that kept me from worrying about the other circumstances. I’m going to treat every workout the same, whether it’s trying to get a scholarship or just a Sunday morning on the field with my boys. Go out there, do my thing. If they like what they see, then it is what it is. If not, then it is what it is.”
You had to prove yourself again at the Penn State camp in July. What was that weekend like for you?
“After all the testing and throwing, they brought me back up to the coaches’ office. It was kind of late at night and I sat down with Coach Franklin. That’s when he offered me. I talked to my parents about it because we’d been to Penn State a few times and kind of anticipated that if an offer came I was going to accept it. That Friday night we didn’t tell them, but Saturday morning we got there early and I gave my commitment.”
https://twitter.com/will_levis/status/886230615661608961
Will Levis@will_levisOfficially committed to Penn State University! I am a Nittany Lion! #WeAre
9:26 AM - Jul 15, 2017
Twitter Ads info and privacy
There were several Nittany Lions commits on campus that weekend. How did they interact?
“[Tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Zack Kuntz] are two guys who’d been committed for a while, and guys I’d seen at camps. Both of them made the point to introduce themselves to me knowing that I was a potential target coming into the camp, then getting as many reps with me as possible. It was a lot of fun throwing to them, then making the commitment the next day and conversing with them and the other commits who were there for the Lasch Bash. That was a really cool experience.”
Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead left after the regular season to take over as Mississippi State head coach. How did you and the staff handle this change?
“Coach Franklin made it a point to the tell committed players there’s going to be opportunities for other coaches. Whether it’s [defensive coordinator Brent] Pry or Coach Moorhead, there’s a possibility of them leaving for another job. That’s something that was always in the back of my head, and in the back of the other recruits’ heads, because Coach Franklin always made sure we understood that. It wasn’t much of a shock to me. When Moorhead announced he was going to be the head coach at Mississippi State, he was actually scheduled to make an in-home visit with me the next morning. That was pretty funny. He called me up, explained the situation. I wish him the best, he’s a great coach and deserves every opportunity he gets.”
Will Levis worked under the direction of Joe Moorhead on July 14 before securing a Penn State offer. (Tyler Donohue/Land of 10
Approximately six weeks before you committed, Penn State lost a pledge from 5-star QB Justin Fields. Did that dynamic enter your mind at all?
“No. I think they’re going to take the guy that they want. They put their trust in me and they offered me. They think I’m right for their system and I trust them. I know Justin, he’s a great kid and he did what’s best for him. He’s a really good player, but I think if I do my thing I can play at just as high a level as anyone else. That’s what I look forward to doing at Penn State.”
What school was ultimately your No. 2 option behind Penn State?
“I would say Iowa. Just the Big Ten feel and family feel there. It was pretty similar to Penn State but I liked the aspects of Penn State a lot more compared to Iowa.”
What’s a recruiting rumor that took you by surprise or wasn’t true?
“Before I’d even visited Penn State [in July], I was already a 100-percent [247Sports] crystal ball pick to end up a Penn State commit. That was before I’d even got an offer, so that was pretty funny. I was kind of like ‘What the heck?'”
If you were in charge of the NCAA, which college football recruiting rule would you add or change?
“I think if you’re committed to a school, you should be able to take more than one official visit to the school. You can take five, but Coach Franklin isn’t going to let us take other official visits if we’re committed. We’re kind of missing out, so we might as well be able to take a couple of official visits to the same school.”
View image on Twitter
https://twitter.com/will_levis/status/939616930616442882
Will Levis@will_levisMY Heisman Trophy winner @saquonb21
5:05 PM - Dec 9, 2017 · State College, PA
Twitter Ads info and privacy
What is your best James Franklin story … so far?
“OK, so this is back when I camped at Penn State before my freshman year. I think it was only Franklin’s second year there, and I went there as a camper coming off eighth grade. He kind of tells a variation of this story a lot, but it’s something I’ve taken with me since because I’ve always been a competitive guy and kind of take things too far from some people’s perspective. Coach Franklin helped make me understand that’s the right mindset to have because he said you always want to be competitive and you always want to win no matter what. His exact quote that day I think was ‘If you play your grandma in checkers, you better beat her.’ I liked that.”
If you could give a high school junior only one piece of advice about the recruiting process, what would it be?
“Keep your grades up. That’s one thing you don’t want to have holding you back and keeping you away from getting an opportunity to achieve your dream.”
