Things have been a little slow lately so I was reading over our offensive line recruiting through the last ten years or so and noted a bit of a trend. I've brought this up before but I thought it might be worthwhile to throw it out there for "newer" guys on the Board. Our o-line recruiting has been improving greatly over that time. Why? It struck me, there’s a number of factors. First, as has been discussed on here a good number of times, the two most difficult positions to predict are offensive and defensive linemen. Having said that, I think Franklin and Co.’s ability to identify talent has helped to change the trend; second, I think, generally speaking, recruiting has become more of a science, coaches are, overall, better able to identify kids who can succeed at the next level. Other than Franklin’s first year, where only Chasz Wright has had any real success at Penn State (and he was an O’Brien signee- but one can’t ignore the sanctions from 2012 through 2014)), and with the knowledge that the true freshmen coming in only have hype at this point, an awful lot of kids have or are said to be likely to contribute. Compare that to previous years where the numbers probably sit around 40% (no, I didn’t do the math- I’m sure someone out there will add it up to prove me wrong). I did look at 2015 through 2017 and, giving the benefit of the doubt to the reports we’ve heard, we’re hitting on about 75%, that’s impressive. Anyway, here’s the recruiting classes over the last 10 years:
2018: Nana Asiedu, Bryce Effner, Juice Scruggs, Rasheed Walker
2017: Desmond Holmes, Rob Martin, Mike Miranda, CJ Thorpe
2016: Will Fries, Alex Gellerstedt, Connor McGovern, Mitchell Menet
2015: Ryan Bates, Stephen Gonzalez, Sterling Jenkins, Paris Palmer
2014: Noah Beh, Brendon Brosnon, Chance Sorrell, Chasz Wright
2013: Tanner Hartman, Brendan Mahon, Andrew Nelson
2012: Derek Dowrey, Brian Gaia, Wendy Laurent, Anthony Stanko
2011: Anthony Alosi, Angelo Mangiro, Ryan Nowicki, Donovan Smith
2010: Miles Dieffenbach, Luke Graham, Khamron Kolb, Alex Mateas, Thomas Rickets
2009: Mark Arcidiacono, Nate Cadogan, Frank Figueroa, Adam Gress, Ty Howle, Eric Shrive, John Urschel
2008: Mike Farrell, Deon’tae Pannell, Matt Stankiewitch
2018: Nana Asiedu, Bryce Effner, Juice Scruggs, Rasheed Walker
2017: Desmond Holmes, Rob Martin, Mike Miranda, CJ Thorpe
2016: Will Fries, Alex Gellerstedt, Connor McGovern, Mitchell Menet
2015: Ryan Bates, Stephen Gonzalez, Sterling Jenkins, Paris Palmer
2014: Noah Beh, Brendon Brosnon, Chance Sorrell, Chasz Wright
2013: Tanner Hartman, Brendan Mahon, Andrew Nelson
2012: Derek Dowrey, Brian Gaia, Wendy Laurent, Anthony Stanko
2011: Anthony Alosi, Angelo Mangiro, Ryan Nowicki, Donovan Smith
2010: Miles Dieffenbach, Luke Graham, Khamron Kolb, Alex Mateas, Thomas Rickets
2009: Mark Arcidiacono, Nate Cadogan, Frank Figueroa, Adam Gress, Ty Howle, Eric Shrive, John Urschel
2008: Mike Farrell, Deon’tae Pannell, Matt Stankiewitch
