Lots of gnashing of teeth and complaining about decommitments and kids choosing other schools caused me to wonder about how our recruiting was going prior to the sanctions under Paterno. Let me be perfectly clear, this is just because I was interested and thought others might also find it interesting, it does not suggest that anyone is okay with losing out on the kids we’ve lost out on. With the qualifier that I did not include the sanction years (2012 and 2013 or Franklin’s/O’Briens class (2014), I thought it might be interesting to look at how we’ve recruited under Paterno's last 5 years and how we’ve done over the first full 5 years under Franklin. There’s little question, we’re recruiting at a higher level now than we did back then. Here’s the Rivals numbers:
Franklin
Year: Recruiting Ranking
2019: 11
2018: 5
2017: 12
2016: 22
2015: 15
Paterno
Year: Recruiting Ranking
2011: 35
2010: 12
2009: 24
2008: 43
2007: 24
What a glaring difference. Paterno had but one T20 class during that 5 year period while we’ve had 4 T15 classes, including a 5th place class in ’18, and the lowest rated class under Franklin was 22nd. Obviously we need to do even better, we need more T10 classes to get where we want to be as a program, but man, we’re definitely in better shape today than we were pre-sanctions. Franklin has, imo, performed a minor miracle in getting us to where we are right now but he definitely has more work to do.
Franklin
Year: Recruiting Ranking
2019: 11
2018: 5
2017: 12
2016: 22
2015: 15
Paterno
Year: Recruiting Ranking
2011: 35
2010: 12
2009: 24
2008: 43
2007: 24
What a glaring difference. Paterno had but one T20 class during that 5 year period while we’ve had 4 T15 classes, including a 5th place class in ’18, and the lowest rated class under Franklin was 22nd. Obviously we need to do even better, we need more T10 classes to get where we want to be as a program, but man, we’re definitely in better shape today than we were pre-sanctions. Franklin has, imo, performed a minor miracle in getting us to where we are right now but he definitely has more work to do.
