**Courtesy of ASAPSports.com**
JAMES FRANKLIN: First of all, appreciate everybody coming out to cover Penn State football and to support us. Overall, obviously, we're excited and we've still got a little bit more work to do. But, overall, I really like how today went. Not a whole lot of surprises for us. We kind of released the commitments throughout the day, but most of the guys' letter of intents were in by 9:00, somewhere around there this morning. So that was really good. Excited about that.
I just like the progress that we're making, really, in all areas. We just kind of keep chipping away at it and keep working. The development of our current players, what we're doing academically, what we're doing on the football field in terms of being successful on the football field, two undefeated seasons at home, back-to-back, hasn't happened in 31 years. What we're doing from a facility perspective, what we're doing from a staff perspective, and then recruiting.
I keep seeing us make progress, really, more every day. It's not just every single year. It's every day. I see us making decisions cross campus. I see the alignment that we need. I've talked about this a lot since I arrived, about the alignment for you to be as successful as you want to be and as successful as we need to be. That takes the students, that takes our players, that takes the coaches, that takes the administration, our athletic director, Sandy Barbour, that takes our President, Eric Barron, that takes the board, that takes the lettermen, that takes this community all really working together. Every day I see us getting closer to that. So it's an exciting time.
I look at attendance this year, I think we had the largest jump in attendance in the country this year, so there's just a lot of really positive things going on.
Excited about the fact, obviously, about the class overall, but I'm also excited we've got six guys that should be here in a couple of weeks. They'll be here mid semester, Trent Gordon, Isaiah Humphries, Zack Kuntz, Jesse Luketa, Micah Parsons, and Nick Tarburton will all be here in a couple of weeks. I think as you guys have seen, we've played freshmen, and whether that's guys that graduated early and came in December or come in the summer, they're going to have an opportunity to compete.
I do think the chances and the likelihood increase, obviously, the longer that they're here and in this system. So that will be interesting. We've got three Under Armour All-Americans in Mustipher, Shorter and Slade, two Army All-Americans in Nana and Parsons, a Gatorade Player of the Year in Slade.
This is a stat I think is something I'm proud of. We have 44 four- or five-star recruits in the last four classes. The previous four classes there was a total of 16. So I think we're really making some good progress there.
Really proud that we've signed a number one player in the State of Pennsylvania for three straight years. I want to thank Miles Sanders for that. Miles Sanders is a guy that jumped on board with us at a time that we were really kind of trying to get this thing rolling. He got it going, and the following year it was Lamont Wade, and now this year it's Micah Parsons from different parts of the state. That hasn't happened here since 2004, so excited about that.
Signed two of the top 10 recruits in the country for the first time since 2000. Two of the top 15 recruits only had five top 15 recruits from 2000 to 2017. So in 17 years we've only signed five top 15 recruits and we have two in this class. So really excited about that.
It's just been a lot of positive things going on. Six of the 15 highest rated recruits since most of these recruiting services have been doing this. The six of the 15 highest rated recruits in Penn State history coming since we've been here in Parsons, Shorter, Sanders, Slade, Menet, Wade, so that's exciting. Finished third in the country in one service, fourth in the country in another service. I also understand we're not done. There is still going to be more movement today and in the second signing period as well, and then second in the Big Ten.
So making progress, we're still not where we want to be. But we are making progress in those types of areas. I'm really proud of all the hard work that went in from the coaches and the support staff off the field, and really our current players. I think our current players are a big part of that. How they are when they host these guys, how they are when the parents come on campus and we do panels and those guys -- we leave the room and the parents can ask our players any question they want.
Probably one other thing, our four-year average over the last four years has been a class that's ranked 13th in the country, and the four-year average before we got here was 34. So, again, I see us making progress. At the end of the day, these rankings don't matter a whole lot once they show up on campus.
I love that first practice or that first tire pull when the five star or the four star gets beat and the vet stands over them and tells them that no one cares about your five star or four star or whatever it is. We see guys go to the NFL that are two-star guys and all that. So, I get it.
But I do think there is value in it in terms of guys that we've evaluated as really good players. A lot of other people have as well. Whether that's other colleges from an offers perspective, or whether that's recruiting services, or whatever it may be.
But at the end of the day, the most important thing is getting guys that are great fits here, great fits culturally, academically, athletically, socially, the whole package.
One of the things that's interesting is you guys don't necessarily get to know this the way we do, but this is one of the highest classes. I think it's thee highest class we've signed here in terms of GPA and S.A.T. as well. So when you're able to combine guys that are highly rated football players as well as highly rated students, that's what it's all about for us.
I want to thank our staff for all the hard work they've put in in developing these relationships. That's coaches as well as our recruiting staff, as well as our administrative staff. I want to thank our players. I also want to thank the families and high school prospects out there that believed in us, and want to come and help us continue to build.
So open it up to questions.
Q. Was there any particular positions or aspects, qualities of the team that you wanted to address in this class, and how do you feel -- how successful do you feel you were in doing that?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think overall we did a pretty good job of that. As you guys know from past experiences, in my coaching profession, I'm always going to put an emphasis up front on the O-line and D-line. I think we've made progress there. We still have a major need at defensive end. We still have a major need at defensive end. We still have a need at offensive tackle. So there is still a need there. But overall I think we've helped ourselves in those areas up front on both sides of the ball.
But, yeah, I think if you were to look at this class, we were able to sign kickers, wide receivers, quarterbacks, running backs. We've tried to avoid years where we don't sign a guy at a position, and right now we don't have a defensive end committed to us.
We're going to play Micah Parsons at Mike linebacker this spring and see how that goes. We know he can move back to defensive end. But we're going to have him here for spring ball and see if he can do that. Right now we don't have a defensive end committed in the class.
But we try to avoid that. We try to make sure that every year we sign a guy at a position, because what happens, if you don't do that, then quickly you're going to have a hole. You're going to have a hole in a position.
But, yeah, I think overall we did a pretty good job there.
Q. This group of pass targets you brought in, the two tight ends and three receivers you signed today, could you assess the group overall and how they affect the offense moving forward, that level of talent?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think if you look at it as the tight ends at first. Kuntz, I think is very similar to a lot of ways to Gesicki. High school wide receiver, probably a little further along as a tight end than what Mike was. But both big bodied guys that can really run. Kuntz at 6'7", 215 pounds or so came to camp and ran in the 4.6s for us, which is really impressive. I think we're going to have time to grow him, have him graduate early is really going to help. If he gets on the field, great, but he doesn't have to get on the field as a freshman like Mike did, so I think there will be value in that as well. Let him kind of marinade in the weight room a little bit and take some time. But he is a long, athletic kid who can run.
Obviously, with Freiermuth, you've kind of got the complete opposite. You're talking 6'5", 215-pound road grader, tough guy with really soft hands. The guy came to camp. We offered him camp as a junior. Did a great job for us. What was probably more impressive was how much he improved in his testing numbers from his junior year to his senior year. Really kind of the same weight as he was as a junior senior, but it was different weight. His body had changed, and we're really excited about him. Think he's got a really bright future. So I think that's a really good one-two punch there.
But then at wide receiver, Justin Shorter is as good a high school wide receiver as I've ever seen on film and in person. You talk about another guy who is 6'4", 220 pounds, very mature. For as highly recruited as he was, there was no drama and no issues whatsoever. He committed very early on, never wavered at all. His parents were awesome. High school coach was awesome, kind of all of them.
Daniel George, another really, really mature guy. Great student, great high school program, Greg Jefferies his high school coach is a good friend of mine and has done a great job. Mom's a doctor, really mature guy, track guy, can really run. When you see him, he physically is mature. He's mentally mature. So I think he's got a chance to come in and do some really good things for us as well.
Jahan Dotson is a guy that was a different story. Recruiting, in state kid we were trying to connect with. Kind of ups and downs, twists and turns in this recruiting process, but at the end of the day things worked out the way they were supposed to work out. We were able to keep an in-state, local player home, which I think is a win-win for everybody. Him having an opportunity to get a world class education and play big-time football and do it in front of everybody he loves.
I think in a big way Saquon Barkley had a big part in that. For a kid in that region, they're basically five minutes from each other, and for him to see Saquon Barkley come here and thrive in so many areas, it just makes sense. It makes sense for local kids to come here. It's good for Penn State. It's good for the kids and their families. It's good for high school programs and it's good for the community. It really is. You leave the state and you go far away, you're not going to get the same type of coverage. You're not going to get the same type of support.
Our local players, if you went back and traced how many times Saquon Barkley has been in the newspaper or on the news or has been covered in that community, it's invaluable. It's invaluable. So I think we're fortunate. I don't think we're done there. I think we'll have a little more movement there as well. But I'm pleased with the progress we've made.
Q. You said earlier you weren't sure if you were done -- or you weren't sure if you were done right now. Is there more action to come in this signing period, or what are you referring to, just a general sense around college football in regards to the ranking?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think with us. I think we'll have some more action in the next day or so, and then I think we could have some more action, guys that we're still involved with for the second signing day that we knew they were going to wait until the second signing day. So there are still some moving parts out there.
I worry a little about the second signing period because there are a few guys and a bunch of schools that want those few guys. In the past, those schools were trying to chase 20 guys, and now you're going to have 20 schools chasing one guy. It's going to get interesting.
I'm going to make sure I travel in numbers, because if a fight breaks out in the front lawn of a recruit, I want to make sure that Sean Spencer and Tyler Bowen who is 6'7" is there with me. But seriously, I think it's going to be interesting. This next couple weeks and this last signing day is going to get really aggressive.
I have a little bit of a concern about that, obviously, for the recruits. They're under enough pressure and their families to make what is probably the biggest decision they've made at this point in their life. So that's where the guys, I think have made their decisions and made their decisions early even before this signing day.
It's funny because we go on home visits and official visits for guys that are committed to us for six months or nine months, and it's fun. It's happy, it's a celebration. There is no stress involved at all, and you have guys that take a different path, which is fine, but it becomes stressful.
It will be interesting to see how this works out. We're all going through it for the first time. But we'll still have a little bit of action here at Penn State.
Q. We heard from Micah Parsons earlier today from his side of the fence how his recruiting process went, how is it from your vantage point and what that means to a guy like him short term and long-term?
JAMES FRANKLIN: You're going to have to wait until the book comes out. I've been coaching 23 years, and the book will probably be five chapters on my career and then 15 chapters on the ups and downs and twists and turns, and the journey of Micah Parsons and the commitments. The second-guessing, and all the people that felt like they had an opinion in this and what he should do or shouldn't do.
Fortunately, for us at the end of the day we built a strong relationship with mom. We've built a very strong relationship with dad by the end of the process, the high school coach, and a bunch of people in that community. I think it helped he has a high school teammate in our program now that's doing really well. I think there are a lot of factors.
I think the fact that we've been involved with him since he was in ninth grade, I think it will be an interesting -- it will be in my memoirs when I'm retired and hopefully sitting on a beach somewhere, writing my memoirs or writing this book or reciting this to someone else to write the book, he will have a number of pages in it.
I do think obviously being able to keep the best players home is really important. I think Miles got this thing started. Very appreciative of Miles and his mom for kind of getting it going. Miles made it cool to stay home and play at Penn State. Kind of the sexy thing to do now, Miles and Lamont, and now Micah. It's going to take a lot of hard work to keep this thing going. But as you know in my initial press conference how important we feel like this is, not only in this state, but also in this region.
Q. Earlier today Micah Parsons said that your loyalty to Penn State was a big reason for his decision. How does it feel that your reputation is having such a large impact on these players?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think these players and their parents, they're more savvy than ever, the amount of information that's out there. I think this process kind of scared some kids when they saw schools that they were really interested in and coaches leaving that they didn't expect to leave, and I'm talking head coaches. We were very open, and I think that really helped us. We were very open and honest that we're going to have assistant coaches leave. I was very up front that we were going to have assistant coaches leave to go be coordinators, and we were going to have coordinators leave to go have head coaches, and understand that.
So when it happened, we called kids and called their families and called high school coaches and talked about it. But it didn't have a huge effect because we were so up front on the front end about it. Then I think with the head coaches it scared some kids nationally. So when they see me and they see my staff and they see the administration be supportive of us, and the fact that I'm from here, the fact that I've got a great job at a great place, and we've still got a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas, I think they understand that. I think they understand that consistency at the head coaching position is so important.
I'd make the argument that consistency with assistant coaches is very important as well. But that's never going to be as stable as the head coach.
So I thank President Barron and I thank Sandy Barbour, and I thank the board for supporting because I do think that is a huge part in all of this.
The first thing you hear all the time is that recruits should make the decision based on the school and not the coach. That is not happening. That is not happening. I think it's probably 50-50 between the coach and the school, and I would say the coaches and the school. I'd even probably even slant it maybe even more so with the coaches. I know the recruiting handbook says that's not how you should do it, but no different than in your guys' business or any other business. At the end of the day, it comes down to people. You make decisions based on relationships and people.
Beaver Stadium is unbelievable. I think maybe one of the better venues in all of sports. Our academic rankings are awesome and really important. But at the end of the day it's about the people in the stadium. It's about the people in the Lasch Football Building, it's about the professors on campus that do a great job of helping us recruit when they have lunch with these student-athletes and their families and things like that. It's about Sandy Barbour taking time to talk to our recruits. It's about President Barron taking time to talk to our recruits. It's all that.
It's when our guys are on the sideline in pregame and they see all the lettermen, all the former players back, having a great time and taking such pride in their university and football program, it's all of that. So I appreciate Micah saying that. We've got a lot of work to do, and he's going to be a big part of it, and I want to be here every step of the way helping him and the rest of the players on our team achieve their dreams.
Q. You obviously signed some very high-profile guys. Are there maybe a few guys who are under the radar a little bit that you think people haven't been talking about quite enough?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think a lot of these guys, I don't ever like to single guys out. If you ask specific questions about a specific guy, then we'll do that, but there are a lot of guys. To be honest with you, we think all these guys that we signed are all five-star or four-star guys in our mind or we wouldn't sign them. We think all these guys have a chance to be All-Big-Ten-type players, All-American-type players, academic All-Americans.
We see that in all these guys. So for us, it's a little bit different, because we have a more complete picture of what we're getting. We've seen their body types. We've measured them. We've seen them jump and run. We've looked at their transcripts, which their transcripts tell a lot. It's not just the GPA, it's the absences you see on there, it's the type of courses they're taking. We've talked to high school coaches, principals, guidance counselors, janitors, custodians, guidance counselors, we've talked to other coaches in the area. We've talked to parents of recruits that we've signed. We try to have as much information as we possibly can so we can make great decisions, and guys become more valuable. It's not just their tape. It's how they interact with you. It's how respectful they are of their parents. It's what the guidance counselor says about them, what the teacher says about them. It's how they shake their hand and look you in the eye. It's all those things.
Those other ingredients are why you see two-star guys go on and play in the NFL and sometimes why you see five-star guys never make it. I would say Tom Brady is a great example of that. Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round. But there are some things about Tom Brady that you could not, you know, measure on a clock or jumping or body type or whatever it is. There is something in him.
That's what we're trying to figure out by asking all these questions and being around him and studying body language. There is information there, there are red flags, and there are shining star things about all these kids. You've got to be willing to see them. I think a lot of times as coaches you get intoxicated by talent and talent alone, and not look at these other things, and they're there. The signs are there. You have to be willing to see them and you have to be willing to talk about them and address them, and that's good and bad. None of us are perfect. That's really what I think every scouting service in the NFL is trying to figure out, and what colleges are trying to figure out. Because it's not just about the film. It's not just about the 40 times. That's a part of it and a big part of it. But the other things are really going to determine how successful those guys are individually, and how successful we are individually.
Q. You guys landed two prospects in Texas, two prospects in Florida, and even getting outside the region a little more. How important is it to continue that success? What does it mean to get into two big high school states like that and start pulling in talent?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think it's really important. It will never be the life blood of our program. It will be this region. But I think next year is a good example. We have not offered as many players as we normally have offered in this region, and that's not because we have changed our philosophies, it's just for whatever reason the numbers are a little down. I think the more you're able to spread your neck in places like that when you're able to go to Florida, Texas, and even California and Georgia and that category and be able to get some guys that are high-level players and other players see that, there is a lot of value. Now it's always easy or easier to go back to Texas when you've gotten to the previous year or go to Florida. I think it creates some opportunities moving forward.
As you guys know I like to study best practice, but I also like to study history. And you look at Penn State, for a long time, Penn State was doing a really good job of getting guys out of the South. Florida and South Carolina, Wally's from South Carolina, Wally Richardson who still works with us, and for whatever reason that went away for a number of years, I think for us to continue growing and evolving the way we want to grow and evolve, we're going to have to spread our wings a little bit.
It's specific, there needs to be some commonality, there needs to be some things that make Penn State a legitimate option. So I like our approach. I think adding the tenth coach will be able to hit a little bigger region and other areas. But so will everybody else. It's not like we're getting a tenth coach and nobody else is. But I think it's going to allow us to get into some areas for us like a lot of schools.
We look at it like State College. Where does State College have direct flights to? That factors into how we recruit. We look at Harrisburg. Where does Harrisburg have direct flights to? We could go Baltimore, Pittsburgh and we can go Philly as well. But those two airports, where we have direct flights to is really going to have a major factor in how we recruit and where we recruit.
Q. Internet rankings don't mean anything to you?
JAMES FRANKLIN: No, I think internet rankings matter. They are not the end-all, be all. They are another piece of information. The transcript is a piece of information. Our film evaluation is a piece of information. Our measurements are a piece of information. Combines, combines that we don't run is a piece of information. I'm not going to trust anybody else's 40 but my own. But what it does tell me is a kid goes to X-combine and they have him running a 4.5 I don't know if he's necessarily a 4.5. But what I can tell you is those 650 recruits at that combine, and he ran the fastest 40 there. That's valuable information, because I think there is consistency in that.
The rankings are important as another piece of information. Again, it's not the end-all, be-all. I do think there is a factor in terms of perception. Excitement around your program, excitement with fans and things like that. The excitement with other recruits. So, yeah, we respect and appreciate the recruiting rankings and services. But it's not the end-all, be-all for us. We're not going to recruit a kid because he's ranked as a five-star. And we're not going to not recruit a kid because he's ranked a two-star. What you hope, is you hope what you see, other people are seeing the same thing because it reinforces it.
You better be really confident if you're going in the direction of offering and recruiting a kid that nobody else is because that's an exception. Whether that's other schools have offered him or other recruiting services have offered him. The reason I say that, I think for the most part the sleeper doesn't exist anymore because of the internet, because of the amount of people that are covering the sport. The kid in the small town of Pennsylvania or West Virginia or Delaware that no one has really seen or heard of, that's just not happening as much anymore. People are aware of that guy. So the world is shrunk in a lot of different ways with the internet and flights and travel. It's just changed a lot of things.
Q. It seems like the December signing period at least from the outside might make the numbers game harder in terms of 25 and 85. Was that the case? Was it more difficult to keep track of your numbers and knowing where to prioritize guys because it was so moved forward from December from February or not really?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think so. Because you have less information. Obviously, the longer it goes, the more information you're going to have. You're going to have some guys after the bowl game after the bowl game announcement whether they're going to the NFL or not. You're going to have some guys that end up transferring because they want more playing time. The longer that goes, the more information you're going to have because it's really a guesstimate. You're making a guesstimate based on attrition, and we study attrition. We did it at our last school and we do it here. Not only since we've been here, but the previous coaching assessment.
What's been the average amount of attrition per year and whether that's positive attrition, negative attrition, what is it? So the earlier you're having to make these decisions, the more challenging it is. But I do think it's not like we just moved the signing day up and there is not a second signing day. So you still have a chance to solve some of those issues that may show up later. There are going to be less options at that point, but there are still some opportunities.
Q. You signed a five-star running back but you don't have a running backs coach. What's that conversation like with Ricky Slade in the last couple of weeks of the recruiting process?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think that's a great question. That goes back to Ricky, to Ricky's coach, to Ricky's mom and dad trusting us. I'm able to say to Ricky, look, this is not the ideal situation. I had a tenth coach in house who was going to be our special teams coordinator, so it made sense to get us back to whole as quick as possible. Put that guy on the road recruiting, and wait on the running back position.
You just have to trust me that you see the type of men that I surround myself with, the other coaches that him and his family have developed the relationship with, and I said you just have to trust that I am going to hire someone that's not only going to be a great fit for Penn State but also going to be a great fit for you. It makes no sense for me to bring you here and not have a coach that you're going to be able to identify with and work with.
You liked the last coach I had, you like the rest of the coaches on our staff, you have to trust, and they were comfortable doing that. I've also shared some information with Ricky and his family that I haven't shared with anybody else about some of my thoughts and directions that we're going to go. They were comfortable with that. I haven't shared that with anybody else, but I wanted them to be as comfortable as they possibly could be.
But they've been great. They really have. We're going to make some decisions on this here pretty soon. We've got the convention coming up on Sunday, so I'll be meeting with some guys on Sunday. I'm actually flying to go meet with some people on Friday as well. I think we'll have this decision with the running back decision made pretty quickly.
I think at the end of the day it came back to what I was talking about. We had a really good relationship with Ricky and his family and his high school coaches. We were very transparent and open and honest about what we were thinking and how we were handling. At the end of the day he felt comfortable saying I want to go to Penn State because I love Penn State, I love the guys on the team, I really like the coaching staff, and I think Coach is going to go hire someone really good that's going to help me develop and help us win a bunch of games.
Q. With the roster that you signed today, you mentioned Micah Parsons playing middle linebacker. Is there the same positional flexibility that you always like, especially defensively? How long does that go on where you kind of are getting an idea where somebody's going to play, versus then we placed him in that position?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think that's a good question. I've said this to the guys before. The guys that we're recruiting really should have the flexibility that we're talking about. You look back to Michal Menet, you watch Michal Menet's high school tape, his defensive line high school tape was impressive. I think he can play here on the defensive line. I think he has a higher ceiling on the offensive line. Coach Pry came up to me the other day in practice watching C.J. Thorpe, and said, hey, we'll take that guy at nose.
Well, just so you know, every player on our team Coach Pry thinks should be playing defense and should be playing linebacker. The guys that we're recruiting are that level athletes, so they should be able to dominate on both sides of the ball in high school, and there should be some flexibility once they get here.
Corners that we think could be safeties. Corners that could be wide receivers. Wide receivers that could be corners. What you're really trying to do is say, yeah, this guy could be successful on either side of the ball, this is where we think he could bring the most value at Penn State and the most value for himself long-term.
So, Micah, what helps him is you watch him play running back. I always think the best linebackers played high school running back as well. There are really a lot of similarities in terms of our running back hitting the hole, and the instincts of knowing what hole to hit, and a linebacker knowing how to fit. It's very similar.
Micah's a guy that's going to be 245 pounds, running the 4.5. There is no doubt in my mind he could play defensive end. We have a challenge that we need to solve some linebacker depth issues that we have. We think with him graduating early, he's got a chance to kind of learn it and have a chance to truly compete for the job come the fall. So it's a combination of both. It's a talent, but it's also a need.
Don't get me wrong, we have great guys in our program that we think are going to be competing for that job as well. But we don't have maybe the returning starters. So we want to make sure we have enough competition that whoever wins the job we know is going to be able to play at a very, very high level.
There are a number of guys that we think are going to fall in that category. We're excited about Jan. We're excited about Ellis, we're excited about a bunch of guys. But the middle linebacker position is going to be an important decision for us, so we want to make sure we have enough competition there.
But, yeah, that's across the board. I could make argument for a bunch of these guys. I think Judge Culpepper could play tight end, probably. I think Jahan Dotson could play defensive back. I think Daniel George, you watch his high school tape, and I think some of his most impressive plays are at safety much and his range going to get the ball.
I said that to his high school coach, and his high school coach told him you don't want to play defensive back, you better take some of these plays off your highlight tape because they're going to think of you that way. I could go down the entire list. Juice Scrags, our coaches were at the state championship game, and he said this guy was the best guy on the field on both sides of the ball.
So I'm very pleased. I'm very pleased with the progress that we're making like that. I think that also helps you on special teams because those guys have a lot of qualities and lot of skills that are going to help you on special teams.
JAMES FRANKLIN: First of all, appreciate everybody coming out to cover Penn State football and to support us. Overall, obviously, we're excited and we've still got a little bit more work to do. But, overall, I really like how today went. Not a whole lot of surprises for us. We kind of released the commitments throughout the day, but most of the guys' letter of intents were in by 9:00, somewhere around there this morning. So that was really good. Excited about that.
I just like the progress that we're making, really, in all areas. We just kind of keep chipping away at it and keep working. The development of our current players, what we're doing academically, what we're doing on the football field in terms of being successful on the football field, two undefeated seasons at home, back-to-back, hasn't happened in 31 years. What we're doing from a facility perspective, what we're doing from a staff perspective, and then recruiting.
I keep seeing us make progress, really, more every day. It's not just every single year. It's every day. I see us making decisions cross campus. I see the alignment that we need. I've talked about this a lot since I arrived, about the alignment for you to be as successful as you want to be and as successful as we need to be. That takes the students, that takes our players, that takes the coaches, that takes the administration, our athletic director, Sandy Barbour, that takes our President, Eric Barron, that takes the board, that takes the lettermen, that takes this community all really working together. Every day I see us getting closer to that. So it's an exciting time.
I look at attendance this year, I think we had the largest jump in attendance in the country this year, so there's just a lot of really positive things going on.
Excited about the fact, obviously, about the class overall, but I'm also excited we've got six guys that should be here in a couple of weeks. They'll be here mid semester, Trent Gordon, Isaiah Humphries, Zack Kuntz, Jesse Luketa, Micah Parsons, and Nick Tarburton will all be here in a couple of weeks. I think as you guys have seen, we've played freshmen, and whether that's guys that graduated early and came in December or come in the summer, they're going to have an opportunity to compete.
I do think the chances and the likelihood increase, obviously, the longer that they're here and in this system. So that will be interesting. We've got three Under Armour All-Americans in Mustipher, Shorter and Slade, two Army All-Americans in Nana and Parsons, a Gatorade Player of the Year in Slade.
This is a stat I think is something I'm proud of. We have 44 four- or five-star recruits in the last four classes. The previous four classes there was a total of 16. So I think we're really making some good progress there.
Really proud that we've signed a number one player in the State of Pennsylvania for three straight years. I want to thank Miles Sanders for that. Miles Sanders is a guy that jumped on board with us at a time that we were really kind of trying to get this thing rolling. He got it going, and the following year it was Lamont Wade, and now this year it's Micah Parsons from different parts of the state. That hasn't happened here since 2004, so excited about that.
Signed two of the top 10 recruits in the country for the first time since 2000. Two of the top 15 recruits only had five top 15 recruits from 2000 to 2017. So in 17 years we've only signed five top 15 recruits and we have two in this class. So really excited about that.
It's just been a lot of positive things going on. Six of the 15 highest rated recruits since most of these recruiting services have been doing this. The six of the 15 highest rated recruits in Penn State history coming since we've been here in Parsons, Shorter, Sanders, Slade, Menet, Wade, so that's exciting. Finished third in the country in one service, fourth in the country in another service. I also understand we're not done. There is still going to be more movement today and in the second signing period as well, and then second in the Big Ten.
So making progress, we're still not where we want to be. But we are making progress in those types of areas. I'm really proud of all the hard work that went in from the coaches and the support staff off the field, and really our current players. I think our current players are a big part of that. How they are when they host these guys, how they are when the parents come on campus and we do panels and those guys -- we leave the room and the parents can ask our players any question they want.
Probably one other thing, our four-year average over the last four years has been a class that's ranked 13th in the country, and the four-year average before we got here was 34. So, again, I see us making progress. At the end of the day, these rankings don't matter a whole lot once they show up on campus.
I love that first practice or that first tire pull when the five star or the four star gets beat and the vet stands over them and tells them that no one cares about your five star or four star or whatever it is. We see guys go to the NFL that are two-star guys and all that. So, I get it.
But I do think there is value in it in terms of guys that we've evaluated as really good players. A lot of other people have as well. Whether that's other colleges from an offers perspective, or whether that's recruiting services, or whatever it may be.
But at the end of the day, the most important thing is getting guys that are great fits here, great fits culturally, academically, athletically, socially, the whole package.
One of the things that's interesting is you guys don't necessarily get to know this the way we do, but this is one of the highest classes. I think it's thee highest class we've signed here in terms of GPA and S.A.T. as well. So when you're able to combine guys that are highly rated football players as well as highly rated students, that's what it's all about for us.
I want to thank our staff for all the hard work they've put in in developing these relationships. That's coaches as well as our recruiting staff, as well as our administrative staff. I want to thank our players. I also want to thank the families and high school prospects out there that believed in us, and want to come and help us continue to build.
So open it up to questions.
Q. Was there any particular positions or aspects, qualities of the team that you wanted to address in this class, and how do you feel -- how successful do you feel you were in doing that?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think overall we did a pretty good job of that. As you guys know from past experiences, in my coaching profession, I'm always going to put an emphasis up front on the O-line and D-line. I think we've made progress there. We still have a major need at defensive end. We still have a major need at defensive end. We still have a need at offensive tackle. So there is still a need there. But overall I think we've helped ourselves in those areas up front on both sides of the ball.
But, yeah, I think if you were to look at this class, we were able to sign kickers, wide receivers, quarterbacks, running backs. We've tried to avoid years where we don't sign a guy at a position, and right now we don't have a defensive end committed to us.
We're going to play Micah Parsons at Mike linebacker this spring and see how that goes. We know he can move back to defensive end. But we're going to have him here for spring ball and see if he can do that. Right now we don't have a defensive end committed in the class.
But we try to avoid that. We try to make sure that every year we sign a guy at a position, because what happens, if you don't do that, then quickly you're going to have a hole. You're going to have a hole in a position.
But, yeah, I think overall we did a pretty good job there.
Q. This group of pass targets you brought in, the two tight ends and three receivers you signed today, could you assess the group overall and how they affect the offense moving forward, that level of talent?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think if you look at it as the tight ends at first. Kuntz, I think is very similar to a lot of ways to Gesicki. High school wide receiver, probably a little further along as a tight end than what Mike was. But both big bodied guys that can really run. Kuntz at 6'7", 215 pounds or so came to camp and ran in the 4.6s for us, which is really impressive. I think we're going to have time to grow him, have him graduate early is really going to help. If he gets on the field, great, but he doesn't have to get on the field as a freshman like Mike did, so I think there will be value in that as well. Let him kind of marinade in the weight room a little bit and take some time. But he is a long, athletic kid who can run.
Obviously, with Freiermuth, you've kind of got the complete opposite. You're talking 6'5", 215-pound road grader, tough guy with really soft hands. The guy came to camp. We offered him camp as a junior. Did a great job for us. What was probably more impressive was how much he improved in his testing numbers from his junior year to his senior year. Really kind of the same weight as he was as a junior senior, but it was different weight. His body had changed, and we're really excited about him. Think he's got a really bright future. So I think that's a really good one-two punch there.
But then at wide receiver, Justin Shorter is as good a high school wide receiver as I've ever seen on film and in person. You talk about another guy who is 6'4", 220 pounds, very mature. For as highly recruited as he was, there was no drama and no issues whatsoever. He committed very early on, never wavered at all. His parents were awesome. High school coach was awesome, kind of all of them.
Daniel George, another really, really mature guy. Great student, great high school program, Greg Jefferies his high school coach is a good friend of mine and has done a great job. Mom's a doctor, really mature guy, track guy, can really run. When you see him, he physically is mature. He's mentally mature. So I think he's got a chance to come in and do some really good things for us as well.
Jahan Dotson is a guy that was a different story. Recruiting, in state kid we were trying to connect with. Kind of ups and downs, twists and turns in this recruiting process, but at the end of the day things worked out the way they were supposed to work out. We were able to keep an in-state, local player home, which I think is a win-win for everybody. Him having an opportunity to get a world class education and play big-time football and do it in front of everybody he loves.
I think in a big way Saquon Barkley had a big part in that. For a kid in that region, they're basically five minutes from each other, and for him to see Saquon Barkley come here and thrive in so many areas, it just makes sense. It makes sense for local kids to come here. It's good for Penn State. It's good for the kids and their families. It's good for high school programs and it's good for the community. It really is. You leave the state and you go far away, you're not going to get the same type of coverage. You're not going to get the same type of support.
Our local players, if you went back and traced how many times Saquon Barkley has been in the newspaper or on the news or has been covered in that community, it's invaluable. It's invaluable. So I think we're fortunate. I don't think we're done there. I think we'll have a little more movement there as well. But I'm pleased with the progress we've made.
Q. You said earlier you weren't sure if you were done -- or you weren't sure if you were done right now. Is there more action to come in this signing period, or what are you referring to, just a general sense around college football in regards to the ranking?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think with us. I think we'll have some more action in the next day or so, and then I think we could have some more action, guys that we're still involved with for the second signing day that we knew they were going to wait until the second signing day. So there are still some moving parts out there.
I worry a little about the second signing period because there are a few guys and a bunch of schools that want those few guys. In the past, those schools were trying to chase 20 guys, and now you're going to have 20 schools chasing one guy. It's going to get interesting.
I'm going to make sure I travel in numbers, because if a fight breaks out in the front lawn of a recruit, I want to make sure that Sean Spencer and Tyler Bowen who is 6'7" is there with me. But seriously, I think it's going to be interesting. This next couple weeks and this last signing day is going to get really aggressive.
I have a little bit of a concern about that, obviously, for the recruits. They're under enough pressure and their families to make what is probably the biggest decision they've made at this point in their life. So that's where the guys, I think have made their decisions and made their decisions early even before this signing day.
It's funny because we go on home visits and official visits for guys that are committed to us for six months or nine months, and it's fun. It's happy, it's a celebration. There is no stress involved at all, and you have guys that take a different path, which is fine, but it becomes stressful.
It will be interesting to see how this works out. We're all going through it for the first time. But we'll still have a little bit of action here at Penn State.
Q. We heard from Micah Parsons earlier today from his side of the fence how his recruiting process went, how is it from your vantage point and what that means to a guy like him short term and long-term?
JAMES FRANKLIN: You're going to have to wait until the book comes out. I've been coaching 23 years, and the book will probably be five chapters on my career and then 15 chapters on the ups and downs and twists and turns, and the journey of Micah Parsons and the commitments. The second-guessing, and all the people that felt like they had an opinion in this and what he should do or shouldn't do.
Fortunately, for us at the end of the day we built a strong relationship with mom. We've built a very strong relationship with dad by the end of the process, the high school coach, and a bunch of people in that community. I think it helped he has a high school teammate in our program now that's doing really well. I think there are a lot of factors.
I think the fact that we've been involved with him since he was in ninth grade, I think it will be an interesting -- it will be in my memoirs when I'm retired and hopefully sitting on a beach somewhere, writing my memoirs or writing this book or reciting this to someone else to write the book, he will have a number of pages in it.
I do think obviously being able to keep the best players home is really important. I think Miles got this thing started. Very appreciative of Miles and his mom for kind of getting it going. Miles made it cool to stay home and play at Penn State. Kind of the sexy thing to do now, Miles and Lamont, and now Micah. It's going to take a lot of hard work to keep this thing going. But as you know in my initial press conference how important we feel like this is, not only in this state, but also in this region.
Q. Earlier today Micah Parsons said that your loyalty to Penn State was a big reason for his decision. How does it feel that your reputation is having such a large impact on these players?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think these players and their parents, they're more savvy than ever, the amount of information that's out there. I think this process kind of scared some kids when they saw schools that they were really interested in and coaches leaving that they didn't expect to leave, and I'm talking head coaches. We were very open, and I think that really helped us. We were very open and honest that we're going to have assistant coaches leave. I was very up front that we were going to have assistant coaches leave to go be coordinators, and we were going to have coordinators leave to go have head coaches, and understand that.
So when it happened, we called kids and called their families and called high school coaches and talked about it. But it didn't have a huge effect because we were so up front on the front end about it. Then I think with the head coaches it scared some kids nationally. So when they see me and they see my staff and they see the administration be supportive of us, and the fact that I'm from here, the fact that I've got a great job at a great place, and we've still got a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas, I think they understand that. I think they understand that consistency at the head coaching position is so important.
I'd make the argument that consistency with assistant coaches is very important as well. But that's never going to be as stable as the head coach.
So I thank President Barron and I thank Sandy Barbour, and I thank the board for supporting because I do think that is a huge part in all of this.
The first thing you hear all the time is that recruits should make the decision based on the school and not the coach. That is not happening. That is not happening. I think it's probably 50-50 between the coach and the school, and I would say the coaches and the school. I'd even probably even slant it maybe even more so with the coaches. I know the recruiting handbook says that's not how you should do it, but no different than in your guys' business or any other business. At the end of the day, it comes down to people. You make decisions based on relationships and people.
Beaver Stadium is unbelievable. I think maybe one of the better venues in all of sports. Our academic rankings are awesome and really important. But at the end of the day it's about the people in the stadium. It's about the people in the Lasch Football Building, it's about the professors on campus that do a great job of helping us recruit when they have lunch with these student-athletes and their families and things like that. It's about Sandy Barbour taking time to talk to our recruits. It's about President Barron taking time to talk to our recruits. It's all that.
It's when our guys are on the sideline in pregame and they see all the lettermen, all the former players back, having a great time and taking such pride in their university and football program, it's all of that. So I appreciate Micah saying that. We've got a lot of work to do, and he's going to be a big part of it, and I want to be here every step of the way helping him and the rest of the players on our team achieve their dreams.
Q. You obviously signed some very high-profile guys. Are there maybe a few guys who are under the radar a little bit that you think people haven't been talking about quite enough?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think a lot of these guys, I don't ever like to single guys out. If you ask specific questions about a specific guy, then we'll do that, but there are a lot of guys. To be honest with you, we think all these guys that we signed are all five-star or four-star guys in our mind or we wouldn't sign them. We think all these guys have a chance to be All-Big-Ten-type players, All-American-type players, academic All-Americans.
We see that in all these guys. So for us, it's a little bit different, because we have a more complete picture of what we're getting. We've seen their body types. We've measured them. We've seen them jump and run. We've looked at their transcripts, which their transcripts tell a lot. It's not just the GPA, it's the absences you see on there, it's the type of courses they're taking. We've talked to high school coaches, principals, guidance counselors, janitors, custodians, guidance counselors, we've talked to other coaches in the area. We've talked to parents of recruits that we've signed. We try to have as much information as we possibly can so we can make great decisions, and guys become more valuable. It's not just their tape. It's how they interact with you. It's how respectful they are of their parents. It's what the guidance counselor says about them, what the teacher says about them. It's how they shake their hand and look you in the eye. It's all those things.
Those other ingredients are why you see two-star guys go on and play in the NFL and sometimes why you see five-star guys never make it. I would say Tom Brady is a great example of that. Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round. But there are some things about Tom Brady that you could not, you know, measure on a clock or jumping or body type or whatever it is. There is something in him.
That's what we're trying to figure out by asking all these questions and being around him and studying body language. There is information there, there are red flags, and there are shining star things about all these kids. You've got to be willing to see them. I think a lot of times as coaches you get intoxicated by talent and talent alone, and not look at these other things, and they're there. The signs are there. You have to be willing to see them and you have to be willing to talk about them and address them, and that's good and bad. None of us are perfect. That's really what I think every scouting service in the NFL is trying to figure out, and what colleges are trying to figure out. Because it's not just about the film. It's not just about the 40 times. That's a part of it and a big part of it. But the other things are really going to determine how successful those guys are individually, and how successful we are individually.
Q. You guys landed two prospects in Texas, two prospects in Florida, and even getting outside the region a little more. How important is it to continue that success? What does it mean to get into two big high school states like that and start pulling in talent?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think it's really important. It will never be the life blood of our program. It will be this region. But I think next year is a good example. We have not offered as many players as we normally have offered in this region, and that's not because we have changed our philosophies, it's just for whatever reason the numbers are a little down. I think the more you're able to spread your neck in places like that when you're able to go to Florida, Texas, and even California and Georgia and that category and be able to get some guys that are high-level players and other players see that, there is a lot of value. Now it's always easy or easier to go back to Texas when you've gotten to the previous year or go to Florida. I think it creates some opportunities moving forward.
As you guys know I like to study best practice, but I also like to study history. And you look at Penn State, for a long time, Penn State was doing a really good job of getting guys out of the South. Florida and South Carolina, Wally's from South Carolina, Wally Richardson who still works with us, and for whatever reason that went away for a number of years, I think for us to continue growing and evolving the way we want to grow and evolve, we're going to have to spread our wings a little bit.
It's specific, there needs to be some commonality, there needs to be some things that make Penn State a legitimate option. So I like our approach. I think adding the tenth coach will be able to hit a little bigger region and other areas. But so will everybody else. It's not like we're getting a tenth coach and nobody else is. But I think it's going to allow us to get into some areas for us like a lot of schools.
We look at it like State College. Where does State College have direct flights to? That factors into how we recruit. We look at Harrisburg. Where does Harrisburg have direct flights to? We could go Baltimore, Pittsburgh and we can go Philly as well. But those two airports, where we have direct flights to is really going to have a major factor in how we recruit and where we recruit.
Q. Internet rankings don't mean anything to you?
JAMES FRANKLIN: No, I think internet rankings matter. They are not the end-all, be all. They are another piece of information. The transcript is a piece of information. Our film evaluation is a piece of information. Our measurements are a piece of information. Combines, combines that we don't run is a piece of information. I'm not going to trust anybody else's 40 but my own. But what it does tell me is a kid goes to X-combine and they have him running a 4.5 I don't know if he's necessarily a 4.5. But what I can tell you is those 650 recruits at that combine, and he ran the fastest 40 there. That's valuable information, because I think there is consistency in that.
The rankings are important as another piece of information. Again, it's not the end-all, be-all. I do think there is a factor in terms of perception. Excitement around your program, excitement with fans and things like that. The excitement with other recruits. So, yeah, we respect and appreciate the recruiting rankings and services. But it's not the end-all, be-all for us. We're not going to recruit a kid because he's ranked as a five-star. And we're not going to not recruit a kid because he's ranked a two-star. What you hope, is you hope what you see, other people are seeing the same thing because it reinforces it.
You better be really confident if you're going in the direction of offering and recruiting a kid that nobody else is because that's an exception. Whether that's other schools have offered him or other recruiting services have offered him. The reason I say that, I think for the most part the sleeper doesn't exist anymore because of the internet, because of the amount of people that are covering the sport. The kid in the small town of Pennsylvania or West Virginia or Delaware that no one has really seen or heard of, that's just not happening as much anymore. People are aware of that guy. So the world is shrunk in a lot of different ways with the internet and flights and travel. It's just changed a lot of things.
Q. It seems like the December signing period at least from the outside might make the numbers game harder in terms of 25 and 85. Was that the case? Was it more difficult to keep track of your numbers and knowing where to prioritize guys because it was so moved forward from December from February or not really?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think so. Because you have less information. Obviously, the longer it goes, the more information you're going to have. You're going to have some guys after the bowl game after the bowl game announcement whether they're going to the NFL or not. You're going to have some guys that end up transferring because they want more playing time. The longer that goes, the more information you're going to have because it's really a guesstimate. You're making a guesstimate based on attrition, and we study attrition. We did it at our last school and we do it here. Not only since we've been here, but the previous coaching assessment.
What's been the average amount of attrition per year and whether that's positive attrition, negative attrition, what is it? So the earlier you're having to make these decisions, the more challenging it is. But I do think it's not like we just moved the signing day up and there is not a second signing day. So you still have a chance to solve some of those issues that may show up later. There are going to be less options at that point, but there are still some opportunities.
Q. You signed a five-star running back but you don't have a running backs coach. What's that conversation like with Ricky Slade in the last couple of weeks of the recruiting process?
JAMES FRANKLIN: I think that's a great question. That goes back to Ricky, to Ricky's coach, to Ricky's mom and dad trusting us. I'm able to say to Ricky, look, this is not the ideal situation. I had a tenth coach in house who was going to be our special teams coordinator, so it made sense to get us back to whole as quick as possible. Put that guy on the road recruiting, and wait on the running back position.
You just have to trust me that you see the type of men that I surround myself with, the other coaches that him and his family have developed the relationship with, and I said you just have to trust that I am going to hire someone that's not only going to be a great fit for Penn State but also going to be a great fit for you. It makes no sense for me to bring you here and not have a coach that you're going to be able to identify with and work with.
You liked the last coach I had, you like the rest of the coaches on our staff, you have to trust, and they were comfortable doing that. I've also shared some information with Ricky and his family that I haven't shared with anybody else about some of my thoughts and directions that we're going to go. They were comfortable with that. I haven't shared that with anybody else, but I wanted them to be as comfortable as they possibly could be.
But they've been great. They really have. We're going to make some decisions on this here pretty soon. We've got the convention coming up on Sunday, so I'll be meeting with some guys on Sunday. I'm actually flying to go meet with some people on Friday as well. I think we'll have this decision with the running back decision made pretty quickly.
I think at the end of the day it came back to what I was talking about. We had a really good relationship with Ricky and his family and his high school coaches. We were very transparent and open and honest about what we were thinking and how we were handling. At the end of the day he felt comfortable saying I want to go to Penn State because I love Penn State, I love the guys on the team, I really like the coaching staff, and I think Coach is going to go hire someone really good that's going to help me develop and help us win a bunch of games.
Q. With the roster that you signed today, you mentioned Micah Parsons playing middle linebacker. Is there the same positional flexibility that you always like, especially defensively? How long does that go on where you kind of are getting an idea where somebody's going to play, versus then we placed him in that position?
JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think that's a good question. I've said this to the guys before. The guys that we're recruiting really should have the flexibility that we're talking about. You look back to Michal Menet, you watch Michal Menet's high school tape, his defensive line high school tape was impressive. I think he can play here on the defensive line. I think he has a higher ceiling on the offensive line. Coach Pry came up to me the other day in practice watching C.J. Thorpe, and said, hey, we'll take that guy at nose.
Well, just so you know, every player on our team Coach Pry thinks should be playing defense and should be playing linebacker. The guys that we're recruiting are that level athletes, so they should be able to dominate on both sides of the ball in high school, and there should be some flexibility once they get here.
Corners that we think could be safeties. Corners that could be wide receivers. Wide receivers that could be corners. What you're really trying to do is say, yeah, this guy could be successful on either side of the ball, this is where we think he could bring the most value at Penn State and the most value for himself long-term.
So, Micah, what helps him is you watch him play running back. I always think the best linebackers played high school running back as well. There are really a lot of similarities in terms of our running back hitting the hole, and the instincts of knowing what hole to hit, and a linebacker knowing how to fit. It's very similar.
Micah's a guy that's going to be 245 pounds, running the 4.5. There is no doubt in my mind he could play defensive end. We have a challenge that we need to solve some linebacker depth issues that we have. We think with him graduating early, he's got a chance to kind of learn it and have a chance to truly compete for the job come the fall. So it's a combination of both. It's a talent, but it's also a need.
Don't get me wrong, we have great guys in our program that we think are going to be competing for that job as well. But we don't have maybe the returning starters. So we want to make sure we have enough competition that whoever wins the job we know is going to be able to play at a very, very high level.
There are a number of guys that we think are going to fall in that category. We're excited about Jan. We're excited about Ellis, we're excited about a bunch of guys. But the middle linebacker position is going to be an important decision for us, so we want to make sure we have enough competition there.
But, yeah, that's across the board. I could make argument for a bunch of these guys. I think Judge Culpepper could play tight end, probably. I think Jahan Dotson could play defensive back. I think Daniel George, you watch his high school tape, and I think some of his most impressive plays are at safety much and his range going to get the ball.
I said that to his high school coach, and his high school coach told him you don't want to play defensive back, you better take some of these plays off your highlight tape because they're going to think of you that way. I could go down the entire list. Juice Scrags, our coaches were at the state championship game, and he said this guy was the best guy on the field on both sides of the ball.
So I'm very pleased. I'm very pleased with the progress that we're making like that. I think that also helps you on special teams because those guys have a lot of qualities and lot of skills that are going to help you on special teams.
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