2027 Recruiting Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Is that your prediction or is this an IF like Dean, taylor and hall being the best PSU wr class ever?
It has nothing to do with Franklin. Franklin is gone. That’s old news. It’s about the endless rain of excuses I see here on a daily basis when a recruit chooses someone besides PSU.
They will not overpay for players that are not immediate contributors or not their prototypical mold for a position, but we do overpay for certain players like Guertin that are exactly what they want and can play early. We do not have the resources to stockpile high star guys who are not able to contribute right away. We are going to pay for production in recruiting and the portal, which is more Cignetti-like as you said. It will be interesting to see if Cignetti was just a blip and the old model of the teams with the most 5 star hs recruits win it all year over year, or if teams built primarily with experienced players from the portal will be the better model. We’ll find out over the next several years! One thing I have read recently is that we are definitely going to the portal for a 2027 starting qb regardless of Manske’s health, even if it is merely to compete with Manske.
You may need meds, dude! Your messages are coming off as cray cray. Ultimately it is just a game. I went to school here, attend a football game every year, and look at the recruiting side of the biz as a hobby. Beyond that, it is not worth going into a full mental health psychotic episode when a 17 year old chooses to go to a different school. You need a lot of help.
The crazy thing is that I wasn’t even responding to you, but you seemed to think I was talking about you. Paranoid? Who needs the meds? The only way you get this worked up about my comments is if you made all those excuses. You only seem to want to have a conversation when the other party agrees with you or doesn’t question you. Which is to say, when everyone thinks everything is going great and takes your word for it. These coaches get paid a ton of money. Way more than they should. With that comes high expectations. No excuses. Do the job. Right now, the job is recruiting.
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You have made a lot of passive aggressive type of comments here, and then you get extremely emotional about recruiting losses. The coaches are not perfect, they have made a few mistakes recently in my opinion (revealed Dean too early and took a silent verbal too seriously at the expense of missing a slightly lower rated prospect), but they’ll be fine and they’re doing well. It’s not worth getting angry six months after hire.
I’m not angry or emotional. Just realistic. You like to skim over the recruiting losses and act like they didn’t happen while acting like Campbell is smarter than all these other proven coaches. I want him to succeed just as much as you do, but I’m not ignoring the obvious.
I think franklin's first class was 24/25 ish range. But obviously he didn't have nil or portal as backstop. Losing so many top PA kids isn't a good look but apple to apple with BGJ may end up a wash
It was actually 14th, but I get your point. The big thing with Franklin’s first class was he made Barkley a priority and landed him. It isn’t just PA though. The MidAtlantic is flush with D1 talent every year and many PSU pipelines exist there. Those pipelines are nonexistent in this recruiting class. The DMV seems to be an afterthought. PSU does not have a single recruit from VA and only one from MD. I hope that’s an aberration and those talent pools are available to PSU again soon.
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There are losses I do not skim over. Dean was a devastating loss, particularly because PSU put him on the map and did all the legwork. If we lose Hall that may be on us for being too stingy with him. I can be realistic too. Ultimately Campbell, or any hc that would have come here, only succeeds in terms of a championship if Kraft succeeds. I am not sure that Kraft is the answer. He lost the 2026 recruiting class because he let Franklin’s remaining minions chase away our recruits. He got swindled by Sitake. His donor approach is highly disorganized and silo’d (per donors and insiders elsewhere), which is why we have $30m payroll and Georgia or nd has $5m-$10m more than that. He wants the football program to succeed but he may not be the guy to get those resources for the program. Campbell is the guy to operate with more limited dollars. He is also a top talent evaluator in college football. I look forward to seeing him grow here. Of course his number one goal is winning but the major effort for year 1 is a rebuild of the culture that was very toxic last year.
PSU football is an entity around which dozens of "cottage industries" thrive, As such, they are inclined to put a positive spin on virtually everything that transpires in and around the program. BWI, Lions 247, Landon Tengwell (especially), Black Shoe Diaries to name just a few are financially dependent on PSU football success. They wouldn't bite the hand that "feeds" them. I point this out because it's always prudent to consider the perspective and possible motives of any report.
That being said, It's more than possible that the recruit in question was not on top of the DE board at PSU.
That doesn't dismiss the fact that of Pennsylvania's top 20 high school prospects that PSU currently has 1 commit. PSU has fallen to #20 in Rivals 2027 team rankings and #16 in 247. Everyone should agree PSU needs to do better.
Excuses like failures will be corrected in the portal are ludicrous. If PSU doesn't have the funds to secure premier high school talent, they will suffer "sticker shock" in the portal where prices are driven by the same big spenders.
Did Kraft miscalculate the impact of a 750 million dollar stadium upgrade on NIL funding? It would appear so. He was warned.
A perfectly rational response....especially when things aren't going well. Now, I wonder what the message would be if PSU were stockpiling 5 star talent?
The facts are that PSU should not have overpaid any ISU transfer. From what we are told, they played for bubble gum at ISU.
That's what makes the apparent lack of funds for recruiting so curious.
PSU was on probation and was largely considered a dead end program at that point. A better yardstick might be, where does Franklin have his first class at VT rated? At least today, considerably higher than PSU. I seem to recall the BWICAC, boasting that CJF was going to a program that was lacking the resources of mighty PSU.
Let's focus on why a new coach was hired here. To do better than what PSU has achieved the past decade. "Excellence at the highest level and a NC" was the stated standard. PSU is not at this moment building a solid foundation for 2027 and 28. Remember, they lost virtually an entire class in 2026. Lots of holes to fill.
Simply put; to achieve the standard, recruiting must improve over the current level.
I think it’s laughable to say that losing any one player is a devastating loss. There’s 100 reasons why some kid would choose to go elsewhere. And Dean is nowhere near the level of someone like Pryor, Rucci, Fleming, Ty Law, Noah Spence, and countless others we’ve lost over the years. Some become great and others don’t. If they commit somewhere else we move on.
Thank you for conceding that it’s more than possible Emedobi was not at the top of the DE board for PSU.
Emedobi is barely 6’2” and 210 lbs soaking wet. He’s just way too small for the size blueprint Penn State has been recruiting for Lynn’s system.
I wish him well at Michigan where he may be a better fit.
Let it play out. We can't change what went before. I'm fully invested in this year period. I have so moved on from the BGJ era. I don't do hypotheticals the shoulda woulda coulda stuff is tiring and a total waste of time. Like I said let it play out and dance wit da one dat brung ya.
FWIW:
I doubt if anyone is predicting "10 wins" based on the idea that PSU will be a legit "one of the 10 best teams in the nation" team (maybe a few, but I think a very small minority)
I think they are predicting 10 wins because they feel
1) The transfers (mostly ISU guys) will be "capable";
2) They like HCMC at the wheel;
and, the biggest reason;
3) The schedule is unbelievably light - and a decent "fringe top 25 caliber team" could likely navigate that schedule with no more than 2 losses.
We know item 3 is in the books.
Items 1 and 2, while not sure things, are at least "reasonable" fan expectations.
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One thing that I'm surprised no PSU expert has thrown out is the trust hurdle that CMC must overcome. You see top recruits have concerned parents (and other reps) and Kraft's willingness to let the class of 2026 twist in the wind for almost 2 months left a mark. These families know one another, similar to families that have sons playing on travel teams. They form friendships and compare notes. No one who has options wants to experience the neglect and uncertainty that the 2026 commits and their families did at PSU. You may think that isn't a factor......but it is. It's unfortunately something Matt Campbell has to deal with and he has no fault in the matter.
PSU has the easiest schedule in the Big Ten, sans Iowa.
No one is stressing over 2026. Its the recruiting in 2026 and 27 or lack there of, that should be concerning for 2027 and beyond.
How much are they paying Manske? Will he take more qb snaps than clifford?
Future production from.high school kids is a projection. It is a crap shoot Right now they are paying for measurables over production.
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2027 class on 247 is rated 16th right now, any luck and a few more bucks should finish top 15 in the country and PSU will be favored in all but one UM or 2 games UW this year on the field. All is well.
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Is there any clarity on what he is being paid? I believe all of us are concerned about his availability. Is he fully recovered? He missed Spring practice and the season last year at ISU and then winter workouts and Spring practice at PSU. This is not a good trend.
Yes 247 has PSU behind conference rivals Oregon, USC, Ohio State and UCLA. Only a hair ahead of Nebraska and Wisconsin. I notice you didn't mention Rivals. where PSU has tumbled to 20th....behind Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, USC and Wisconsin....8th in conference!
If 5th place finishes are "excellence at the highest level" this sort of recruiting is great.
As for the 2026 season, without a catastrophic injury, PSU will be favored virtually every week. We all agree anything less than 10 wins would be coaching malpractice.
Says here it was 24th. Campbells was 34th, but his class wasn't gutted when he got here. You are talking about his second year, and in that year he landed 6 kids in the top 200. Campbell currently has 5. He is very much in line with Franklin.
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Sounds logical, but I don't think "doing almost as good as Franklin," is the kind of endorsement the football recruiting experts here wish to hear.
Franklin’s first full class was 2015. He was hired in Jan 11, 2014 and had to try to retain a partial class and try to fill the rest of the class for signing day just a few weeks later for the 2014 class. Very similar to Campbell. He filled it out pretty well bring in guys like Trace, Grant Haley, and Koa Farmer. That class was 2014. Franklin’s first full class was 2015, which ranked 15th and included Barkley.
That is crazy talk
Campbell's current class (his first full one) is not anywhere near the class Franklin brought in in 2015 (2nd in Big Ten, scads more blue chip guys, very few uber-reaches, and "dominated the state"
with 7 or 8 of the top 10 in PA).That's just silly talk.
Whether high school recruiting matters anymore? Whether it matters as much as it did? All viable debates - but comparing those classes as equal (or even somewhat similar) is whacked.
Franklin’s first class was 2014. 2015 was his second.That is crazy talk
Campbell's current class (his first full one) is not anywhere near the class Franklin brought in in 2015 (2nd in Big Ten, scads more blue chip guys, very few uber-reaches, and "dominated the state"
That's just silly talk.
Whether high school recruiting matters anymore? Whether it matters as much as it did? All viable debates - but comparing those classes as equal (or even somewhat similar) is whacked.