2027 Recruiting Thread

[rigi19041]

“Campbell didn’t have enough time to build a relationship with him because he was hired late” (Whittingham was hired by Michigan on 12/26/25)

“He is too skinny”
“He isn’t tall enough”
“He doesn’t have a college ready body”
“He doesn’t fit our culture”
“We didn’t have enough NIL”
“He only wanted a bag so Campbell told him to take a hike”
“PSU backed off when they heard he was asking other teams for more money”
“We are taking our time and building a culture”

Did I miss any?

“Campbell didn’t have enough time to build a relationship with him because he was hired late” (Whittingham was hired by Michigan on 12/26/25)

“He is too skinny”
“He isn’t tall enough”
“He doesn’t have a college ready body”
“He doesn’t fit our culture”
“We didn’t have enough NIL”
“He only wanted a bag so Campbell told him to take a hike”
“PSU backed off when they heard he was asking other teams for more money”
“We are taking our time and building a culture”

Did I miss any?

Franklin ruined him

 

[rigi19041]

Ohio State was 12-2 last year and Alabama was 11-4. Texas A&M was 11-2. Texas Tech was 12-2. All finished in the top 10 in the country. That doesn’t look like trailing off to me. If PSU finishes anywhere close to that this year, we would all be pretty happy, right?

Is that your prediction or is this an IF like Dean, taylor and hall being the best PSU wr class ever?

 

[LB99]

Franklin ruined him

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.

 

[LMTLION]

Thing is, it’s clear that this staff isn’t going to overpay, so unless any of those guys are major PSU fans and are okay with fair value, it will probably look the same as this year. Highly rated recruits want far more than they’re worth (the stars get to their head) and someone out there will probably pay up, even if it’s to their detriment (losing out on depth at several other positions).

I personally have no problem with how Campbell is recruiting and honestly, in this new age, it appears like the right way to do it—don’t overpay, trust your evaluations, and fill out your whole team (don’t leave positions empty like Franklin did with linebacker, defensive tackle, and wide receiver).

You can see it in action. Cignetti did it this way and got results. Bob Chesney is now doing it. All while former super powers Alabama and Ohio State are starting to trail off even though they’re buying the 5-star players. And Texas Tech and Texas A&M are examples that simply trying to buy who the recruiting agencies labeled 5-star players is not the way to navigate the NIL era.

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.

 

[LMTLION]

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.

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.

 

[LB99]

*

 

[LB99]

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.

 

[LMTLION]

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. Which is to say, when everyone thinks everything is going great. 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.

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.

 

[LB99]

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.

 

[rigi19041]

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.

How much did they pay manske? #production?

 

[EricStratton-RushChairman]

.
That’s fair. Although, knowing how to coach up kids and coach within a game is different than having the talent to beat the teams we have been longing to beat. As I said before, I think PSU took a big step forward in coaching and a step back in talent acquisition. So far, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind.

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

 

[LB99]

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.

 

[LMTLION]

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.

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.