Penn State lands Sterling Jenkins & Brandon WImbush
This solidifies my theory that people love weird. I don't know what it is but people really like weird. James Franklin is weird. People like James Franklin. People like weird.
Nice little Tuesday for James Franklin, two top-150 prospects commit, probably get some ice cream after dinner, who knows.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) May 6, 2014
ESPN 300 OL Sterling Jenkins has committed to Penn State. First time PSU has landed No. 1 Pa. prospect since at least 2006.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) May 6, 2014
ESPN 300 QB Brandon Wimbush has committed to Penn State. No. 107 overall prospect: http://t.co/n27y7VDgY7
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) May 6, 2014Hoke will have to finish sub .500 not to be back in 2015. I'm just worried we will lose 4 to 5 games this season. We'll blame it on youth again and all hopes will be for 2015. Hoke will have all sorts of pressure on him 2015 and he will be breaking in a new QB. If we don't win 10 games in 2015, I think it will be curtains for Hoke. I don't think winning the east conference in 2015 will be easy and there may be a few close games that may cause to finish 2nd or 3rd!
If we lose 5 games next year there's no way Hoke will be back unless Dave Brandon wants the team to play in a half filled Michigan Stadium.
I hate these conversations about whether Hoke will be fired or not. It's unbecoming of our fan base. But regardless, the stadium won't be half-filled. Michigan fans were there throughout the Rodriguez regime, and Hoke has a significantly better record than Rodriguez.
The point you raise about the stadium being half-filled is huge, particularly if it is due to a lack of ticket sales and not no-shows. Everything else is talk, but attendance relates directly tothe ability of the athletic deparment to function.
The lack of student interest is another major cause for concern due to what would be a reduction in alumni support for athletics in a decade or two when graduates start entering significant years of earning potential.
"unbecoming of our fan base' HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAh
The snobbery never ends.
Agree 100%. While I definitely want to see this team to succeed when it comes to the W-L record, I definitely want to see a team that looks a lot better in November than they did in the beginning of September. The 2013 team didn't really appear to be a better team in November then they were in early September.
really wore down the defense. The entire problem with 2013 is that the OL starters should have been determined in summer camp and the OL develop through the season. Borgest and Hoke just allowed to much change up front! I hope they let summer camp this year prove who is worth of starting!
They were good but not great. They folded against teams with competent offenses, particularly in stressful situations (end of half or hurry up scenarios). That the offense struggled has only a smallish impact on how they performed last year.
Although, given his success at Vandy, I don't see why he won't be successful at Penn State. We'll have our hands full with him for the foreseeable future.
Ohio boards in melt down mode right now...
I wish this board still melted down after news like this. Instead, this scenario has become so commonplace around here that an emo-police squad had to be formed to crush the growing faction of people stating the arguable opinion that recruiting has pretty much sucked for a while now. Maybe things will get better, maybe they won't - but the apathy is telling.
Small 2014 class....
OSU 23 kids
PSU 25 kids
MSU 23 kids.
UM 16 kids and no one would of bitched if they got Hand.
2015.
PSU 15
UM 5
MSU 3
OSU 2
Its over PSU wins the Spring Recruiting award. Also ohio has had some kids leave the program to make the great classes not so great where UM has not.
My allergy to those fucking fans, you know, has returned.
With attrition, and some non renewal of walk ons, PSU will probably get to their 25 number. Franklin will force some guys out. Hard for anyone in conference to catch them if that happens and they land more 4/5* before NSD.
Not that I really care, I honestly think the whole recruiting scene is way overblown and just another way for media outlets (fox,yahoo, espn, etc.) to make more mulah. There are plenty of great players that were not 4957397 stars coming out of HS.
Granted there are a lot of greats that were, but I would much rather have a kid on my team dedicated to working hard and becoming the best he can be, rather than a HS superstar that comes in feeling entitiled the moment he arrives on campus. Which seems to hapen a lot now days.
Glorious.
Well they are then not well informed, as Meyer has angled for Fla QB Dorial Green, and Wimbush was a plan B or C for them. Im expecting them to get Green, and that we get either Sills or Malzone, with Francois a long shot.
By "Dorial Green" do you mean "Torrance Gibson"?
You want a meltdown? Here it is... I hate to say this but for the first time since he arrived I'm starting to think Brady Hoke may be in trouble. We're less less than 2 years removed from the Sandusky trial and Penn State is officially out recruiting Michigan. This is something we have not seen in my lifetime. Penn State has never recruited at our same level yet here they are nabbing our top OT recruit and one of our top QB targets. PSU has recruited well mind you but Michigan has been in another stratosphere. Hoke needs to step it up on the recruiting trail. He needs to fortify our O line snf land a couple of blue chip skill position players (including a QB) ASAP or his ship could sink.
The one was from PA the other NJ. PSU pipeline states. They got a LB from IN the rest are from PA and the east coast where PSU has always shoped.
Penn State had higher-rated classes than Michigan in 2006, 2009, and 2010, according to Scout.
Maybe he's just an increadibly aware three year old poster with mad typing skills.
Officially, they haven't done jack squat. The 2015 recruiting class can't even be officially offered until August 1, 2014, and they can't sign National Letters of Intent until next February.
Meanwhile, their 25-man 2014 class was ranked slightly ahead of Michigan's in total points, but Michigan's 16-man class had a higher star average (3.44 to 3.2).
There was a time when Michigan had the top recruiting class in 2014. Things will change drastically by the time February rolls around.
Do you remember what happened when Hoke arrived at UM? Take a trip down memory lane, its the same movie except we were coming off three of the worst years in program history with the worst D to ever play in the big house.
Kids are enamored with the new and hip trend, evidence is everywhere. I am not saying that franklin will start losing and the recruiting scene will dry up for PSU, but I also do not think it will keep blasting along at this pace.
Besides, it is about time PSU start recruiting well. They have a great talent pool in their state and are one of the elite programs in college football history, scandal or no scandal. We cannot keep putting down a program for the mistake a group of men made, or the radical loyalty of some of their insane fans forever. PSU needs to keep recruiting well to keep a competitive balance in the B1G east.
Over time, look at how many players UM and PSU have duked it out for...Now compare that to OSU and PSU. OSU has been DESTROYING PSU on recruiting Penn. talent for years. Its about time they start keeping some of their players at home. Sterling Jenkins, the OL recruit that committed to PSU yesterday with Wimbrush is the No. 1 in Penn. for 2015, and PSU got him. First time they have gotten the best recruit in their state since 2006!?!? They recently missed out on Noah Spence to OSU, and in earlier years TP and other great HS talent.
All this talk about recruiting is so stupid. I love recruiting as much as the next guy, but there's a certain threshold at which you have to recruit to stay competitive. You can't recruit like Indiana and Purdue and win with anything short of a miracle, but how has Penn State had decent years? What about Nebraska? What about Michigan State?
So many of you are acting as if Penn State's one-year blip of a class that hasn't even been completed yet (how do you know Wimbush and/or Jenkins won't flip?) will turn them into a juggernaut.
Michigan has some pretty good players on their own roster, and player development is more important than recruiting. That's why Michigan State, Boise State, etc. have been able to win games in recent years.
I feel like I used to be the Negative Nancy on here because I was trying to tamp down unrealistically high expectations, but now I feel like most of you are a bunch of emo kids who have to be reminded that the sun will come out tomorrow.
You've got a lot to live for.
OK, who are you and what have you done with Magnus?
I hacked his account and blocked every site on his computer except for www.mikecoxfans.com.
a good pep talk can calm down the natives.
You've got a lot to live for...b/c life is good.
And feel much the same way. That is why I gave you a +1. Yet, I did not feel as if that adequately substantiated my support for your post. So now I have written this post to help authenticate my agreement. That is all.
they got early commits from a guy that we all knew for months was cooling massively on Michigan and leaning heavy to PSU in Jenkins, and a QB in Wimbush that Michigan only recently got in real contact with and hadn't offered.
It's not like they went and grabbed Damien Harris out of nowhere.
in his recruiting roundup this morning, Sam Webb talked about how MIke Weber supposedly left UM off his top 5 list. That contradicts the alleged tweet of Weber in the other thread that he didn't have a top list.
I hate losing recruiting battles, especially when people can point to questionable tactics used by the other coach (at Vanderbilt). That said, I'm glad to see Penn State getting a good recruiting class and a good coach. I want Michigan to be the best, but I also want the Big Ten to be strong and to have some great games. Beating up Indiana and other downtrodden team, or even losing to them, isn't any fun. Strong Big Ten = a strong Michigan
finish the season at 4-8, I'm sure a lot of the PSU recruits will have 2nd thoughts. On the other hand if they finish 8-4 with an upset win in Ann Arbor, the PSU recruit momentum will continue.
Agree with Hinklin above, and Magnus above about basic recruiting perspective.
Not only does a strong Penn State help time heal the massive Brandon fuck-up of having both OSU and MSU away every other year, it makes the B1G East division easily in the top five and some years maybe the best division in the country.
You want to go to the NFL, kid? Play in a real division, with real competition.
We always donwplay the other guy's recruits.
However, if we had these 15 recruits, Magnus would be jumping up and down HOwLING about the greatness.
Recruiting is ALWAYS "meh" when the other guy gets the good ones.
Will have to play like grown men to win the east division when you look at the talent that division will have.
At least Jenkins didn't commit to Ohio
So, the story about him contacting the Vandy rape victim . . . what came of that?
This pretty much took the wind out that sail:
"A Tennessee prosecutor said former Vanderbilt coach James Franklin did nothing “inappropriate” in contacting the alleged victim of a rape case involving four former Commodore players, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Nashville Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman told the Post-Gazette on Thursday that Franklin’s contact with the alleged victim is not significant to the case and was not inappropriate."
http://college-football.si.com/2014/05/01/nashville-da-james-franklin-r…
So much for the confident pronouncements by some that it meant Franklin was toast.
The real issue is that he recruited her, against NCAA rules, to help recruit the players that ultimately raped her.
Good for PSU. Again, it apparently comes as a surprise to some people that schools other than UM recruit football players, and that some of those football players are good.
I do think Franklin will wear his welcome out/be pushed out at PSU in a couple of years once the Vandy stuff comes to a head and the effects of those sanctions (in terms of recruiting) really show up, but we'll see. Personally, Franklin seems like a bit of an ass who some people think is "edgy" because he has some weird quotes and beat some bottom-dwellers at Vandy.
Bucknuts fans are already crying about this on the Cleveland.com website (Cleveland Plain Dealer). They can't believe anyone would pass up St. Urban for PSU and believe something nefarious is going on. Their tears are yummy!