The program has never seen a situation where one position was so depleted and it’s pretty darn easy to blame someone, with Franklin, Donovan and Hand being primary targets here. However, look at the situation they were left with when coming on board in January of 2014 and how it projected to the ’14 and ’15 seasons when it comes to the OL.
Lets start from oldest to youngest.
Mangiro was recruited by Joe in the ’11 class yet he had not started a game until last season. He “should” be about as developed as he could be right now as a graduate student with senior eligibility. Yet even Donovan Smith could not carry this unit by himself.
In his 2 years as coach thanks to sanctions and how he addressed his program, OB signed just 6 offensive linemen.
Now, Franklins first class should get a pass by reasonable people with him having less than a month to put it together and the program still under sanctions for the foreseeable future at the time. He brings in 4 three stars with the ’14 class with Beh, Bronson, Sorrell and Wright.
From ’12-’14, the only OL recruit we can point to with anything resembling a decent offer list from top schools is Mahon. The rest should be seen as projects…and oh yeah, half of 4 of those 10 guys mentioned here are redshirt freshman this season.
Looking ahead - In his first full recruiting cycle, Franklin pulled in Bates (4 star), Gonzalez and Jenkins (both of whom had offer lists infinitely better than any 3 star we had under BOB or Franklin’s first class), and we have verbals from Fries, Gellerstedt, McGovern and Menet (three 4-stars and a 3-star).
One of Paterno’s favorite sayings was it’s better to play a guy a game late than a game too early. There is much more talent in the lower class than the upper but can’t just snap your fingers and hope they wake up as seasoned vets. I believe Franklin when he says our best 5 guys right now are out there, but the problem is he has had very, very little to choose from when it comes to talented and experienced options and the others have zero college experience. That’s just reality.
The dominoes that put the OL in this condition were set into motion before anyone got here. Obviously this sucks for Hack since it’s hurting his own development. It sucks for game planning because there’s only so much you can do with a line in this condition. It’s a painful process but if we’re really tying to cast blame, you can’t be reasonable and put his on anyone in this program right now. That conclusion needs to be drawn another year or two down the line. Sure, everyone could do better, but how much? There’s a ceiling on this group that most have put unrealistically high and it's a simple matter of talent available…lest we forget how long it took the staff under Joe to put together a great OL given more talent - it was usually 3-4 year cycles with pretty painful retooling in between.
Lets start from oldest to youngest.
Mangiro was recruited by Joe in the ’11 class yet he had not started a game until last season. He “should” be about as developed as he could be right now as a graduate student with senior eligibility. Yet even Donovan Smith could not carry this unit by himself.
In his 2 years as coach thanks to sanctions and how he addressed his program, OB signed just 6 offensive linemen.
- One four star in Mahon
- Two three stars in Gaia and Nelson (both with very average offer lists)
- Three two stars in Dowery, Laurent and Hartman (who is no longer enrolled)
Now, Franklins first class should get a pass by reasonable people with him having less than a month to put it together and the program still under sanctions for the foreseeable future at the time. He brings in 4 three stars with the ’14 class with Beh, Bronson, Sorrell and Wright.
From ’12-’14, the only OL recruit we can point to with anything resembling a decent offer list from top schools is Mahon. The rest should be seen as projects…and oh yeah, half of 4 of those 10 guys mentioned here are redshirt freshman this season.
Looking ahead - In his first full recruiting cycle, Franklin pulled in Bates (4 star), Gonzalez and Jenkins (both of whom had offer lists infinitely better than any 3 star we had under BOB or Franklin’s first class), and we have verbals from Fries, Gellerstedt, McGovern and Menet (three 4-stars and a 3-star).
One of Paterno’s favorite sayings was it’s better to play a guy a game late than a game too early. There is much more talent in the lower class than the upper but can’t just snap your fingers and hope they wake up as seasoned vets. I believe Franklin when he says our best 5 guys right now are out there, but the problem is he has had very, very little to choose from when it comes to talented and experienced options and the others have zero college experience. That’s just reality.
The dominoes that put the OL in this condition were set into motion before anyone got here. Obviously this sucks for Hack since it’s hurting his own development. It sucks for game planning because there’s only so much you can do with a line in this condition. It’s a painful process but if we’re really tying to cast blame, you can’t be reasonable and put his on anyone in this program right now. That conclusion needs to be drawn another year or two down the line. Sure, everyone could do better, but how much? There’s a ceiling on this group that most have put unrealistically high and it's a simple matter of talent available…lest we forget how long it took the staff under Joe to put together a great OL given more talent - it was usually 3-4 year cycles with pretty painful retooling in between.
