News & Notes: Signing Day

No drama, just as James Franklin prefers.

That was the message from the Nittany Lions’ head coach Wednesday afternoon on the first day of college football’s early signing period. A de facto National Signing Day, the Penn State football program welcomed 18 new prospects into the family, a collection containing a Rivals.com five-star, 14 four-stars, and three three-stars.

How’d Franklin feel about the class? What’s left for the Nittany Lions?

We’ll take a look at these questions and more in our news and notes from the press conference:

1) First, Franklin’s highlights.

As noted at the top, Franklin said he was proud of the fact that this was a relatively drama-free class. Though he acknowledged there were a couple guys that “had some questions and some guys that needed a few more days or weeks” to make their decisions, Franklin said that on the whole, some of the dramatics that have taken hold of this day in college football nationally were lessened today.

Specifically asked about Noah Cain, who made his announcement Wednesday afternoon at a ceremony, Franklin offered some insight into how the process actually works.

“The first thing I would say is very rarely in my time doing this, did guys announce and no one knows. It happens every once in a while but most of the time, you know. A lot of the exciting things that were going on today, we knew, both good and bad. We knew several weeks ago. Sometimes several days ago. It depends on the situation,” said Franklin. “But Noah committed to us a few weeks ago. Felt pretty confident about that until last night I get a call at 12:05 and it's Noah, mom and dad, and they want to have a discussion, and the discussion is coming off, like they have not made their decision yet.

“So there I am in my boxers having a heated discussion and selling on why this makes sense. Same thing with Coach Seider and then again this morning. And I think that happens. This is a big decision guys are making, and I think when you wait till the end, you start getting pulled in a thousand different directions, so we get that.”

In the end, Franklin said, Cain stuck with the choice he’d made previously as Penn State’s staff had been able to sufficiently answer his last-minute questions.

As for the quality of the class, Franklin touted it as a Top 10 group, all the more notable because it has fewer than 20 members. “So if you look at it from a quality standpoint, I think we're top three in the country in terms of the quality of how services have those guys ranked,” he said. “So excited about that.”

Among his thoughts in the opening statement, Franklin also hailed the fact that the program has extended its reach nationally, bringing in players from as far away as Florida, Oregon, and Michigan, with only four players coming out of Pennsylvania.

“It looks good today, on paper, and I think it will end up looking good on the field, as well,” said Franklin.

2) Penn State’s Class of 2019 isn’t done.

Given some of the attrition on the roster already since the end of the season and some that could possibly take place afterward, the Nittany Lions will continue to try to fill out their allotment of scholarships.

“We've got a little wiggle room left,” said Franklin, evaluating the Lions’ prospects in generalities. “Some guys that we’re going to hopefully sign in the next signing period and some guys that we have a lot of confidence in and some guys that we have medium confidence in and some guys who are still kind of trying to figure it out.”

Names to watch include defensive linemen D'Von Ellies, Jared Hunte, Smith Vilbert, offensive lineman Doug Nester, and running back Mark Antony-Richards.

3) Maybe the biggest storyline to come out of the day revolved around Penn State’s pull at running back.

Bluntly, in landing five-star Devyn Ford (No. 16 overall, No. 2 RB) and in earning a commitment Wednesday from four-star Noah Cain (No. 73 nationally, No. 5 RB), the Nittany Lions ended up bringing in two of the nation’s top five running backs, according to Rivals.com.

Acknowledging that Saquon Barkley absolutely has played a part in Penn State’s success recruiting the position, Franklin also made a point that the style of football the Nittany Lions have played the past three seasons has also factored into it.

In the process, though, he summed up some of what led to the Nittany Lions’ successes and struggles offensively this season on the field.

“I think if you look at us statistically, we lose Saquon Barkley and we rush for more yards this year and I think we rushed for more yards per carry and that's something that hadn't really been talked about our offense. I think that's a pretty strong example of our commitment to running the ball,” said Franklin. “Now obviously we don't throw the ball as well as this year so we need to be more consistent. But when you're able to do both of them, you know, we've already shown that we can throw the ball; we've led the Big Ten in two of the last three years. We wanted to make a commitment at running the ball better this year. You know, it's going to be scary when we're able to do both, do both at a very high level. I think it's all those things.”