Inside James Franklin, Penn State Football’s hectic weekend

This past weekend was an eventful one for James Franklin and the Penn State Football coaching staff, as the program’s future began to take shape

While the 2021-22 college football season has been over for Penn State Football for almost three weeks now, James Franklin and his staff haven’t had much time to rest.

Between recruiting visits, personnel moves, and staff vacancies, there truly is no such thing as the offseason in college football.

This past weekend showed to be one of the busiest for Franklin and the Nittany Lions‘ staff so far in this young offseason.

Let’s review all that’s gone down in the past few days for the Penn State Football program and how it all affects the future:

Saturday: Penn State Football Junior Day

On Saturday, Penn State Football hosted a couple dozen or so 2023 and 2024 recruits for a junior day event.

The Nittany Lions currently hold the No. 3 recruiting class in the 2023 cycle, and it looks like that class could be on the verge of competing with Penn State Football’s talented 2022 class.

Some of the notable recruits who were in Happy Valley for the event include:

• 4-star OL Samson Okunlola
• 4-star LB Ta’Mere Robinson
• 4-star OL Amir Herring
• 4-star LB Semaj Bridgeman
• 4-star DT John Walker

While there were plenty of others on campus, this group stands out as some of the top targets on Penn State’s board.

The offensive line and linebacker positions are the two biggest needs in Penn State’s 2023 class, so it’s good to see those two positions represented well here.

These winter junior days have been a critical part of Penn State’s prior recruiting success, but they’ve been on hold the past two years due to the pandemic. The staff must surely be happy to have them back.