How Penn State Football is having recruiting success despite on-field woes

Despite a sharp downturn in terms of on-field success under James Franklin, Penn State Football is in the midst of its strongest recruiting stretch in years

Penn State Football has had a rough time lately, going a combined 11-11 over the last two years.

These struggles are following up a four-year stretch in which the Nittany Lions went 42-11 with a Big Ten championship and two New Year’s Six bowl victories. While the on-field product has declined, Penn State Football’s recruiting success has never been higher.

The Nittany Lions are in the process of landing back-to-back top ten recruiting classes that each include multiple 5-star recruits.

On the surface, this correlation makes no sense.

How could James Franklin and his staff possibly recruit better now than during the four-year run of 2016-2019? Winning obviously is the most important thing in college football, but it’s not the end all be all when it comes to recruiting.

As you’ll see, Penn State Football’s No. 6 2022 recruiting class and No. 5 2023 recruiting class aren’t as far-fetched as they look to the naked eye.