Building and sustaining a top program in college football, as James Franklin did for 11 years before it all crumbled in a matter of three weeks, is about the players. Scheme, development, and game management help to determine how far your team can go, but talent acquisition sets the ceiling.
College football is and always will be about getting the best players on your roster, whether that’s through high school recruiting or the Transfer Portal.
With the roster churn of the offseason and the freedom of movement in this modern era, it won’t be as pressing for James Franklin’s replacement to hold onto the entire 2026 recruiting class that Franklin had constructed. Still, there are a few standouts that Penn State’s next head coach should prioritize.
Franklin’s 2027 recruiting class has splintered. All four commits reneged on their decision. Yet, Penn State’s 24-player 2026 class, which ranks No. 16 in the country, is still intact, at least for now.
Long gone are the days of Chris Godwin and Jahan Dotson dominating on the outside for the Penn State offense. The Nittany Lions haven’t had an NFL receiver since KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and he transferred to Ole Miss after an underwhelming 2023 season with Drew Allar at quarterback.
The issue was so profound that Franklin added three receivers from the portal this offseason, but all are in their final year of eligibility. The next head coach could rebuild the position group with veterans, but when one area of your roster has been this big of a problem for this long, you should exhaust every avenue of potential improvement.
Kevin Brown is the only in-state recruit to crack my top three, but you could argue that four-star safety Matt Sieg, four-star running back Messiah Mickens, and the other PA commits are just as important because that talent pipeline has to stay open. Three of the four players who de-committed in the 2027 class were in-state players, all from Western PA, where Franklin dominated Pitt and West Virginia.
Still, Brown gets the nod here because of the valuable position that he plays. There simply isn’t enough offensive line talent to go around in college football, so when you have a chance to add a top tackle to your roster, you can’t miss it.
Four-star quarterback Troy Huhn is the most important commit to hang onto, for obvious reasons, but he’s also arguably the most likely to stay locked in. Quarterbacks commit the earliest in the recruiting cycle because there are only so many spots at powerhouse programs to go around, and this late in the process, all the other coveted spots are already filled.
Huhn impressed this summer at Elite 11 as an accurate passer with good anticipation and clean mechanics. He may not ooze the talent of a future No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick, but then Drew Allar did and never delivered on it.
With Allar out for the rest of the season, 2024 four-star Ethan Grunkemeyer will have six games to prove he’s the future of the program, if he decides to stick around with the next regime. Beyond Grunkemeyer, the cupboard is rather bare, so the next head coach could be forced into the portal to pluck out a high-priced passer.