On Thursday, James Franklin Punctuated This Endless Summer Recruiting Revival by Warding Off a Couple SEC Heavyweights and Landing the Crown Jewel of the 2022 Class  Â
Sponsor: For The Blogy’s preseason coverage is sponsored by FANATICS. Gear up for College Football season with Nike’s 2021 Penn State sideline collection of polos, t-shirts, hats, pullovers and more right HERE.
*Each FANATICS purchase you make helps support For The Blogy.
Promise we’ll get to the clips soon enough – because, let’s face it, we know you clicked on this to WATCH not READ – but spare a few paragraphs for us to put McDonogh High (Md.) DL Dani Dennis-Sutton’s verbal commitment to Penn State in the proper context…because it’s a pretty big deal.Â
Ranked as the No. 11 overall prospect in the country by Rivals.com, DDS (assuming he stays true to his word when it’s time to sign in December) becomes the first defensive line recruit ranked among the Top 100 overall high school players to choose Penn State since James Franklin took the job nearly a decade ago. Granted, a couple of guys have been close: Shane Simmons (104), PJ Mustipher (107), and Jayson Oweh (140), for example. So it hasn’t been a complete talent desert along the defensive line, but, technically, DDS will be the first Penn State prep prospect to crack the century mark.Â
OK, that’s cool but so what?
Well, for as much as rabid college fanbases obsess about the somewhat-factual notion that transcendent quarterback play remains the surest path to success, the true correlation amongst teams that play in the CFP and win national championships could very well be the stockpile of elite talent along the DL chasing those quarterbacks.