Sunday Column: Why Hasn’t Penn State’s Recent Penchant for Producing Sunday-Ready Prospects Paid Off on Saturdays?

Penn State has few recruiting showcases as effective as an autumn White Out game. One of them takes place in Indianapolis this week.

Eight Nittany Lions will be among the 300-plus NFL prospects at the league’s annual combine, a sneak preview of another NFL Draft that promises to have strong Penn State representation. For all the baffling struggles the Lions have had on the field the last couple of seasons, they have continued to produce – and develop – a significant number of professionals.

This year, that combine list includes Jahan Dotson, the sticky-handed wide receiver who probably would have been a Day 2 pick in the 2021 draft but decided to return for another season to help his team (which was in need of more help than even he could provide) and to continue to develop his own game (which he did). He’ll likely go at the end of Round 1 this spring, even in what is another deep wide receiver group.

It includes Jaquan Brisker, the former Lackawanna College safety who came on strong at the end of 2020 then had a tremendous final season this fall, showing skills in coverage, physicality and instincts as a tackler, and versatility. Another transfer, defensive end Arnold Ebiketie, was a productive player at Temple but turned a lot of heads against stiffer Big Ten competition this fall and, like Brisker, was a key catalyst for a vastly improved Penn State defense. He likely earned himself a jump of numerous spots up the draft board this season. Jordan Stout, tasked with filling the shoes of a punter who is now starting in the league (Blake Gillikin), stands a very good chance of becoming the first Penn State punter selected in the draft since John Bruno in 1987.

Add in cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, offensive tackle Rasheed Walker, linebacker Brandon Smith, and defensive end Jesse Luketa, and you have quite a collection of talent for a 7-5 team (yes, the Nittany Lions went 7-6, but most of the above players sat out of the bowl loss to Arkansas).

That’s the confounding part, isn’t it? Yes, the teams Penn State is chasing in both the Big Ten and national title races not only send 8-10 players to the combine each year but often have roughly a fistful of players selected in the first round. But this many pro-worthy players in one class, coming on the heels of back-to-back drafts that saw a total of 11 Lions hearing their names called, is statistically as good of a stretch of pro-producing as Penn State has had at any point in its storied football history.

It just hasn’t produced a lot of wins.

First, some credit where it’s due. James Franklin has seen a lot of turnover on his staff the past few seasons, but the coaches he’s brought in have done a great job of developing the players their predecessors recruited – see Anthony Poindexter with Brisker, Taylor Stubblefield with Dotson, John Scott with the defensive line. And the recruiting has hummed right along as well; if Drew Allar and Nick Singleton don’t wind up playing on Sundays, something will have gone seriously wrong.

Franklin’s mixed feelings on the transfer portal’s effect on the sport are well-documented, but if Ebiketie and Derrick Tangelo can find their way onto NFL rosters this summer, and Mitchell Tinsley can do the same in 2023, it will serve notice to future transfers that Penn State is a desirable transfer destination for more reasons than the chance to play in front of 108,000 fans in prime time. Now, would those particular players have been able to improve their NFL stock at other schools, too? Probably, but that they did make significant strides to their game at Penn State means something.

In many cases, the coaches haven’t had to do full-on makeovers to help these players punch tickets to Lucas Oil. Dotson, Luketa, Castro-Fields, Smith, and Walker were all four-star recruits, and Brisker was a highly sought JUCO transfer. But even if they haven’t all developed to the extent that some fans would like, they’ve all developed to the point that they’ll likely play at the sport’s highest level.

And sending players to the league, while not something you’ll hear out of the mouth of an athletic director at a coach’s introductory press conference, is a huge and necessary part of the job description if a coach is going to have any chance of competing with college football’s elite. If you have future NFL players competing in practice, it raises the level of everyone else’s game, helps set high team standards, and allows stud recruits to picture themselves doing those things in a Penn State uniform, then an NFL uniform.

Those stud recruits all want to win games, too, and that’s why programs like Alabama and Ohio State will have their pick of the best recruits, and wind up with the highest draft picks, until they stop winning. Franklin and Penn State have some work to do on that front; they must find ways to pull all the pieces together better than they have the last couple of seasons.

At least they know that they have the kind of pieces that they need. The combine and the draft continue to be more proof of that than any recruiting class ranking.