Dukes and Gress make a two-fer
Just when we thought Penn State's early recruiting bonanza was over, two more pretty good high-schoolers said they're coming to the land of Paterno. Another mammoth lineman, Adam Gress, and (shock!) running back Curtis Dukes committed to Penn State just hours apart yesterday. I don't know about you, but this class isn't looking all that bad.
The thirteenth and fourteenth commits in the class of 2009 were rated somewhere in the upper-middle area for next year. Gress is rated by the "Big Two" (Rivals and Scout) with three stars, and Dukes was given three stars by Scout. Rivals hasn't rated him yet. (Ed. note-I said earlier how I hate the star-ratings, but for practical purposes, I'll still refer to them when discussing recruits.)
We can see that this is the kind of class which sets groundwork for a few years down the road. When was the last time Penn State has gone after so many offensive linemen? Sure, every class has a couple, but this one is very deep at the position. Combine that with the Lions' philosophical switch over to the spread offense (more often than before, at least), and it looks like the coaching staff is placing more emphasis on scoring points, rather than having to shut out opponents every week. I'm not trying to put the cart before the horse here, but these recruiting classes of late are head and shoulders above those from the turn of the century.
I still don't quite understand why many fans are freaking out about Penn State's lack of skill recruits. Not that long ago, we were blaming everything on the offensive line. EVERYTHING was the line's fault. Now that the guys up front are performing above retard level, all anyone can complain about is the (mythical) lack of skill players on Penn State's roster. As I said before, outside of a few recruiting classes like 1999 and 2000, Penn State's image as a recruiting failure is purely psychological. Coaching, bad breaks and a few bad apples all seem to converge at the wrong time for Penn State. Winning nine games shouldn't be acceptable for Penn State fans, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
-Rivals list of PSU commitments.
-Scout list of PSU commitments.
By the way, Temple and CCU games will kickoff at noon on the BTN. I hate noon kicks. Oh well.
