Duffy Daugherty Forum

Penn State is clearly not rolling over and playing dead on recruiting Pennsylvania players. There are a couple of '14 MSU interests on Aliquippa. I think that O'Brien is putting much more energy and resources into recruiting Pennsylvania kids than Paterno ever did. It would not be hard to do. I would not be surprised if Penn State offers Beaver Stadium for free for the PIAA championships. Cathedral Prep practiced in the Penn State indoor facility on their way to Hershey.

Recruiting trail brings Penn State skipper Bill O'Brien to Hershey
ERIC F. EPLER, The Patriot-News, December 15, 2012 5:51 p.m.

Penn State head football coach Bill O'Brien spent his Saturday afternoon stalking the sidelines at Hersheypark Stadium. One last stop on the recruiting trail before the NCAA quiet period begins Monday.

“The most valuable thing for us is to make sure everybody in the state of Pennsylvania knows how important high school football here is to Penn State,” said O'Brien, taking in the PIAA Class AA championship between Aliquippa and Wyomissing. The Spartans upended the WPIAL champion 17-14.

“Our bread and butter is right here in this state, especially with the situation we're in now,” O'Brien said.

“We're going to be playing with a lot of Pennsylvania kids over the next three, four years, however many years I'm at Penn State. That's the main reason for being here.”

The Nits' first-year skipper also stated Penn State's home venue, Beaver Stadium, would be a logical home for future state championship weekends.

“My take on that is it's all about location. Penn State is right in the middle of the state, so I know we'd be very interested in having the state championships at Beaver Stadium. I can tell you that,” O'Brien said.

I really have no idea. I would put my recruit evaluating capability at about a 1 on a ten point scale. I just know what I mine from the papers. I did have the impression that on the defensive side during the playoffs that Williams was not the best player for Cathedral Prep. Of course that could be the other team running and throwing away from him.

The '14 DB's are not in the 247 data base. Erie is a bit of a backwater as far as PA HS football is concerned.

Edit: With three freshmen next year added to the four on the roster already PA has somewhat quietly become an important source of Spartans. With seven from the Commonwealth it looks like Pennsylvania will be third behind Michigan and Ohio; ahead of Florida, Georgia, and even Illinois.

Craig Evens would be a spectacular get. I hope he gives MSU a good look. Narddog recruiting him?

Brad Salem is the lead recruiter for this area.

Yeah, pretty sure i got it from your twitter too? Rivals says he's 6'0 180 with a 4.57 40 time.

Here are his highlights from Hudl (video is kind of messed up in the beginning, skip ahead a little). looks like he plays CB, WR, and KR/PR.

This is from 3 days ago.

"Evans says he was "blindsided" like everyone else when Bielema announced his decision to leave Wisconsin last week, but Evans says defensive co-coordinator Charlie Partridge is the reason he wanted to play for the Badgers."Coach Partridge- I had a great relationship with the dude," Evans said. "He was more than half, or one of the reason I committed there, so if he left, it would pretty much say what I'm going to do."Evans says other schools have contacted him since Bielema left for Arkansas, among them, Michigan State. Evans, a senior,  is currently a member of the Sun Prairie high school varsity basketball team."

Is he a senior or junior? Class of 2014 would be a junior.

So, any preliminary top 10's for the state of MI? Figure something like

1. McDowell
2. Harris
3-7: Webb, Drake, Bullough, Doles
8-10: Armstrong, Marshall, Hayes

Gotcha. Looks like Marshall is a UM fan; rare for those to choose MSU.

So right now:

MSU Commits: Harris, Drake, Bullough

MSU Leans: . . . . . Armstrong and Hayes maybe?

UM Leans: McDowell, Webb, Marshall, Doles

Who'd be player #10?

I have heard the OL from Alma as a possible #10 guy. But I am from Alma and don't hear anything spectacular in local coaches and media. Don't even remember the kids name.

Ahh, yea, I knew I was missing someone obvious

Kind of weird that he's supposedly a stud Pro-Style QB and there are 2 in-state schools who run pro-style O's . . . . and he's not likely to get an offer from either. Could be interesting to see how things shake out with Henderson (Narduzzi staying is going to play a big role in that).