Matthew O'Haren/USA Today Sports
How Penn State Handles College Football's Busiest Recruiting Month
Penn State raced through the June super-schedule during which as many as 6,000 high school football players visited State College. It's the busiest time of year on campus for football recruiting purposes, when coaches and staff actively build the program's future. But that effort can take a toll.
"Just the volume of people coming here that we end up hosting in some form fashion is pretty crazy," said Andy Frank, Penn State's general manager of personnel and recruitment. "It’s fun because you get to interact and you get to see the future of the program. But in reality, our work balance probably isn't healthy in some ways, either."
Frank guides a Penn State recruiting staff of about a dozen people who work year-round to fulfill the program's roster objectives. June has become their biggest and busiest month, particularly the 25-day period in which prospects could make on-campus visits. Frank said that Penn State would host about 50 official visitors through June 25, the last day before a month-long recruiting "dead period" begins. That's when coaches and staff members get a break from hosting and traveling duties, though recruiting never truly ends. There's always contact to make, even if it isn't in-person.
Like many programs, Penn State relaunched its official-visit program in June 2021 after a 15-month shutdown because of COVID. This marks the third year in which Penn State is hosting an increased number of on-campus visitors, as prospects rushed to complete their official visits by June 25. The schedule resumes, though won't be quite as hectic, when the visit calendar reopens July 25. But high school athletes are eligible to take unlimited official visits (one per school), according to NCAA legislation that takes effect July 1. That will make the logistics of official-visit season even more complicated.
As Frank noted, organizing official visits for 50 prospects requires scheduling up to 150 travel itineraries for athletes and their traveling parties, which can include two family members. Meanwhile, Penn State also is hosting a month-long series of camps and clinics that Frank said will draw between 5,000 and 6,000 high school players to State College.
"If people truly were able to transplant themselves to this organization from a regular job, it would blow their minds, what it looks like here in June," Frank said.
That requires a large, and growing staff. Frank was part of Penn State coach James Franklin's original 2014 staff as the director of player personnel, which meant he oversaw recruiting operations. Franklin isn't sure why Frank, who studied engineering at Princeton, got into football but appreciates that he did. In that first season at Penn State, the recruiting staff included just two assistant coordinators. Now, Frank oversees a staff that includes a director of player personnel (Kenny Sanders), five recruiting coordinators and two assistant coordinators and a director of recruiting content. Franklin also recently hired Bob Palko, a legendary former high school coach in western Pennsylvania, as his director of high school relations. And that doesn't include the staff of analysts who have recruiting connections nationwide.
"When coach Franklin got here, this was probably a smaller [recruiting] staff for this level of program," Frank said. "That was something that was important to him. If you want to be at a top-five level and get into the playoff and win a national championship, you've got to compete in everything with those schools. The majority of the big-time, top-five, top-10 programs have big [recruiting] staffs. That's something that Coach has fought for. ... From a recruiting perspective, I think we’re seeing the dividends of it right now."
Indeed, Penn State has received six commitments so far in June — one player decommitted — and its 2024 recruiting class ranks sixth nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite. The 2022 recruiting class ranked sixth, while the 2023 class was 13th. In each case, those classes brought in a cross-section of national talent, which Frank attributed partly to the expanded staff size.
"We’re not necessarily going to sign a huge percentage of kids nationally, but we’re able to cast a bigger net," Frank said. "And when you case a bigger net, and you’re selective in the kids you’re signing, that’s probably the biggest area where numbers help us from my perspective."
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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich. And consider subscribing (button's on the home page) for more great content across the SI.com network.
