Penn State lands 4* QB Michael O'Conner
Penn State just landed a commitment from Michael O'Conner, a 4 star QB from Canada by way of Florida. This, a year after they landed 5 star Christian Hackenberg. I continue to be very impressed by Bill O'brien as a recruiter. These kids continue to sign up to play for him despite the sanctions. And these aren't just kids who don't have better options The jury is still out on his coaching, but it seems that if Penn State can hold onto him until the sanctions end, they could have a good coach. I, for one, are hoping they do. A strong Penn State is good for the Big Ten. Especially considering Michigan's historic dominance against them.
With this commitment, it puts Penn State at a solid third in the conference in terms of ranking for the 2014 recruiting cycle. Even more impressive for O'Brien really is that, under the conditions imposed, it is an improvement over 2013 (6th in the conference) as well as the class he more or less walked into (2012 was the 7th highest ranked class in the Big Ten). As others have mentioned, a strong program in Happy Valley is an asset to the Big Ten, and it is nice to see O'Brien working well so far there.
Any real program would want to bring in a talented QB every year, but PSU has even more reason to want to do so. They've been wobbly at QB for what seems forever now, with Mat McGloin, a walk on, being their best option (an gone). Not only is the QB situation totally unsettled now, but they're thin there as well. If Hackenberg goes bust (always a possibility) or gets injured, they're in a world of hurt. Which is not to say that I disagree with you about the lack of line recruiting. Then again, the Pats have been neglecting their OLine for a while, and Brady has been paying the price for that, do maybe O'Brien has a little of the spread nd shred fever, where you think of offense in terms of skill position players and not the guys up front.
That will be a big concern for them down the road, but they've been taking a steady stream of Olinemen the last few years. 5 pretty good ones in 2010, 4 more in 2011, 3 in 2012, and 3 in 2013. They need more than 1 in this class, obviously, but they have 4 spots left. I'm guessing necessity might drive Penn State to become a destination for transfers to offset the wrath of the injury Gods.
Yeah, they brought in 9 in 2010-2011, but only three of them were 4 stars and even they were barely so. I also don't know if any of those guys decided not to stick around when the sanctions were announced. According to Rivals, they only took 2 in 2012 (both 3-stars) though one of the three DTs (a 3-star and two 2-stars) could be an OL. And yes, three in 2013 (only one 4-star). So they have little in quantity and talent. And once that 5 member 2010 class graduates, they'll be in deep shit.
But look at the DL recruiting, it's just as bad:
2010 - 3 DL, 2 4-stars, only one DT
2011 - 4 DL, 3 4-stars, but all DEs
2012 - 4 DL, 1 3-star and 3 2-stars. 3 DTs, but it sounds like one might be an OL.
2013 - 3 DL, 1 4-star, 2 3-stars, all DEs again
2014 - 1 DL, 3-star DE.
This is just as bad because these guys need to rotate a lot more than the OL guys do. Over that entire span, they signed zero (0) 4-star or above DTs. Since 2012, they have signed a total of one 4-star DL. That's not good.
So far in the 2013 and 2014 classes, Penn State has brought in two offensive guards, one OT, and then Noah Beh who is listed as an OT on Scout and as a DE other places. They have a few spots left in the 2014 class, but realistically Penn State is looking at filling out its offensive line with walk-ons.
OTOH, Penn State has recruited a 5-star QB for 2013 and now a 4-star for 2014, plus a ton of backs and receivers--many of whom are 4-star rated. I am wondering if O'Brien's plan is basically to put Hackenberg in the shotgun and just throw the ball 65 times per game? If so, this could be a very wise strategy. It's probably a lot less difficult to find walk-on linemen if all they need to do is pass-protect. And while I'm sure O'Brien would prefer to have a running game, if he needs to give something up it might as well be the thing he can't have anyway.
Yeah, I think Texas Tech makes a good comparison. I was kind of thinking about the old Houston teams with Ware & Klingler, myself.
If you are O'Brien, you probably figure you're not competing with Michigan and Ohio State right now anyway. So if you have a team that can handle the lesser powers in the conference, you can still go about 6-2 or 5-3 in the B1G and win 8-9 games. (For whatever that's worth).
At some point they're going to be down to 65 scholarships. That is going to kill depth - at just about every position. A two deep is going to take 44 scholarships. When you start figuring they're definitely going to want more than 2 QB's, 2 RB's, throw in the fact that at times you'll have 5 or 6 db's on the field, multiple te's and they're going to be hurting. They could field a pretty solid starting lineup, but there will be little to no depth if injuries mount.
He's not really a Florida kid. He's from Canada and is going to a prep school in Florida.
As has often been pointed out, he is not a Florida kid, he just moved there (by way of TN, even) to get requalified. He is from the great frozen north. And it may be the kid just isn't that good, obviously the staff wanted Speight more than they wanted him. It IS possible, I imagine, that his reclassifying for 2014 instead of 2015 may have had something to do with it. Maybe coaches wanted to watch him throughout a year against better opposition than he faced up in Canada, and that prevented him from giving them that chance? That's pure speculation, so take it for what it's worth.
Penn State is always going to have some allure due to their history, but once the loss of scholarships really starts be felt, I think we'll see a couple of very bad seasons out of them.
Kids are committing to PSU right now because they have no concept of what the sanctions are going to do to the team. Once the bad seasons start rolling in, that's when recruiting is really going to take a hit.
once the reductions are over? I get that there's a 25 spot limit in the B1G, and who knows if they'll even get that number wanting to commit, but I see their only losses in their division coming from us and Ohio, and they should be at least competitive with everyone else, so replenishing in a couple years isn't unfeasible.
Also, kinda OT, but have you seen Big 12 recruiting? It's absolutly brutal. They have three in the top 25, but UT has a class that should drop as others fill out and size is less of an issue, OU is number 25, and Baylor is high right now, but they have a similar thing as UT with the size differential. Never thought I'd see the day when the B1G wasn't the worst-recruiting major conference.
this could be the best thing from Michigan's perspective- a decent PSU will be good enough to steal wins from the rest of the division but probably not M. One less crater of a program is good for the B10. a crater of a program in Happy Valley does no one any good.
I have a feeling that Bill O'brien will be going back to the NFL in the not too distant future. He's only been at Penn State one year and he has already flirted with the league. Once the sanctions really start to hit I bet he'll be out of there.
PSU QB thread. Obligatory.
Flashback
even w/ a scholarship roster of 65, I think a team can --- and probably should --- have 3 scholarship QBs.
I have to say I'm always a little confused by the "good for them" attitude. We're talking about a program that hid unbelievable atrocities for years and, when they were discovered, had hordes of fans defiantly supporting the perpetrators. A decent PSU might be good for the conference, but I find it impossible to root for them.
I thought when the sanctions came down that the impact would be significant, but it wasn't the decade or more in the wilderness penalty that many claimed. Basically, Penn State had to survive last season and this coming season without becoming a laughing stock and maintain reasonable recruiting classes. A kid who starts in 2014 will face, at most, 2 non-bowl eligible years (unless he redshirts). If O'Brien wins 6-8 games this year he'll keep Penn State in a reasonable position prestige-wise, and no 2015 kids will care about the sanctions which will affect them for 1 year at most.
And as was said above in other posts, I'd like the Big Ten to have 4-5 nationally relevant teams and after Michigan and Ohio State you pretty much need one or more of Penn State, Nebraksa and/or Wisconsin to be decent to get there.