College Football Recruiting
Penn State University
By Joe Giardina

After winning the 2005 Orange Bowl, the Penn State Nittany Lions had one of their best recruiting classes in recent memory. They followed 2005's success by defeating Tennessee in the Outback Bowl this past season, giving them consecutive bowl victories for the first time since the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Many believe the recent success has carried over to the recruiting trails yet again.

Considered by many recruiting services to be a top 25 recruiting class, the Nittany Lions will have some immediate holes to fill on the offensive line thanks to the departure of left tackle Levi Brown. They did so by getting the commitments of two junior college transfers, something they rarely have done under head coach Joe Paterno.

"They never do that," Jeremy Crabtree, a national college football analyst for rivals.com, said. "A lot of schools use junior college recruits to compliment their classes and what Penn State did here I like."

The JUCO transfers - Nerraw McCormick and Ako Poti - are two of five offensive linemen the Nittany Lions have gotten verbal commitments from prior to National Signing Day (Feb. 7).

Including the offensive linemen, Penn State has a total of ten commitments on the offensive side of the ball in their 2007 recruiting class. They grabbed high profile players from their back yard, including wide receiver Jon Ditto out of Gateway and offensive linemen Josh Marks out of Southern Columbia and Stefen Wisniewski - whose dad also played for Penn State - out of Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

Although fewer in number, the Penn State defensive recruits are just as highly touted as their offensive recruits. Living up to their "Linebacker U" reputation, they signed three top linebackers for 2007 - including two from out of state. Chris Colasanti out of Lakeville, MI and Andrew Dailey from Massillon, OH are considered top prospects in their respected states. Colasanti, rated the third best inside linebacker in the country by rivals.com, is already drawing comparisons to former Penn State greats Lavar Arrington and Paul Posluzny. The other linebacker, Nathan Stupar out of State College, PA, is the fastest of the three and is considered to have great football instincts.

"All three are a little bit different from each other," Crabtree said. "[But] they're all excellent players who bought into the great linebacker tradition at Penn State and wanted to be a part of it."

The list also includes defensive backs Nick Sukay out of Greensburg Central Catholic and Chaz Powell out of Susquehannock High School in New Freedom, PA. Powell, a big physical cornerback, is an exceptional athlete who blocked 16 field goals and extra points as a senior in high school.

"They would like to red-shirt [Powell] a year, but he might be forced to play because he is that good," Crabtree said.

Two late additions to the class were big ones - Rochester WR Derek Moye, a big target at 6'5, and Delaware defensive end Devon Still, who chose the Lions over Ohio State.

Two players Penn State still had their sites on late in the process were Arkansas running back Broderick Green, who committed to Southern Cal last spring but headed into the final weekend considering Penn State and Ohio State as well as the Trojans, and Virginia Beach defensive tackle Chimaeze Okoli, who was down to the Lions and Virginia Tech at press time.

Joe Giardina is a staff writer for PSR. He covered the Pittsburgh Basketball High School Classic last month.