Penn State Football: Recruiting Class of 2014

James Franklin was hired to be the 16th head football coach of Penn State University on January 11, 2014, he brought with him a reputation of being a stellar recruiter.  Much of his introductory press conference would mirror this sentiment as he made statement after statement on how recruiting, and in particular recruiting in the state of Pennsylvania, would be a top priority.

“Our recruiting philosophy, we are going to dominate the state. We are going to dominate the state. We are going to dominate the region.

I’ve worked a lot of different institutions that tried to compete in recruiting against Penn State University, and it was always an unbelievable challenge because this school has everything that young men are looking for; this school has everything that families are looking for. That is going to be our plan, and I’m calling all the high school coaches. I’m calling all the people in the state that we need to come together like never before.

I think with everybody pulling the rope in the same direction there is no reason why we can’t take this program where everybody wants it to be. We should take great pride in representing the state of Pennsylvania. We should take great pride in being having the ability to play for Penn State University, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to unite the coaches, we’re going to unite the community, and build this program where everybody wants it to be.” – James Franklin

In this multipart series, we will take a look back at James Franklin’s class as we lead up to National SigningDay on February 7th, 2017. It is only fitting that we start at the beginning.

The Class of 2014

Franklin only had a little over a month to make a mark on his first recruiting class at Penn State but that was just enough time to allow fans to get a glimpse of the type of recruiting he could do. Franklin went on to put together the number 3 ranked class in the BIG Ten and the number 24 ranked class in the nation. This was the highest ranked Penn State class since they finished 13 in the nation (number 1 in the BIG Ten) in 2010.

Franklin also showed that he was not limited to recruiting talent in his own state as he landed players from 15 different states.   This class laid a solid foundation for the program and helped put Penn State back on the map. Fans didn’t know it at the time but the success its players would generate would go on to unite a fanbase.

Impact Makers

View The Entire Class