This weekend’s matchup between Penn State and Minnesota is the biggest matchup in the Big Ten so far this season. Two undefeated teams that got to this point in very different ways. How were the two teams built? What are their strengths and how did they get that way? Mid-Atlantic Recruiting Analyst Adam Friedman and Midwest Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt break it down.
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PENN STATE
James Franklin and his staff have been building this team for years and it seems like it’s all coming together at the right time. As good as quarterback Trace McSorley was for the Nittany Lions, Sean Clifford is on track to have a better year than McSorley did.
A big part of that is explosive wide receiver K.J. Hamler. Much has been made of Hamler's relationship with Clifford going back to the Rivals Camps and that has obviously paid huge dividends on the field. Hamler is considered one of the premier big play threats in the game and Penn State worked hard to hold onto his commitment during his senior season. After his junior year at Orchard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary’s, Hamler transferred to Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy but tore his ACL, preventing him from being a major contributor in his final year of high school. Clifford’s relationship with Hamler helped keep him in the fold.
Hamler isn’t the only offensive playmaker that keeps this Penn State offense humming. Perhaps the best tight end in the country, Patrick Freiermuth is a matchup nightmare for defenses and the Penn State staff has done a great job taking advantage of what he brings to the field. A stable of four running backs keep the Penn State offense on track. Freshmen Noah Cain and Devyn Ford have been relied upon to keep the Nittany Lions ahead of the chains, and redshirt sophomore Journey Brown and sophomore Ricky Slade can be counted on to produce at a high level.
Everything on Penn State’s defense starts with the front seven. The defensive linemen and linebackers are so fast and physical that they completely outmatch the opposition. All-American linebacker Micah Parsons almost didn’t end up at Penn State. He committed to the Nittany Lions in the winter of his sophomore season but, after famously naming his new dog Brutus, decommitted in April of his junior year before again committing to Penn State in December of his senior year.
A seemingly endless arsenal of edge players, like Yetur Gross-Matos, Shaka Toney, Cam Brown, and Jayson Oweh, have been wreaking havoc on opposing offenses. Gross-Matos, Toney, and Brown were shoe-ins for Penn State almost from the start of their recruitments but Oweh took a hard look at Ohio State and a few other teams.
All of these players (with the exception of Cain) hail from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New England, Maryland, or Virginia. Franklin and his staff has a strong hold on this region of the country and almost have their pick of the litter. Consistently signing top players from the talented nearby states has helped and should continue to help the Nittany Lions compete for Big Ten Championships.
MINNESOTA
There are several recruiting storylines that feed into Minnesota’s success this season, but the most compelling to me is that the core of this team is made up of prospects from the class that signed a year before P.J. Fleck arrived in Minneapolis. This was the 2016 recruiting class that stuck together when Jerry Kill’s health struggles forced him to retire during the 2015 season, and ultimately signed up to play for Tracy Claeys just three months later. In that 2016 class were current defensive stars Antoine Winfield Jr., Carter Coughlin, Kamal Martin and Thomas Barber, as well as offensive catalyst Tyler Johnson and starting left tackle Sam Schlueter.
What Fleck did when he arrived in Minneapolis during the winter of 2017, then, was complement the talent already on the roster. His first move was to poach from his recruiting class at Western Michigan that he had just left, which was a controversial tactic at the time. However, that brought several key pieces of this 2019 season to Minneapolis, including starting quarterback Tanner Morgan. Fleck’s 2018 class was the highest ranked Minnesota class in 10 years, and was led by three four-stars: wide receiver Rashod Baeman, and offensive linemen Curtis Dunlap and Daniel Faalele. Bateman is the Gophers' leading receiver this season, while Dunlap and Faalele are both starting on the offensive line.
I have long preached about building the base of your class in your backyard, then looking nationally for the talent you can pick off outside your region. Minnesota’s success this season is a testament to that strategy. The base of in-state players that includes Coughlin, Barber and starting offensive lineman Blaise Andries ensures Minnesota has guys in that locker room who understand the traditions and history of your program. Building on that foundation with national recruits like Faalele and Dunlap, who came from IMG Academy in Florida, and running back Rodney Smith out of Georgia, ensures you have the talent on your roster to compete with the best in your league.
