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Penn State coach James Franklin 'happy' with drama-free day as 26 recruits sign in the Lions' Class of 2025

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•12/04/24•

GregPickel

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Penn State head coach James Franklin interacts with recruits following the game against Bowling Green. (Credit: Ryan Snyder | Blue White Illustrated)

The Penn State football program officially welcomed 26 members of the Class of 2025 into its ranks on Wednesday during National Signing Day. The group is split evenly, with 13 future players set to suit up for the offense and 13 on defense. Fourteen members of the group will enroll early when classes start in January.

The Lions signed just one top 100 player in the On3 Industry Rankings, four-star New Jersey offensive tackle Malachi Goodman, who ranks No. 88 overall, but a total of eight players rank inside the Industry Rankings’ On300. Penn State is on the wrong side of the blue-chip ratio (meaning signing more four- and five-stars than three-stars), as 12 are four-star recruits and 14 three-stars per the Industry Rankings. But, Lions coach James Franklin is “happy” with the class and the work his staff did to make it happen, especially when it comes to closing things out ahead of Saturday’s Big Ten title game matchup with No. 1 Oregon.

What did James Franklin say about the Lions’ Class of 2025?

Here is his full quote from Wednesday night’s post-practice interview. You can see video of the whole exchange below.

“One of the things that we take great pride in, knock on wood, is that we have not had a whole lot of drama on Signing Day,” Franklin said. “We’re very upfront and honest and transparent with the families and the kids that we recruit. They know what they’re getting. We know what we’re getting. And, we typically don’t have a whole lot of issues. Those guys sign, and obviously we’ve been recruiting them for a long time. I’m pleased with the class.

“I was also very, very pleased with the staff in general. This is a very different signing day. It was just me and the recruiting staff. Usually it’s our whole staff [at the program’s Signing Day ceremony]. But we can’t afford to do that right now. So, the rest of the staff was on football all day. I came in early and it will stay late to make up for the time that I missed on football. But it was myself.

“And, the recruiting staff and the administrative staff did a phenomenal job having everything set up. You’re talking about, not only was that different, but not having National Letter of Intent this year, NIL contracts, all kinds of stuff, make it very, very challenging. And for us to not have any hiccups or any issues, to me, was impressive from the organization. That’s a credit to Andy Frank and Kenny Sanders and Alan Zemaitis and all those guys.”

Read more Penn State Signing Day stories from Blue-White Illustrated

Catch up on anything you might have missed below:

Who were Penn State’s biggest wins and misses in the Class of 2025?

On3 Scouting Director Charles Powers breaks down Penn State’s top 2025 signees on National Signing Day

Penn State is ‘super excited’ about signing LaVar Arrington II, and not just because of who his dad is

Is Penn State still in the running for 4-star TE Andrew Olesh ahead of his Friday announcement?

Penn State holds off late charge from Ohio State, signs four-star DE Chaz Coleman

Brian Kortovich committed to Penn State Tuesday and signed Wednesday; here’s why the tight end did so

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