James Franklin breaks down Penn State's process as Nittany Lions search for transfer portal fits
The prospects on Penn State’s campus during spring football aren’t just limited to high school students.
In the age of the transfer portal, James Franklin and his staff sometimes find themselves hosting college players looking for their next home. While Franklin says the staff tries to keep the process the same, the reality is that these players are looking for different information than high school prospects are. And they present their own unique challenges, too.
“It’s a little bit different from their perspective because they’re just older and more experienced,” Franklin said. “Things that may have been important to them as seniors in high school are not really as important to them anymore. They’re putting their value in different things, if that makes sense.”
The Nittany Lions landed two transfers for next season before the onset of spring ball in wideout Mitchell Tinsley and offensive lineman Hunter Nourzad. The door is open for more additions, with Franklin expressing Penn State’s need for a pass-rusher earlier this week.
Penn State’s coaches work to gather as much information as possible in a process that is far more rushed than the typical high school recruitment. Nittany Lion men’s basketball head man Micah Shrewsberry compared it to speed dating.
“We’ve tried to be very strategic and calculated about it,” Franklin said. “It’s amazing to me there’s guys that are taken out of the portal that nobody calls, and you have no idea what’s happened at the previous school and what the issues may be.
“So we try to do as much homework as we possibly can. We talk to the high school coach. We try to call somebody at the previous school that maybe we have a relationship with who hopefully will tell us the truth. Then you just try to get to know them as much as you possibly can.”
Other transfer portal obstacles for Penn State
The method Penn State’s academic hierarchy employs for evaluating transfer students can sometimes present a roadblock, Franklin said.
Rather than offering a central hub for evaluating a student’s credits at a previous college, Penn State sends the information around for individual evaluations from all the relevant colleges on campus.
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“That could take anywhere — we’ve been told — up to 40 days, which can make the transfer process challenging for us,” Franklin said. “But we try to be as thorough as we possibly can to make sure that we’re getting the right fits and bringing the right people in here.”
“It’s challenging when it happens at the end of the fall and you try to get it done for the spring.”
Additionally, the Nittany Lions are conscious of the impact a transfer can have on their locker room.
Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz — a former head coach at Miami — said it’s key for players to understand why a transfer has been brought into the fold.
That’s a view that aligns with Franklin’s, Daiz said.
“If you look at the experienc0r last year at Penn State with [Arnold Ebiketie] and [Derrick Tangelo], [the team] understood that,” Diaz said. “Those guys transformed how they played up front a year ago.
“There’s a lot of homework that has to be done. We did have good success at Miami with it. But it’s not fantasy football. You can’t just get anybody that did something somewhere. You got to make sure that they’re the right person.”
