So Penn State is losing its recruiting edge to Pittsburgh and Rutgers you say? Well I suppose if this recruiting season is a sign of Pittsburgh and Rutgers’ best recruiting haul in years, things sure are bleak for the Panthers and Scarlet Knights. Even amidst their best recruiting season, they fall short when compared to the Lions. So before the fans in Pittsburgh and Piscataway begin their annual tradition of prematurely debating Penn State’s supposed demise in the East, let’s take a breath, put down that hair gel and jaeger bomb, and actually take a look at the numbers.

Lets first start with Pittsburgh. Sure they’re improved last season, but improving on the 5 games they won in 2007 wasn’t all that hard. But to somehow claim that Pittsburgh is finally winning the recruiting battle with Penn State is as ludicrous as it is untrue.

Sure, among the Top 40 football prospects in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh holds a 9-8 numbers advantage.

“As for the battle between Penn State and Pitt, the Panthers won. While Penn State landed the No. 3 player in the state, offensive tackle Eric Shrive, Pitt pulled in four of the top 10. “

Hold on a second! Before we declare the Panthers the Keystone state winner, consider this. Nittany Lions 1, Pittsburgh 0. That’s the number of verbals currently on ESPN U’s Top 150 list from the state of Pennsylvania. Want to expand it to the entire 50 states? Penn State 2, Pittsburgh still 0.

For those of you who question the credibility of ESPN’s recruiting rankings, Rivals has their very own. Of Rival’s Top 100 recruits, Penn State has a verbal from 1, Pittsburgh doesn’t. If Jelani Jenkins decides to become a Nittany Lion on signing day, that would increase Penn State’s number to 2, Pittsburgh? Well they still sit at 0.

Competing recruiting service, Scout.com lists 2 Penn State verbals in their Top 100 unfortunately none for Pittsburgh. There just seems to be a trend happening here. Remember when you were taught to write your first book report and your teacher preached “quality over quantity”? Well, I think you know what I’m getting at.

The question shouldn’t be whether Pittsburgh is finally winning the recruiting battle against Penn State, we all know they aren’t. I should be how Wannastache still manages to convince high school athletes to join a program he personally ran into the ground.

Then we have Rutgers. Once considered a program on the rise, they seem more like a shooting star. Miraculous when it actually achieves greatness, but quickly disappears from sight.

There was considerable talk during the offseason of Rutgers now dominating the recruits in Jersey and New York (as they very well should being the state school and all), but the talk escalated to Penn State being unable to compete with the Scarlet Knights for recruits altogether. That we all know was wishful thinking evidenced by recent switches in a few commitments from the Scarlet Knights to the Lions.

But the numbers once again show Rutgers is far from being even remotely competitive with Penn State when it comes to recruiting. Both Penn State and Rutgers have 2 recruits listed in New York’s Top 10, but in Rutger’s home footprint of New Jersey, Penn State has verbals from 3 of New Jersey’s Top 15 prospects compared to Rutger’s 1. If Rutgers can’t even edge out the Lions in its home footprint, any talk of Rutgers edging out Penn State in recruiting altogether is laughable.

And then there’s Maryland.

Penn State, Pittsburgh and Rutgers all being geographically close to one another, all share similar recruiting battlegrounds. With all 3 being in the northeast, that leaves us with the few recruiting footprints. Of those footprints Pennsylvania, the Jersey/New York regions and the Maryland/Virginia regions could be considered some of the most major ones in the northeast.

Of the top 20 prospects in Maryland, Penn State has verbals from 6, Pittsburgh and Rutgers, none. That’s nil, nada, zippo for the supposed new recruiting powerhouses. Heck, even the Terrapins, the hometown school has verbals from 4 out of the top 20 prospects in their own state.

So as signing day approaches, let’s all appreciate Penn State’s recruiting success over the years and remember that this is all still being done without our head coach making in-house visits. So when you read the next “Joe is bad for recruiting” alarmist piece, simply laugh it off like a bad joke, and know the numbers tell us a different tale.

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