web1_movie.photo_.by_.aimee_.jpg

Post-Christmas parking gift awaits Wilkes-Barre moviegoers

web1_TTL092218Mercado_2-1-.jpg

Prosecutors won’t seek death penalty in Wilkes-Barre man’s homicide

The final count was 23 states visited in the three weeks after the regular season ended &#8212; enough for James Franklin to pick up a case of pneumonia.Penn State&#8217;s coach still has the remnants of a cough thanks to the big surge before the early signing period. And he also has the makings of another top-10 recruiting class.All of that travel was necessary this year as Pennsylvania&#8217;s crop for the 2019 cycle was down from past years. So Franklin and his staff had to work harder and log more miles to land signatures from 18 players on Wednesday.&#8220;I&#8217;m proud of the fact that since we&#8217;ve arrived, we&#8217;ve been able to continue to broaden our reach,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;You think about (landing players from) Oregon, you think about Florida, it looks good today on paper. And I think it will end up looking good on the field, as well. I don&#8217;t know if I necessarily felt that way when we were flying all over the country multiple states per day.&#8221;The group that is officially in the fold came in with a four-star average &#8212; one five-star, 16 four-stars and one three-star &#8212; enough to put the Nittany Lions at No. 10 in the country, for now, in the 247Sports Composite team rankings. It&#8217;s the highest average for the program since recruiting services began rating prospects at the turn of the century.The Lions don&#8217;t expect to add any more recruits during this early window but have a handful of targets who will sign in the traditional time period, which will begin Feb. 6.All nine schools currently ahead of Penn State signed between 21 and 27 players on Wednesday. It was the class quality that pushed the Lions up so high as their average recruit rating in the Composite ranks fourth in the country behind only Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State.&#8220;Very pleased with how the day went and then obviously we still have another signing day left,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll have a little bit of wiggle room left, a couple guys that we&#8217;ve identified that we feel good about that just needed a little bit more time in their process for a variety of reasons.&#8221;Last-minute decisionsPenn State got public pledges from two of their five highest-rated prospects in the class this week. New York defensive end Adisa Isaac announced on Monday and Florida running back Noah Cain picked the Lions live on ESPN on Wednesday.&#8220;I&#8217;m going to Penn State and take over where Saquon (Barkley) left off,&#8221; Cain said in his commitment video.Cain (No. 7) teams up with fellow signee, Virginia&#8217;s Devyn Ford (No. 5), to give Penn State a pair of top-10 rated running backs &#8212; a haul that will be very important should Miles Sanders leave for the NFL after the Citrus Bowl.As is typically the case, Franklin said Cain had actually committed &#8220;a few weeks ago,&#8221; but as always in recruiting, nothing&#8217;s official until the letter of intent arrives at the school. And Cain&#8217;s was the last of the 18 to come in as he and his family were mulling things over late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.&#8220;Felt pretty confident about that until last night I get a call at 12:05, and it&#8217;s Noah, mom and dad,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;And they want to have a discussion, and the discussion is coming off like they have not made their decision yet.&#8220;So there I am in my boxers having a heated discussion and selling on why this makes sense. Same thing with (running backs coach Ja&#8217;Juan Seider) and then again this morning. And I think that happens. This is a big decision guys are making, and I think when you wait till the end, you start getting pulled in a thousand different directions, so we get that.&#8220;He stuck with what he was saying. He had some questions there at the end. But we were pretty confident.&#8221;The Lions didn&#8217;t land everyone on their wish list, though. Most notable was Ohio defensive end Zach Harrison, the No. 4 overall recruit in the country in the Composite rankings, who ended up signing with hometown Ohio State on Wednesday over Penn State and Michigan.Connecticut wide receiver Cornelius Johnson took a visit to Penn State earlier this month but ended up picking Michigan on Wednesday.Lackawanna pipelineThe Lions signed just two high school seniors from Pennsylvania &#8212; cornerbacks Keaton Ellis (State College) and Joey Porter Jr. (North Allegheny).But Penn State leaned on its strong relationship with Lackawanna College and Hall of Fame coach Mark Duda to sign two players off the Falcons&#8217; impressive 11-0 squad from this fall.Offensive lineman Anthony Whigan and safety Jaquan Brisker will both arrive at Penn State with junior eligibility, having three years to play two seasons.&#8220;I think Lackawanna is a huge opportunity for us in this state,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Coach Duda has done a tremendous job. Obviously being able to get two players from our state to stay home that are a little bit more mature. They won the National Championship this year, went 11-0 for the first time in school history.&#8220;I think Brisker was named first team All-American. What&#8217;s great is Whigan is graduating early. He&#8217;s graduating early and going to be here on campus, which is great because he&#8217;s a skinny 300 pounds and played well this year. I think that&#8217;s important.&#8221;It&#8217;s also part of an unprecedented group early enrollees for the Lions. According to the 247Sports database, Whigan is one of a whopping 11 signees who will begin classes in January and go through Penn State&#8217;s winter program and spring practice.Early QB competitionTwo of those 11 early enrollees are both quarterbacks &#8212; Oregon&#8217;s Michael Johnson Jr. and New Jersey&#8217;s Ta&#8217;Quan Roberson. They are rated No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, in the Composite rankings of dual-threat quarterbacks. Scouting reports give Roberson the edge as a passer and Johnson the nod as an all-around athlete.History says that it&#8217;s very unlikely that both finish their college careers at Penn State. But there&#8217;s plenty of time for things to settle out with Tommy Stevens, Sean Clifford and Will Levis ahead of them on the depth chart for 2019.&#8220;We&#8217;re just up front and honest and transparent from the beginning with their families and with them (about taking two quarterbacks in the class),&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Ta&#8217;Quan, it never really seemed to phase him at any point. And really Michael jumped on after (Roberson committed), so he already knew.&#8220;I feel really good about how the whole thing has played out, and those two guys have been great. This isn&#8217;t like the old days where there was no scholarship limits and you would show up and there was six quarterbacks in the recruiting class.&#8221;Last but not leastFor the second straight cycle, Penn State&#8217;s highest rated recruit will play linebacker. The top player in Virginia, five-star recruit Brandon Smith, will enroll early along with Michigan&#8217;s Lance Dixon to bolster the linebacker room.They join Micah Parsons, who ended up leading the Lions in tackles during the regular season, to boost a position that has been thin in recent years.&#8220;They are both graduating early. They are both going to be here,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;That room has gotten competitive real quick. I mean, really competitive. It&#8217;s obviously been competitive since we&#8217;ve been here, but I&#8217;m talking about a whole other level. Those guys coming in December is really going to help some things.&#8221;<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1vOkt6wIvVCxfpBH0TC6WxqPZYTSES1HV" height="480" width="100%"></iframe><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_AP_18294673710273-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State and coach James Franklin put together the only top-10 rated class that has fewer than 20 recruits during the early signing period. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_AP_18294673710273-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State and coach James Franklin put together the only top-10 rated class that has fewer than 20 recruits during the early signing period. </caption0><photoCredit0>Doug McSchooler | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com </bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>INSIDEGet to know all 18 of the newest Nittany Lions, Page 5B</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State expands recruiting reach to sign top-10 class in early window