Lions dig up some extra scholarships
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STATE COLLEGE — Confused about Penn State’s scholarship situation? Join the club.
Even the Nittany Lions weren’t 100 percent sure how many players they would be able to sign in 2015 until this week thanks to the legal wrangling that recently removed the consent decree that imposed sanctions on the program.
As it turns out, Penn State has two scholarships — “We think two,” Lions coach James Franklin said Wednesday — remaining for the 2015 class.
“I want to make sure that this is covered as well,” Franklin said. “We still have scholarships available. So, whether that’s for transfers, whether that’s for guys today that did not sign, we still have some scholarships available.”
The Lions appeared to fill up this year’s class on Tuesday afternoon when Altoona’s Kevin Givens became the team’s 25th commitment. But later that evening, former Scranton Prep standout Kevin Reihner announced that he, too, would be coming aboard, transferring from Stanford as a graduate student.
Because transfers also count toward the 25-per-year scholarship limit — it’s not restricted to just high school recruits — Reihner would give the Lions 26 players in the class.
So where did the extra space come from? Take a deep breath first. And maybe some aspirin.
As it turned out, dissolving the consent decree freed up some room by restoring scholarships retroactively.
“It’s somewhat complicated, to be honest with you,” Franklin said. “But since the consent decree went down, we were able to basically push some guys back. We have been kind of working and asking a lot of questions and getting clarification.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of time to get it done, but we were able to find out there at the end that we did have a little bit of wiggle room. ... We would have loved to have found out earlier. That would have been pretty valuable. ... But that did allow us to be aggressive in the last two days with some guys.”
The end result is that the Lions were able to count three early enrollees — QB Tommy Stevens, OL Sterling Jenkins and Lackawanna College transfer OL Paris Palmer — against the 2014 class. That leaves 22 out of 25 spots filled for 2015. Reihner would be No. 23.
With the two remaining spots, the Lions could choose to fill them in the coming weeks or months with more transfers, or they could bank them and use them on two early enrollees in the 2016 class.
Waiting for his day
Though Reihner would count against the 2015 class, his name and face didn’t appear on Penn State’s recruiting board in the morning. And he wasn’t mentioned at the signing day pep rally in the evening.
There’s nothing to read into that absence, though. NCAA rules prohibit the Lions from talking about him in that context because he is still enrolled at Stanford.
Reihner is scheduled to graduate from Palo Alto this spring and arrive in Happy Valley for the summer.
Dallas senior in line
Likewise, Franklin couldn’t discuss specific players who have been invited to walk on to the program, such as Dallas senior lineman Ryan Monk.
Monk is a two-time All-WVC selection and four-year starter for the Mountaineers who recorded 58 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks while blocking three field goals. He also started four years on the offensive line.
“You look at Penn State, there’s a tremendous history of the walk-on program,” Franklin said. “You look across the country, those guys have significant impacts. There’s a bunch of those guys playing in the NFL. So we’ve targeted a bunch of guys throughout the state, and really throughout the country, at specific positions that we think could come in and help.”
RB moving on
In a day of additions for Penn State, there was also one subtraction.
Walk-on running back Cole Chiappialle announced Wednesday that he would be transferring to Division II Shippensburg to play.
An undersized but feisty back, Chiappialle had 22 carries for 68 yards in 2014 and drew high praise from Franklin for his work ethic.
But with Penn State adding two blue-chip prospects to a backfield that already includes Akeel Lynch and a trio of redshirt freshmen, his opportunities to play for the Lions would be limited.
“Thank you Penn State for a experience I will never forget,” Chiappialle wrote on his Twitter account. “Truly blessed for my opportunity.
“Good luck to all my PSU teammates, especially my old roommates (QB Christian Hackenberg and DE Garrett Sickels). Will miss you all and wish you guys the best.”
Blue-White kick set
Franklin announced at the end of the evening that this year’s Blue-White Game will be held April 18.
Kickoff, however, will be pushed back later than usual, as the scrimmage is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
