National Signing Day has come and gone and the Wisconsin Badgers have put together a fairly decent class compared to the rest of the Big Ten. In the spirit of looking at recruiting classes compared to the rest of the conference, Badgers Wire is taking a look at Wisconsin’s class on a national level and a conference level. We’ll be including their national rankings and their conference rankings. Next up on our list is a conference powerhouse and college football blue-blood led by head coach James Franklin, the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Penn State has returned to national prominence under James Franklin. Not only have the Nittany Lions returned to their winning ways on the field, but they’ve also returned the program to a position of prominence in recruiting. Penn State has found tremendous success under Franklin, who has yet to have a losing season in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions have won 11 games per year in three of the last four years, with 2018 being a 9-4 season with a 6-3 record in conference play. Penn State is also coming off a high-scoring Cotton Bowl victory over a very talented Memphis program that had just lost its head coach, Mike Norvell, to Florida State.
The Nittany Lions have the nation’s 15th-ranked recruiting class in 2020. They finished with the Big Ten’s No. 3 recruiting class with a player average rating of .8955. Their best player is outside linebacker Curtis Jacobs. At 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, Jacobs (.9825) is the No. 35 player in the nation and the 3rd-best outside linebacker in the class of 2020. The Badgers (.8782) have a lower per-recruit average than the Nittany Lions (.8955). The Badgers’ best player in 247’s composite rankings is offensive tackle Trey Wedig (.9643). The 6-foot-8, 320-pound behemoth is ranked (.0182) lower than Jacobs for the Nittany Lions.
The position where both classes compare: inside linebacker. The Badgers signed Jordan Turner (.8680), a 6-foot-1, 222-pound player out of Farmington High in Farmington, Michigan. He’s the No. 31 player at his position in the country and the 21st-best player coming out of Michigan. The Nittany Lions signed Tyler Elsdon. At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, Elsdon (.8748) is the nation’s 27th-best inside linebacker, and he’s the 5th-best player in Pennsylvania. In both cases, each program dug deep into its surrounding areas and pulled out a stud who should be a major contributor in due time.