STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Minkah Fitzpatrick camped at Penn State in 2013 when Bill O’Brien was trying to keep the program afloat while navigating unprecedented NCAA sanctions and the promising prospect was looking to add a Penn State scholarship to his list.
The former New Jersey standout, just a rising high school junior at the time and on his first camp stop of the summer, accomplished his goal after the camp’s first session, smiling as the coaching staff pulled him aside during drills. He went on to attend camp at Alabama later that summer, and he ended up starring for the Crimson Tide before being selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.
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Fitzpatrick didn’t need camp to open recruiters’ eyes, but many players do. They are an important piece of the recruiting process.
In 2016, linebacker Micah Parsons was the showstopper of the night at Penn State, lining up as a wide receiver and torching defensive back prospects. Penn State already knew Parsons was a tremendous talent, but it was fun to see him trash talk kids he’d just met after he beat them. For a program with one of four values being “compete in everything you do,” Parsons undoubtedly checked that box that night.
Camp is the place where Penn State coach James Franklin flies around the practice field on a golf cart, perhaps with a highly touted prospect in tow like he did a few years ago with running back D’Andre Swift, who ended up at Georgia. Franklin regularly stops to help record broad jump measurements and doesn’t hesitate to hop in and help other campers who likely will never end up playing football at the FBS level. As much as camps are about exposure for a certain caliber of player, they are also about teaching and making everyone better.
Franklin always ends the night in Holuba Hall by telling the prospects to thank their parents for bringing them there and to branch out across the field and introduce themselves to the assistant coach who recruits their region. More faces are matched up with names for players and coaches; more work toward building future classes starts during those humid summer days.
But with 2020 spring sports already wiped away because of the spread of the coronavirus and with so many unknowns surrounding the timeline for students to return to college campuses, the next wave of cancellations could greatly impact this summer’s camps and, therefore, recruiting. Camps are typically slated for June and July, ranging from Big Man challenges to 7-v-7s to camps focused specifically on rising juniors.
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Should those be among the next wave of events to get eliminated, it would take away a key piece of the recruiting process.
“That’s in the back of all of our minds, if this affects camps,” said Tyler Bowen, Penn State’s tight ends coach and offensive recruiting coordinator “I think that’s a major effect to the recruiting process and a hurdle that we’d have to overcome. I think we value camps here at Penn State and I know people do around the country. A lot of our players that have been household names here that have gone on the NFL, they all started as a rising junior at a camp at Penn State right here in Happy Valley. They put up a time and we’re able to coach them, we’re able to see how they learn.”
Camps are an instrumental part of the evaluation process, including the measurements — a coaching staff’s own measurements and not unverifiable numbers — that come out of them. It’s an opportunity for the staff to see how coachable prospects are. Like spring giving prospects a chance to see how coaches run practices, camps are the coaching staff’s chance to see what a player looks like among his peers and whether or not he passes the eye test. It helps build a better picture of the player. It’s a chance for verbally committed prospects to work out and take coaching from their future coaches, and it’s where fringe players can help themselves with a strong workout.
The NCAA extending the recruiting dead period through at least May 31 has already taken away the spring in-person evaluation period. In past years, the period after Penn State’s Blue-White Game has always been a sprint for coaches to switch gears, as they’d hit the road recruiting within hours of spring ball ending.
Penn State puts an emphasis on getting prospects to camp before offering them. It’s why German prospect Maximilian Mang’s family financed a costly last-minute trip last summer in which he flew alone and took a train and a Megabus to camp at Penn State in hopes of leaving a lasting impression. Mang signed with Syracuse in December, but he went through such a process because Penn State wanted to see him work out again in person.
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“We’re having these discussions now,” said Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry. “Without the promise of camps and even spring visits, and you know, seeing these guys perform at these combines and getting testing numbers and measurables, having them out, you know, in our own personal camps and working them out. I mean, for me, I just, I keep going back to what I do know about guys.
“If there’s seven or eight linebackers that we’d like to evaluate and we don’t have an opportunity to do that any further, let’s talk about what they bring to the table. What are things we know about each one of these guys. Questions that don’t need answered and then let’s kind of re-rank these guys with that information with that perspective and see how it kind of plays out.”
An elimination of camps would make the rest of the 2021 and 2022 cycles all the more interesting and stressful for coaching staffs. They would have to rely on evaluations from high school coaches who they trust and who they already have relationships with. Some of that is already playing out.
“I had one coach who wanted a height on one of my players, and it’s kind of funny because normally they’d come down and we’d measure him or we’d have him go up to the school and they’d get a measurement, but there’s nothing,” said Good Counsel (Md.) head coach Andy Stefanelli. “So, a guy said you wouldn’t happen to have a picture of him standing next to (Penn State verbal commit Landon Tengwall), would you? We know how tall Landon is. I was like, ‘Actually I do.’ I sent them a picture of this kid standing next to Landon to verify the kid’s height. It worked. The kid got an offer.”
Good Counsel typically has showcase days where 10-15 schools will show up and watch the workout. Some players pick up offers out of that, but it might lead to others getting invited to attend camps.
Now, coaches on both sides are working to figure out how prospects can gain more exposure and just how much weight workout videos and highlights could hold, should workouts and camps be impacted by cancellations this summer.
“All that stuff is out the window,” Stefanelli said. “For the top kids it may not affect them too much, but for all these second-tier kids who haven’t quite hit it yet but are going to, it’s going to be hard for them.”
(Photo: Audrey Snyder / The Athletic)
