The finishing touches have been placed on Bill O'Brien's inaugural recruiting class as the head coach at Penn State, and Nittany Lions fans have something to look forward to.
Despite the recent turmoil surrounding the program, O'Brien and his newly assembled staff hauled in 19 recruits, led by WR Eugene Lewis and DT Jamil Pollard, both Rivals four star recruits.
In a near even split, 10 offensive players and nine defensive players signed their letters of intent to play for Penn State. As O'Brien plans to continue to do, Penn State targeted players within close proximity of State College, and 16 of the 19 recruits attended high school less than 350 miles away from where they will matriculate this fall.
O'Brien, who remains on the staff of the New England Patriots as they prepare for Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, credited his assistant coaches for their diligence in the recruiting process, and lauded the work of defensive line coach Larry Johnson. He said Wednesday, "I've got to give a lot of credit to the assistant coaches, especially (defensive line coach) Larry Johnson, who I asked to oversee the (recruiting) transition period here. As evidenced by today, he did a great job of keeping it rolling. The other guys came in there and hit the ground running."
Penn State's 19 recruits come from nine different states as well as one player, RB Akeel Lynch, from Canada.
The class breakdown by position is as follows: one quarterback, one running back, two tight ends, four wide receivers, two offensive linemen, five defensive linemen, one linebacker, and three defensive backs.
Rivals weighed in on Penn State's class, and ranked it 50th overall, and eighth amongst Big Ten schools.
For more on the Penn State Nittany Lions, be sure to head over to the SB Nation blog Black Shoe Diaries. Stay tuned to this StoryStream for more recruiting updates up to Signing Day.