Where Does Penn State Get All Their Crazy Athletes?
Penn State's elite athletes overwhelmingly come from the Acela corridor
As has become commonplace over the past half-decade or so, Penn State will have multiple elite athletes selected at the top of the NFL draft. Edge Abdul Carter and tight end Tyler Warren will join the 12 other Nittany Lions who have been selected in the 50 first picks of the draft since 2018. The discrepancy between Penn State’s high-level NFL player production and lack of national success has led many to ask: Where does Penn State find these guys? The literal answer to the rhetorical question is really simple: New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
The vast majority of Penn State’s draft picks recruited by James Franklin have come from the Acela corridor - the larger region between Boston and Washington DC. Over 70% of Penn State’s draft picks since 2018, not including Carter and Warren, have come from one of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Virginia. While they have had multiple players outside of the northeast get drafted, the overwhelming core of their most talented players come from the Acela corridor. It becomes even more evident when we look at Penn State’s top 100 picks.
A supermajority of Penn State’s best prospects have come from the Acela corridor with 80% of their top 100 picks coming from one of the aforementioned states. Even excluding Pittsburgh native Jaquan Brisker, 15 of the Nittany Lions’ top 100 picks come from metros within the range from Boston to Washington DC. Penn State’s roster under James Franklin has undeniably been built through the biggest cities on the east coast - which is not an obvious decision from the outside.
There are historical ties between the program and Rust Belt cities across the midwest and western PA such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit. Alternatively, Franklin also could have overindexed on his SEC experience and attempted to eschew PSU’s natural footprint for a southern focus in Atlanta and Miami. Credit where credit is due, Franklin has successfully extracted as much talent as possible out of PSU’s natural footprint even if the national results have not followed.
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