O’Brien announces Penn State football signees

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State football head coach Bill O’Brien announced his first recruiting class on Wednesday (Feb. 1). The Nittany Lions welcomed 19 student-athletes who signed National Letters of Intent to join the football program.

Penn State’s 2012 recruiting class features 10 offensive signees and nine defensive signees from nine different states and one from Canada. Breaking down the class by position, the signees include five athletes on the defensive line, four wide receivers, three defensive backs, two on the offensive line, two tight ends, one linebacker, one quarterback and one running back.

"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," said O’Brien from Indianapolis, where he is preparing to lead the New England Patriots’ offense in Super Bowl XLVI. "As evidenced by today, he did a great job of keeping it rolling. The other guys came in there and hit the ground running."

"One of the things we talked about right off the bat as far as a Penn State football player is concerned, is a smart, tough, instinctive player, with mental toughness and physical toughness, is going to come in there and do the right thing on and off the field," stated O’Brien. "He’s going to go to class. He’s going to work hard in the classroom. He’s going to come into that building and work very hard to be the best football player he can be. He’s going to be a guy that accepts whatever role we ask him to accept and put the team first. To me we’ve identified these guys in this class as those types of guys and, again, we’re excited about the class."

Sixteen of the Nittany Lions’ 19 signees live 350 miles or fewer from State College.

"I’ve said this before, we’ve got to do a great job in that 300-400-mile radius of Pennsylvania — Ohio, New Jersey, New England…. Really the majority of our roster should come from there. Then what we want to do is use or connections where we’ve coached, maybe Georgia, Florida, Alabama, to try to get some guys that we think fit at Penn State and are willing to make the travel; the parents are willing to travel."

Below is a complete list of the 2012 Penn State signees .

2012 Penn State Football Signees
Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Cl./El.	High School/Hometown
Steven Bench	QB	6-2	200	Fr./Fr.	Cairo/Bainbridge, Ga.
Da’Quan Davis	DB	5-11	165	Fr./Fr.	Calvert Hall College HS/Rosedale, Md.
Derek Dowrey	DL	6-3	280	Fr./Fr.	John Handley/Winchester, Va.
Brian Gaia	DL	6-4	285	Fr./Fr.	Gilman School/Pasadena, Md.
Malik Golden	WR	6-2	185	Fr./Fr.	Cheshire Academy/Hartford, Conn.
Jesse James	TE	6-7	265	Fr./Fr.	South Allegheny/Glassport, Pa.
Austin Johnson	DL	6-5	285	Fr./Fr.	St. Augustine Prep/Galloway, N.J.
Jake Kiley	DB	6-1	170	Fr./Fr.	New Hampton School/Plymouth, N.H.
Wendy Laurent	OL	6-3	285	Fr./Fr.	The Hun School/Hamilton, N.J.
Eugene Lewis	WR	6-2	185	Fr./Fr.	Wyoming Valley West/Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Jordan Lucas	DB	6-1	185	Fr./Fr.	Worcester Academy/New Rochelle, N.Y.
Akeel Lynch	RB	6-0	195	Fr./Fr.	St. Francis (N.Y.)/Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jamil Pollard	DL	6-4	275	Fr./Fr.	West Deptford/West Deptford, N.J.
Evan Schwan	DL	6-6	245	Fr./Fr.	Central Dauphin/Harrisburg, Pa.
Anthony Stanko	OL	6-5	295	Fr./Fr.	Howland/Howland, Ohio
Jonathan Warner	WR	6-1	195	Fr./Fr.	Camas/Camas,Wash.
Nyeem Wartman	LB	6-3	240	Fr./Fr.	Valley View/Jessup, Pa.
Brent Wilkerson	TE	6-5	250	Fr./Fr.	DeMatha Catholic/Clinton, Md.
Trevor Williams	WR	6-1	180	Fr./Fr.	Calvert Hall College HS/Nottingham, Md.