James Franklin is known around the SEC as the man that made Vanderbilt a winner for a few seasons, leading the Commodores to back-to-back nine win seasons in 2012 and 2013.
But now that he’s at Penn State, he’s just another Big Ten coach that could be poaching potential SEC recruits.
So when we noticed that he was making waves up north for some questionable recruiting tactics, it became a Saturday Down South problem.
The controversy stems from the treatment of four-star recruit Lavert Hill at Saturday’s hockey game between the Nittany Lions and Wisconsin.
Hill was on campus for a recruiting visit, and Penn State ran him onto the ice during a break in the action to receive a standing ovation from the crowd:
Penn State just trotted out Lavert Hill and had everyone cheer for him during the intermission. pic.twitter.com/K0nEWtfjXe
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) January 16, 2016
Penn State then flashed an image of Hill onto the stadium screen that implied that gave the impression of what he may look like as a Nittany Lions player:
Hill even got the "oh look it's you playing for Penn State" treatment. pic.twitter.com/w96p2v5QHq
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) January 16, 2016
Are these moves against the rules?
Ben Jones, who is the sports editor at statecollege.com, was all over this story while covering the game.
He appears to have identified the rule that would have been in question:
Believe this would be the rule in question tonight pic.twitter.com/dLlFJSoBbA
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) January 17, 2016
While there has not been comment from Franklin, Nittany Lions offensive recruiting coordinator and WR coach Josh Gattis did make a response to allegations on Twitter:
@Birm Negative!!! ????? know your rules leave it to the Coaches!! #WeAre
— Josh Gattis (@Coach_Gattis) January 17, 2016
ESPN recruiting analyst Tom VanHaaren weighed in with the information that he had on the stunt:
I was told the Lavert Hill thing was vetted by PSU before it happened.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 17, 2016
Guys, I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just what I was told.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 17, 2016
It will be interesting to see if anything comes out of this particular case.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
