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Jensen: Temple and Penn State pushed the recruiting bar up

During the time Ed Foley was Temple's interim football coach, after Matt Rhule had left for Baylor, Foley made the point that, despite all the fine seniors graduating, the future was bright, that an era had not ended. He was talking about the physical dimensions of the Owls who were ready to move up on the depth chart.

During the time Ed Foley was Temple's interim football coach, after Matt Rhule had left for Baylor, Foley made the point that, despite all the fine seniors graduating, the future was bright, that an era had not ended. He was talking about the physical dimensions of the Owls who were ready to move up on the depth chart.

The Rhule era should be remembered as one during which recruits with limited options and uncertain dimensions developed into winning college players. More than a couple turned into NFL players.  Great Senior Bowl weeks for Owls stars surprised nobody around here.

As that all unfolded, players with greater dimensions began showing up. Foley raised his flat hand some inches to indicate the new guys were just bigger. Will they be better? Foley said that's the unknown. They'll have to show all the grit of the last couple of departed classes to prove that. But if they do, his point was, Temple shouldn't fall at all.

What does that have to do with national signing day? The bar has risen on North Broad Street. A new coach, Geoff Collins, arrived from Florida with credentials. Old barriers have fallen away.

So where is the bar now? That's not just a question for Temple fans. They're asking it around the state, now that Penn State is Big Ten champion. How do we measure success now? How do these schools overachieve when the bar is suddenly higher?

The bar at Temple is now contending in the American Athletic Conference. After Collins opens his era at Notre Dame just as Rhule did, the league schedule seems more demanding than the last couple of years, with Houston and Navy now part of it. Smart folks will factor that in, realize that a good season doesn't automatically mean a trip to the AAC title game, although that's the goal.

But losing seasons? Nope, no reason for dropoffs. If Collins is the real thing as a head coach, as he was as a defensive coordinator at both Mississippi State and Florida, the Owls will always contend in the AAC.

The same can be said realistically at Penn State. You can go into a season dreaming of contending for a national title and still need the ball to bounce the right way just to get out of the division in the Big Ten. Didn't happen for Ohio State or Michigan last season.

James Franklin showed up from Vanderbilt with a great reputation as a recruiter, and nothing has really lessened that rep. Now Franklin has the full assortment of scholarships and some legit success he can sell. The bar is high in Happy Valley because it's supposed to be high.

What Franklin had to do - win some games against Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State - he has now done, adding Wisconsin to that mix in the Big Ten title game. The Nittany Lions finished a couple of better Rose Bowl bounces from being third-ranked in the country, which is still crazy. Ending up seventh in both major polls remains an achievement for the books.

What are we seeing on the recruiting front? Rankings are fluid as players make decisions, but Rivals has Penn State 10th, playing with the big boys. That means the kind of talent that should be considering Penn State is considering Penn State. It also tells you nothing will come easy, since Ohio State is second Michigan fourth. (For more comparisons, Notre Dame is 15th and Michigan State 29th. Maybe the most interesting ranking: Rutgers is 43rd, ahead of six other Big Ten schools, so that bears watching.)

Temple is 99th, a typical sort of Temple position, maybe low end. Some of these rankings have built-in flaws. If a guy gets a lot of Big Ten or Southeastern Conference offers, it pulls his personal ranking up, even if he's the same player whether he gets those offers or not. Still, the Owls are 10th in the AAC in those rankings, which suggests maybe the coaching change had real impact.

(Penn State is 15th and Temple 97th in the 247sports.com rankings. Such analysis tends to be pretty similar across platforms.)

This all bears watching closely at Temple since Rhule's first recruiting class after taking over for Steve Addazio proved to be a monster by the end, the top group of seniors in the AAC. Did it have an impressive ranking on signing day, the kind that would suggest the Owls would be in and out of the top 25 in '15 and '16? It did not. The 247sports.com 2012 rankings had Temple 74th. (And Penn State 45th).

If Collins, who also arrived with a big recruiting reputation, proves to be a good head coach, he'll need to pull off his version of what Rhule did before him and Franklin just did at Penn State. He needs to win his share against Houston, Navy, and the like, to keep the talent flowing in.

No matter the sport, this doesn't change: Over the long run, the best recruiters usually are the ones who have proven to be the best coaches.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus