STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When he stood in front of the players he helped recruit to Penn State and told them he was leaving in 2019, Kenny Sanders grew emotional.
Parents and families who bought into the vision of Penn State football, one that Sanders as a recruiting department staffer helped sell them on, would have to watch from afar as Sanders tried to create something similar in his new role as Oregon’s director of recruiting.
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“It was a promotion and a title bump,” Sanders said. After five years as Penn State’s assistant director of player personnel, Sanders joined Mario Cristobal’s staff in February 2019. “I never envisioned leaving Penn State. … It was just one of those opportunities that I wasn’t out there looking for, but it just presented itself and it made sense.”
Those who closely monitor the inner workings of Penn State recruiting knew what kind of blow it was for the Nittany Lions. Sanders worked in the Baltimore Ravens’ pro and college scouting department from 2009-2014. When he arrived at Penn State in 2014, the Nittany Lions’ recruiting department was just a four-person operation. During his five seasons, Penn State’s staff signed five consecutive recruiting classes ranked in the top 20 of the 247Sports Composite, including the 2018 class headlined by Micah Parsons that finished No. 6 nationally.
Sanders is as plugged in as one can be in the talent-rich Maryland region, especially at the powerhouse McDonogh School in Owings Mills, where Sanders graduated in 2000. That program has been one of Penn State’s best resources, and it’s home to the Nittany Lions’ top 2022 verbal commit, defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton.
That kind of recruiting success and that background is why the Ducks pursued Sanders. It’s also why James Franklin was racking his brain trying to figure out how to get Sanders back on staff after Sanders departed Oregon in March 2020, days before the pandemic closed campuses and created hiring freezes across the country.
The man who was instrumental to Penn State’s recruiting success wanted to be back on the East Coast and was suddenly available for hire. But who was in a position to make one in the spring of 2020?
“Being someone that ran their own department, signed a top-10 class in the country (at Oregon) and had a lot of success, it was a great experience, but the one thing I can tell you is it’s not Penn State,” Sanders said. “Penn State was my first job (in college football) and I guess I was a little naive thinking that every place was going to be like here. I found out pretty quickly that this place is special. It’s different.
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“I just thought I would be better served, you know, coming back east and getting back to where I belong.”
Franklin floated the idea of getting Sanders back in the building in an analyst role if they could make it work. Sanders’ passion is on the personnel side, where he enjoys finding and identifying talent. That’s the scouting background at work. He’d be content watching film all day. The recruiting part of the job — mingling with prospects and families and even acting as DJ during the recruiting visit weekend photoshoots — meshes with his personality.
“He just knows us,” said Terry Smith, Penn State’s cornerbacks coach and defensive recruiting coordinator. “He’s a great communicator. He has great people skills. He has great connections. He networks all over the country.
“We were excited we had the opportunity to get him back here.”
Sanders spent nearly a year off riding out the pandemic, trying to figure out what was next. He embraced the downtime and used it to reconnect with his base and his family. He said he went on a few job interviews, all while the interest with Penn State was mutual.
Still, there needed to be an opening on staff or a way to make the hire happen.
“You don’t want to come in ruffling feathers even though, you know, I feel pretty confident in my abilities,” Sanders said. “Those guys are there and they earned the right to do the work and to make sure I fit what they have going on, not the other way around. Even though I’m not really a new guy, I’m still the new guy coming in and trying to fit into something that they got going on.”
Penn State was able to add Sanders back to its recruiting department in February 2021 in a new role as the national recruiting coordinator for personnel and recruitment. Around the same time, Penn State hired letterman Alan Zemaitis as an assistant recruiting coordinator and brought in Hunter Carson as an assistant recruiting coordinator for personnel and recruitment. It rounded out a department that now has eight employees.
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“Not everyone can afford to have a recruiting staff that size,” Sanders said. “We’re one of the lucky universities in the Power 5 that can afford to do it.”
The operational side of things, from helping to plan visits to the logistics of scheduling, is no longer a big part of Sanders’ role like it was before. Now, there are people who focus on the personnel side and others on the operational side of recruiting. There’s also the recruiting graphic designer and the recruiting coordinator whose focus is on marketing and creative content. Dann Kabala mans the transfer portal and serves as the director of high school relations, while Destiny Rodriguez helps arrange and iron out all the key details of a visit.
The evolution of that department since 2014 speaks to just how much emphasis and adaptation needs to take place in the never-ending recruiting arms race. With a 2022 class that’s currently ranked No. 1 in the country, Penn State’s rebound on the recruiting trail after a down 2021 cycle is in part a reflection of some of these changes.
“It just was a win-win,” Franklin said of adding Sanders. “We were able to get a guy back that I got a ton of respect for that I think is extremely valuable and does a great job for us and makes sense in this region. But also, I think Kenny’s come back and really appreciates how we operate, how we go about our business. I think it’s been a win for both. I hope Kenny feels the same way. I think he does. And we’re happy to have him and hope he stays for a long time.”
With the White Out game against No. 22 Auburn coming up on Saturday, Sanders and the rest of Penn State’s recruiting department are working around the clock to prepare to host recruits, commits and their guests, a number expected to be around 300 people.
It’s one of the most important recruiting weekends of the year for Penn State. As prospects file in and out, Sanders is happy to be part of it. He’s just as thrilled to then go watch their film and see the next wave of players who will play in White Outs for years to come.
“I missed my guys,” Sanders said. “I recruited all those guys leading up to there, and I’m thankful I get to come back and see some of these guys the seniors, juniors and sophomores. That’s family.
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“I’m real thankful for Coach Franklin for bringing me back and getting back to where I need to be, back home.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Penn State Athletics)
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