Imagine that you are a Woodland Hills High School football player who has no chance of making it to a Div. I college program.

Two of your teammates are being heavily recruited by Penn State and they decide to use the tickets they are allotted to bring you and some of your other teammates to Beaver Stadium for a game.

The legendary Joe Paterno comes toward your group and you are sure that he will only talk to the two athletes that he has designs on recruiting for his team. But Paterno does not ignore you and your fellow players; he instead asks all of you how your season has been and how the school year is treating you. In fact, he treats you all like a recruit.

"When Joe Paterno did that, he really touched a lot of mothers' hearts," said Colleen Borgoyn.

In the cutthroat and flashy world of football recruiting, it is sometimes the little things that make the difference. Colleen's son, Brian Borgoyn, was one of the two potential recruits that brought his friends to the game.

The gesture by Paterno obviously made a lasting impact. Borgoyn is now part of what ESPN.com considers the No. 12 recruiting class in the country. He and Mark Farris of North Hills make up an impressive Pittsburgh tandem that the Nittany Lions will be counting on to be a rock solid foundation for their offensive line in the future.

In a way, Borgoyn's path to Penn State was an unlikely one. Recruited by a number of teams, including Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, Borgoyn comes from a team with a long line of Panther blood.

"In 25 years he is the first player I have had that is going to Penn State," Woodland Hills coach George Novak said. "Eight of my players have gone to Pitt."

Yet there was something about Happy Valley that caught Borgoyn's attention. Penn State is about three hours away from Pittsburgh, just enough of a distance to for Borgoyn to be away from home, but also to be relatively close to his family.

Borgoyn's enthusiasm for the outdoors also helps. His coach and mother both describe him as an avid hunter and fisherman, and his mother said he likes to ski as well.

Farris comes to the center of Pennsylvania from a different background. Unlike Borgoyn, he has many ties to University Park. North Hills coach Jack McCurry said that in his tenure he has sent about eight players to Penn State. Among those players are All-American alumnus LaVar Arrington and current Lions freshman tight end Andrew Richardson.

Richardson was Farris' host when he came to Penn State on his official visit. McCurry said that a potential recruit can get a good feel for a program by talking to its players. Even though the blue and white and North Hills go hand in hand, the decision to come to Penn State was never a sure thing.

"We made an effort to look at as many schools as we could in a limited amount of time," Mark's father, Tom, said. "It helped Mark make a good decision on where to go to school."

At first Farris narrowed his list of schools down to Michigan State, Miami, Michigan, Pittsburgh and Penn State. The decision eventually came down to the two in-state schools. In the end, Penn State was the school that made the grade.

"Penn State in Mark's mind was an opportunity to play at a Big Ten school where perhaps the competition is a little keener," Tom said. "It is a school with a great tradition and academic excellence."

That academic excellence is something that impressed both Steel City products. With athletes being catered to and drooled over by programs, it could be easy to push the learning aspect of college aside.

However, both the Borgoyn family and the Farris family considered it to be one of the most important facets of a potential school.

The two players had high grade-point averages in high school, so they have the talent to achieve success in the classroom. Both Borgoyn and Farris are still considering majors, and Penn State gives them a plethora of choices, something Colleen said that other schools, such as Northwestern, could not offer.

The players and parents also seem to be comfortable with the people that the newcomers will associate with next year. Tom Farris said he had the chance to meet Borgoyn and his parents and he was impressed with what he saw.

"He (Borgoyn) is a good kid," Tom said. "We had an opportunity to meet his parents, they are really great people. We are looking forward to getting reacquainted with some of the parents."

Tom's statement and Colleen's experience with Paterno seem to show that to them the people involved in the recruiting process were more important than the promises they received from the schools.

Recruiting can be tough. Tom said that Mark's experience was flattering, exciting and intense. It was something the family had never experienced before and something they had to learn together.

Colleen said schools were so dogged in their pursuit of Brian that she could not even iron a sleeve on a shirt without getting three phone calls.

After the exhausting process of looking at schools and talking to recruiters, both Borgoyn and Farris knew on national signing day that they were making the right choice by signing with Penn State. Their parents were also comfortable with the decision and the company they would be keeping.

"Penn State assembled a very nice group of young men," Tom said.