One former high school phenom winced as he walked off the field as a current prep star watched him from the stands. Freshman linebacker Dan Connor headed to the bench with a stinger and passed near the seat of Derrick Williams, the current No. 1-prep prospect in the nation in the opinion of several recruiting sites.

Williams, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Md., was at Penn State's season-ending 37-13 win over Michigan State on Nov. 20, three weeks after taking his official visit the week of the Ohio State game.

But Williams and Connor have met before. As the recruiting race has heated up for Penn State, several top athletes like Williams and recent Penn State commit Justin King have come to Happy Valley for their official visits.

And Connor, who was just going through this process last year, has been dubbed a pretty good fit to talk to these high-profile recruits and help answer a lot of their questions about college football and playing for the Nittany Lions. Connor said most of the questions typically revolved around the coaching staff.

"They were just wondering how honest everyone is and if they're not blowing smoke," Connor said. "Everyone's worried about that when you come to a college. Basically we told them everyone's an honest guy, a great guy. All the coaches and players are positive we're ready to turn things around. We just need key players, like a couple incoming guys right now to turn things around and I think it's going to happen."

By this stage of the season, King had already given his verbal commitment to the Lions, though Williams' decision is still up in the air. Williams has also taken an official visit to Florida and Tennessee, with a trip scheduled to Oklahoma next weekend. He is scheduled to announce his decision shortly before Christmas on ESPNews.

Connor, a blue-chip recruit last season, was a natural choice to talk to high-profile high schoolers interested in Penn State. At a college not known for playing true freshmen much, especially in prominent roles, Connor won the starting middle linebacker job from Tim Shaw partway through the season and excelled.

As he did before he even enrolled at Penn State, Connor became one of the Lions' best pitchmen.

"We just sat down and kind of gave them the truth, told them about it, how it's a great place, the best coaching staff in the country," Connor said. "And that's convincing guys. They know something's blowing up at Penn State that's gonna hopefully explode this next season."

And Connor's perception of King's and Williams' mindset during their visits?

"They seemed to love it. They like the guys. It seemed really positive."

Connor's hunch was right on King, but it's too early by anyone's standards to predict Williams' decision, though his appearance at the Michigan State game would have to be viewed as positive for Joe Paterno and the Lions.

Like Connor did this past year, both King and Williams have expressed their desire to graduate from high school a semester early to enroll in school for the spring semester. Connor's early entrance to Penn State was likely a large factor in him having the most prominent role of any of this year's freshman class.

"It helped a lot," Connor said of coming to school in January. "Spring ball itself, just getting a feel for the game speed and size and how to play, it's different from high school. It's a different speed, it's a different everything. Just getting a feel for everything really helped out.

"[King and Williams] were asking about it. I said it's an easy adjustment, it's not bad, everyone helps you, the coaches are always there for you. So it's cake. It's just tough workouts, you gotta be ready."

Paterno has been optimistic about this upcoming recruiting class, often alluding in press conferences and on his radio show that there may be some recruits who have given verbal commitments, but have not announced them yet.

The Lions have been coming on in the recruiting realm as of late, as their total is up to nine commitments, several of which have come in the past month. And Paterno chalks some of that up to players like Connor who have talked to prospects.

"We are going to have a great recruiting year," Paterno said. "That is because the squad here, when the kids have come up to visit, have been guys that felt proud to be part of the Penn State program and proud of the way we want to do things around here. They have been the guys that have made the difference with parents and with the individual recruits."