Eleven Penn State players remain in the NCAA transfer portal. Five of them - safeties Lamont Wade and Ayron Monroe, and wide receivers Irv Charles, Brandon Polk and Juwan Johnson - have not announced that they’ve found new schools yet.

On Penn State's unsettled scholarship math As of the end of last month’s early signing period for the 2019 recruiting class, Penn State…

Of those five only Johnson is immediately eligible. The highest profile player in that group, will visit Oregon next month.

This apparently means coach James Franklin has 74 scholarship players. He’s allowed 85.

All of the above, while very, very close to being precisely accurate, is an approximation. One certainty is that wheels are turning that we can’t know about.

The actual transfer portal, isn’t supposed to be available to the media. It’s possible players are on it we don’t know about.

Franklin may have already offered scholarships to walk-ons. Players in the portal from other schools may be considering Penn State. Penn State players in the portal may ultimately decide to stay at Penn State, although their scholarship won’t necessarily be waiting for them.

National Signing Day for the class of 2019 - the actual signing day, not the early signing period most recruits took advantage of last month - is nine days away.

This is the closest college sports have come to a goofy amalgam of free agency and a trade deadline. There’s a Wild West feel.

Ultimately, some coaches and programs will figure out how to game the new system, but it’s too early to know what that will look like.

Franklin’s approach is the same as his approach to everything: Recruit, recruit, recruit.

Sign up for our newsletter Success! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.

Specifically, as we come at last to the home stretch of this cycle, recruit defensive linemen.

It’s an area of need, especially with DE Shareef Miller and DT Kevin Givens turning pro.

Franklin has gotten two verbals from DLs in the last 10 days: D’Von Ellies, a four-star from Owings Mills, Md. who had offers from Ohio State and USC; and Smith Vilbert, a rangy (6-6, 250) three-star DE from Montvale, N. J. who had offers from Florida and Oregon.

The intrepid Sean Fitz of 24/7 Sports reports that at least eight prospects took official visits to State College this weekend. Four of them are DLs.

Two of the visitors are interesting for reasons beyond star-rating. Dawand Jones is an OL from Indianapolis who has football offers from Ohio State and USC and basketball offers from Mid-American Conference schools. He’s 6-8, 360.

Joseph Appiah Dorkma is a D-line prospect from Dusseldorf. The one in Germany.

The parking problem: The Beaver Stadium media room was filled Saturday without a football coach, player or media-type in sight.

The topic was a complex and heated one given the realities of 100,000-some people converging on a town smaller than Lancaster seven Saturdays a year: game-day parking in and around Beaver Stadium.

It’s always a mess, and was especially so in 2018, given unseasonably wet weather that forced the closing or partial closing of several parking lots available to season-ticket holders.

The University hired an outside company, SP+, to help formulate a plan, and held the meeting to present and explain it.

To summarize, every reserved parking space will be numbered. No more first-come, first served. Your space will be in one of four zones, and will come with instructions about where to enter your lot.

Another town hall will be held Friday, Feb. 1, also in the Beaver Stadium media room, from 4-5 p.m. for preferred/reserved parking holders and 5:05-6:05 p.m. for general season parking holders.