Penn State Sends More Than 80 Letters to 5-Star 2017 WR Donovan Peoples-Jones

As Penn State opened its 2015 season Saturday with a big game against in-state foe Temple, one of its biggest recruiting targets opened something else huge—a massive stack of handwritten letters from the Nittany Lions.

Donovan Peoples-Jones, a 5-star wide receiver for the class of 2017 and the nation's No. 17 overall player, tweeted a picture Saturday afternoon of more than 80 personalized recruiting letters from Penn State.

This isn't head coach James Franklin and his staff's first experience with loading a recruit's mailbox. 

Earlier this year, 3-star 2016 athlete Khaleke Hudson tweeted that he had received 107 letters from Penn State at one time.

If the Nittany Lions sent that much mail to a 3-star recruit, this 80-plus stack of letters should just be the beginning for Peoples-Jones.

The 6'2", 192-pound Detroit native was named the nation's most athletic high school football player earlier this summer at The Opening combine in Oregon, beating out 165 other athletes in the SPARQ rating competition.

Peoples-Jones also caught a few passes at The Opening from current Penn State 2016 quarterback commitment Jake Zembiec.

According to Steve Lorenz of 247Sports, Peoples-Jones began flashing the athleticism that Penn State and so many other programs crave when he was still in middle school.

"As an eighth grader, Peoples-Jones had the best broad jump of any recruit in attendance at a junior camp at the University of Tennessee," Lorenz wrote. "This is partially what put him on the map so early and led to his nickname of 'The Freak,' coined by former Cass Tech assistant and current Belleville head coach Jermain Crowell."

In addition to the large amount of mail, Peoples-Jones has already received a ton of attention from powerhouse programs early in this recruiting cycle.

According to Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports, Michigan, Alabama and Ohio State contacted Peoples-Jones right after midnight on Sept. 1—the first day coaches could reach out to players in the 2017 class.

Penn State is one of 15 programs who have already offered a scholarship to the elite junior, according to 247Sports.

The leaders for his services right now are said to be in-state powers Michigan and Michigan State, along with defending national champion Ohio State.

But if Penn State keeps pouring all this attention on one of the best prospects in the class of 2017, the Nittany Lions could put a stamp on Peoples-Jones' recruitment in a big way.

Recruit rankings courtesy of 247Sports.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.