well, they picked up a stud at LB and a stud at S so those two by themselves bring them up.
Teams like USC, Michigan, PSU, and Ohio State are up top because of the quality of their recruits.
USC doesn't have many recruits, but each guy is a 4 or 5 star recruit.
PSU has AJ Wallace, Mo Evans, Bani Gdyau,Chris Bell,Navarro Bowman,Louis Eliades,Jared Odrick, and Aaron Maybin. Plus they are favorites for Antonio Logan El, JB Walton, Andrew Quarless, and Jeremiha Hunter. They also have a good shot at a lot of other top recruits. So Penn State is getting quality.
Michigan doesn't have a lot of scholarships this year but they got Jai Eugene,Brandon Graham, Justin Boren, Carlos Brown,Marques Slocum, Cobrani Mixon, and Steve Brown. All of whome are 4 or 5 star recruits. Plus they're in the hunt/favorites for Jonas Mouton,Sam Young, and Steve Schilling.
Ohio State has an ok class, but they're ranked so high because of Chris Wells and Chris Wells only.
teams like Pitt,Florida,Oklahoma,Notre Dame,Texas, etc. Have a lot of scholarships this year and give them to a lot of highly rated players (granted not many will be on the teams next year).
Not many recruits will be on their teams next year. Recruiting just helps in pre-season rankings.