If there's one thing that Penn State fans have learned throughout James Franklin's tenure, it's that he and his assistants will leave no stone unturned on the recruiting trail. All that travel and hard work has paid off over the years, too. If you look back at the 2014 and 2015 classes, you'll find players like Amani Oruwariye, Grant Haley and Robert Windsor, all of whom resided well outside Penn State's normal recruiting territory. Those constant visits, especially late in the cycle, which is when all three committed, required a lot of time and travel, but the staff's efforts paid off. Now, Oruwariye and Halley are playing in the NFL. Windsor should be joining them in a few months.

Nowadays, after a Big Ten championship and multiple New Year's Six bowl appearances, recruiting has been taken to another level. Over the past few years, we've seen some of the nation's best prospects intrigued in the program. In some cases, that's required even more travel. After all, if you want to compete with the best programs in college football, you have to recruit nationally. That's a must.

So, what goes into all of that travel? What goes into coordinating helicopters, private planes and everything else that allows the Nittany Lions to recruit at such a high-level? We caught up with recruiting coordinator Terrell Smith following Franklin's Signing Day press conference to learn more about the process.

If you're unfamiliar with Smith, he joined Penn State's staff at the end of March. Previously, he was the director of football operations at Duke, which is also his alma mater. Playing safety, Smith earned second-team All-ACC honors in 2003. He totaled over 300 tackles over the course of his career.

Since getting into coaching in 2004, Smith has also had stops at East Carolina, North Carolina and Oklahoma State. Below is a Q&A detailing some of the details that go into the day-to-day travel that's required to recruit at the Division I level.

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Ryan Snyder: Talk to me about flying Coach Franklin around on those helicopters each weekend during the season. I know you coordinate all of that. What all goes into booking those trips?

Terrell Smith: Well, me and Google Maps have became real good friends. I would go on Google Maps and find a local baseball field that has lights. I could tell on Google Earth which places had lights and where I could land a [helicopter]. I’d even use Google Maps to find the dimensions of the field and what size helicopter I could land. I also have to get a permission letter from the [high school] coach, the athletic director, the principal and the superintendent. The plane company handles [the FAA], but I’m involved in that, too.

I also have to get these certificates confirming that the vehicle is airworthy. Then, I turn that letter into people at Penn State because Penn State is paying for this. We’re going to have coaches on this, so I’ll never be able to use school money to pay for a helicopter that’s not airworthy. So, all of these things need to come to together in like three or four days. I also have to get the coordinates. I send that to the helicopter then and that’s where they’ll land. If you’ve ever seen coordinates, they’re incredibly long and they have to be very direct.

Snyder: Any interesting stories from Coach Franklin’s travel this season?

Smith: Here’s a quick story about Enzo Jennings. We landed a helicopter at their baseball field [in the evening] for a night game. The issue was that it started getting dark because this was happening in November. They didn’t have any lights on their field, so I had to call best rentals and have them send lights out there to light the place up. So, I had to call the security guard [at the high school] and she was great. She told me if I got lights out there, she’d make sure that they’d put them on and get everything good to go. She did that for us. They said the lights were so strong then that it could light up three baseball fields. I guess they brought out these construction lights and lit the whole place up.

Snyder: I know Coach Franklin takes rental helicopters that originate from whichever region he’s going to be in, but what about when he flies out of State College to wherever? Is he always taking a Penn State plane?

Smith: Not always. I try my best to coordinate that though because it’s a lot easier. The pilots that we use here are great. They’re phenomenal. They’ve been traveling with him for six years now, so they know how we operate. They know the Penn State way, the Coach Franklin way. But sometimes, they have to get rest because of regulations and stuff like that, or maybe they’ll be on vacation, so then we charter from other companies. That’s when it gets a little difficult. They don’t understand that, yeah, it may say on the schedule that we’re going to takeoff at 8 o’clock, but if coach is at a home visit, it can go an extra 45 minutes. They can’t be trying to call him and get him moving. (Laughs) We make it clear that we’ll take care of them, but we need them to hold tight.

Snyder: What about the assistant coaches? Do they fly private?

Smith: They travel commercial unless they’re with the head coach. If they’re with him, then they’ll travel private. Hopefully that’ll change for us in the future because there are a lot of schools that are traveling their assistants private now. You can get a lot more work done that way and you’re much more efficient when you travel private.

Snyder: What are weeks like when all of the coaches are on the road? For example, weeks like the past two weeks or the spring evaluation period. I assume it’s a lot to monitor compared to when just a few coaches go see some high school games on a Friday.

Smith: I’m in charge of Coach Franklin’s travel first and foremost, but I oversee and I’m in charge of everyone, so I have to know where every coach is. There are NCAA rules, so we have to make sure we don’t hit the same school multiple times within a certain time frame and get a violation. I also have to know where every coach is because, when Coach Franklin flies, he’ll travel by himself, but he’ll then meet up with an assistant before doing a visit. So, making sure that the assistants are in the exact right place is important. I can’t have coaches staying late in Michigan to see another player when I need them in D.C. for a visit with Coach Franklin. So, I always call and check with them, letting them know the schedule for tomorrow. Another thing is that we always try to make sure that our coaches are driving nice cars, but you can’t always find a specific car [in more rural places]. We’re always trying to find the little things that make our recruiting better.

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