Here's the reason SJP has a very strong hand.
You look at the faces of those 14-16 year olds at Penn State this past weekend and it's pretty obvious they have big-time careers--not just college but NFL--in their heads. Some say it doesn't matter what high school you go to; the scouts will find you wherever you are. Plus there are all these camps in the off-season. Why then did Jon Runyon, Marvin Harrison Sr., Jeremiah Trotter, Kyle McCord's father (ex D1 QB), Anthony Sacca's father (ex PSU player), Marty Mornhinweg, etc. send their sons to SJP? Not as if those sons weren't going to get noticed elsewhere. The choice of SJP speak for itself.
SJP can also point to a guy like Olamide Zaccheus--travels from Jersey to the Prep and winds up at UVA. Now he's in his 5th year in the NFL-well beyond the average NFL career. Within two more years there will almost certainly be a few more Prep grads in the NFL.
Equally important, going to the Prep makes it more likely a player will be academically prepared to go to and graduate from a good college. Look at the schools where Prep players, including the vast majority who are not NFL prospects, wind up going. No, they're not all top-of-the-class students, but they'll arrive at college at least able--well able, I hope--to manage academically. And there are great success stories that don't end in the NFL, e.g., Shane Davis coming to the Prep from a very tough background, playing on two state championship teams, and winding up as an MD. Dr. Justin Montague has a similar story.
The ex-NFL fathers know, probably better than most, that every hs or college player, no matter how good, is just one bad injury away from the end of his football career. They also know the average pro career of an NFL player is three years--or less.
I think the above is pretty much SJP's case