Victory Bell Rings
Fansided

Penn State Football: Recruiting Roundup April 6, 2016

By Marty Leap

Oct 31, 2015; University Park, PA, USA; General view of the Beaver Stadium press box prior to the game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State won 39-0. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 31, 2015; University Park, PA, USA; General view of the Beaver Stadium press box prior to the game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State won 39-0. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

As spring practice rolls on, so do spring visits and recruiting news. That said, it is time for this week’s edition of VBR’s recruiting roundup.

Five-Star Visits Campus
Last Wednesday, five-star defensive end Joshua Kaindoh visited Penn State for the first time since last summer. Kaindoh, originally from Maryland, now attends IMG Academy in Bradenton (FL) and is one of the best players in the country in the 2017 recruiting class.

Landing Kaindoh will be an absolute war, but Penn State has got a shot. Right now Kaindoh appears to be a four team race between Maryland, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State, and the Nittany Lions are in as good sa shape as anyone.

This is a recruitment I expect to drag on for quite some time yet. It will be important for the Nittany Lions to get Kaindoh back on campus as often as they can this summer while he is home in Maryland. Kaindoh is one of the absolute best recruits in the country, and would play right away at defensive end in the fall of 2017. Landing a commitment from Kaindoh would be a statement get for Coach Franklin.

Another Ricky Slade Visit
This past weekend, class of 2018 running back Ricky Slade made his second visit to Penn State in a month and a half stretch, and his third overall. 247 Sports has Slade as the 36th-best player in the country in the 2018 recruiting class, and early on Penn State is right in the thick of it with Slade.

Obviously there is a long way to go with these 2018 recruits and their recruitments, but being in good shape early on like PSU is with Slade is the start to landing a player of his caliber. Penn State is firmly in Slade’s top group right now, and if the Nittany Lions show improvement on the field this fall, they should have as good a shot as anyone at landing the elite running back recruit.

Penn State Makes The Cut
On Sunday, four-star IMG Academy defensive tackle Cam Spence released his group of top 15 schools, and this group included Penn State. Spence, who is originally from Maryland, visited Penn State multiple times before transferring to IMG. Post-transfer, he visited for the Michigan game in November.

Spence at one time seemed to be a Penn State lean, but now appears to be leaning toward his home state Terrapins. However, if Penn State puts together a good season this fall, with Maryland almost assuredly on their way to a 7+ loss season, that could change. North Carolina and Ohio State are two other schools to keep an eye on with Spence.

The Nittany Lions will need to get Spence back on campus, and, like with many other recruits, show improvement on the field this fall. The negative recruiting from other schools is wreaking havoc for Coach Franklin and his staff, but an improved product in 2016 will end that.

Avery Roberts Down To Two
On Tuesday, Rivals.com’s Michael J. Matya reported that four-star linebacker Avery Roberts is down to two schools – Nebraska and Penn State. Roberts will announce his college decision on April 21, and his final visit before this will be to Penn State for the Blue-White Game on April 16.

Roberts has visited Penn State more than any other school and he is not slated to visit Nebraska be
fore making his decision. Unless something crazy happens between now and then, I fully expect him to choose the Nittany Lions come April 21.

New Offers
The Nittany Lion staff has been busy extending new scholarship offers this spring, and that has continued the past few days. The biggest of which, both literally and figuratively, was class of 2018 offensive lineman Chris Bleich. The Plymouth (PA) native now attends IMG Academy in Florida, but is still a very heavy Penn State lean.

Bleich is only a sophomore in high school, but checks in at six-foot-six, 310 pounds. Bleich will be the starting right tackle for a loaded IMG team this fall, which says a lot about his talent given, he will only be a junior.

Bleich has long wanted a Penn State offer, and I could see him committing to Penn State sooner rather than later. Once he is on board, it will be very nice to have a Penn State commit down at IMG to work on other top targets such as Robert Hainsey, Jordan Anthony, and Joshua Kaindoh.

Monday night, Penn State extended a scholarship offer to class of 2017 three-star defensive end Olalere Oladipo. Penn State’s 2017 class already has a pair of defensive end commits in Damion Barber and Yetur Matos, and the Nittany Lions remain firmly in the mix for five-star Kaindoh. However, Penn State does not appear to have good footing with any tight end recruits which leads me to wonder if they like Oladipo better at tight end than defensive end. Either that, or they project Oladipo to grow into a defensive tackle, which is also possible.

That will do it for this week. As always, stay tuned here at VBR for all and any breaking news with Penn State recruiting.

Home/Football Recruiting