Penn State Football Recruiting Roundup March 1, 2016

This past weekend was a big one for the Nittany Lions in terms of recruiting. Penn State held its Junior Day, and saw the campus get flooded with over 50 recruits between the classes of 2017 and 2018. Penn State also picked up three commitments over the weekend.

Now it is time to dissect it all in this week’s recruiting roundup.

New Commits
Over the weekend, Penn State picked up commitments from four-star class of 2017 defensive end Yetur Matos, three-star class of 2017 defensive end Damion Barber, and five-star class of 2018 defensive end Micah Parsons. All three of these players had been Penn State leans for quite some time, but it is good to officially have them on board.

Parsons is obviously the biggest get here. The Harrisburg native is arguably the top recruit in the country for the class of 2018, and, in my opinion, one of the five best high school football players in the country, regardless of class. He is a heck of a way to kick off what could be an extremely special class of 2018, and will be a great leader and recruiter for that class.

Barber and Matos are very good football players as well. Barber has great length, and a very good frame that should allow him to add more size and really fill out as he matures. Barber should become a very good pass rusher for the Nittany Lions. Matos is very explosive, has great size, and is a very strong player. The four-star Virginia native should become an excellent every down defensive end for the Nittany Lions.

With the commitments of Barber and Matos, Penn State’s class of 2017 now has four members, and is currently ranked 21st nationally by 247 Sports. Parsons is the first commit of the class of 2018 for the Nittany Lions, but with his commitment Penn State currently has the top-rated recruiting class in the country for 2018 according to 247 Sports.

In last week’s roundup, I said all three of these players would be on commit watch this past weekend, and all three wound up pulling the trigger.

Junior Day Recap
In total, over 50 recruits wound up visiting Penn State over the weekend. Some of which stayed overnight either Friday into Saturday, or Saturday into Sunday. On top of gaining three commitments, the Nittany Lions also laid some great foundation with other class of 2017 and class of 2018 recruits.

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Many of the recruits on campus were familiar names, such as Pittsburgh Central Catholic studs David Adams, Kurt Hinish, and CJ Thorpe. Also on campus were safety Derrick Pitts, linebacker Nathan Proctor, linebacker Avery Roberts, running back D’Andre Swift, offensive lineman Carter Warren, cornerback Lamont Wade, wide receiver Mark Webb, and linebacker Pete Werner, among others.

Penn State also had some of their top class of 2018 targets on campus this weekend. Along with Parsons, wide receivers Shaquon Anderson-Butts, Jahan Dotson, and Daryle Simmons were all in Happy Valley. Also in town was the nation’s top 2018 tight end Zack Kuntz.

A player that Penn State fans may not know, but will want to get to know, is three-star Hampton (VA) defensive tackle Elijah Conliffe. The six-foot-five, 280-pound Conliffe attended Junior Day and raved about it on Twitter.

Conliffe will be back at Penn State for another unofficial visit in April. I would not be the least bit surprised to see Conliffe pull the trigger and commit to Penn State during that return visit. Any time a recruit sets up a return visit to a school that quickly, it usually means good things.

Penn State’s other two class of 2017 commits, quarterback Sean Clifford and linebacker Dylan Rivers, were also on hand this past weekend. It is always good to get commits around un-committed players in an effort to recruit them, and this appeared to pay dividends on Saturday.

After this weekend, in my opinion, Penn State now leads for Adams, Anderson-Butts, Conliffe, Dotson, Kuntz, Hinish, Pitts, Proctor, Roberts, Thorpe, Webb. Some of these players I already felt this way about going into the weekend, but some I did not.

In fact, Kurt Hinish told Tom Loy of 247 Sports that Penn State is indeed now his leader. The Nittany Lions could get a great pull from Pittsburgh Central Catholic in their 2017 recruiting class.

Penn State has a commanding lead for four-star offensive lineman Thorpe, and both Hinish and four-star linebacker Adams appear to be a Penn State/Notre Dame battle. If they were deciding today, I’d predict both Hinish and Adams would pick the Nittany Lions.

Finally, a lot of players also raved about how much they like new offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead and offensive line coach Matt Limegrover. To read some quotes from recruits that visited, check out this PennLive article.

New Offers
Penn State also extended a pair of new offers to 2017 recruits over the weekend. Athlete Tariq Castro-Fields and offensive lineman Blaise Andries both received offers from the Nittany Lion coaching staff over the weekend.

Castro-Fields is a native of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and was a high school teammate of class of 2016 signee Zech McPhearson. Castro-Fields was on campus for Junior Day over the weekend.

I am very excited and thankful to have received an offer from Penn State University!! #GoNittanyLions pic.twitter.com/uCZNo8Dieo
— Blaise Andries (@BlaiseAndries) February 28, 2016

Andries hails from Minnesota, and was being recruited to the Golden Gophers by new offensive line coach Matt Limegrover when he was coaching at Minnesota. Andries did not attend Junior Day. However, I’d expect him to visit campus soon.

That will do it for this week. It was a great weekend for Penn State in terms of recruiting, and we should really start to see the recruiting news pick up now. As always, stay tuned here at Victory Bell Rings for all of the up to date news in the world of Penn State recruiting.

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