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Penn State Football Recruiting Roundup: March 9, 2016

By Marty Leap

Oct 10, 2015; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin watches warm ups prior to the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O
Oct 10, 2015; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin watches warm ups prior to the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O /
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As the calendar flips to spring and spring practices draw nearer, the recruiting news will begin to be grow. The Nittany Lions will have a big spring in terms of visitors, and hopefully commitments, as James Franklin and his staff look to add to the strong start they are off to with the 2017 recruiting class.

The Nittany Lions did not host any visitors last weekend, and will not host any this weekend either. This is due to Penn State students and faculty currently being on spring break, so there are not very many people around campus. However, Penn State will be having some big visitor weekends coming up.

Future Visitors
The first big weekend for visitors coming up with be the weekend of March 18-20. Headlining the visitors on campus that weekend will be a crew of players from IMG Academy in Bradenton (FL). Included in this group of players will be four-star offensive lineman Robert Hainsey. Hainsey announced this on Twitter a few days ago, but his Twitter account has since been deleted.

Hainsey, a Monroeville (PA) native, transferred to IMG last summer. Prior to transferring, Hainsey nearly committed to Penn State over the summer. While I still believe the Nittany Lions currently hold a slight lead for Hainsey this recruitment will be a real battle.

Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame will also be big players for Hainsey’s services. Winning at least 8 games this fall should go a long way toward landing Hainsey.

Though it is not confirmed, I would expect IMG teammates, defensive tackle Cam Spence, center Cesar Ruiz, and linebacker Jordan Anthony to join Hainsey on this visit. Five-star defensive end Josh Kaindoh of IMG most likely will also check out Penn State this spring.

Three-star Ohio offensive lineman Michael Miranda is also slated to visit Penn State the weekend of March 18-20. With a good visit, Penn State could very well find themselves right in the mix for the offensive tackle.

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Some of the other usual suspects such as linebacker David Adams, defensive tackle Elijah Conliffe, defensive tackle Kurt Hinish, offensive lineman Robert Martin, linebacker Nathan Proctor, offensive lineman CJ Thorpe, and wide receiver Mark Webb could very well pop up on campus between now and Blue-White Weekend as well.

New Offer
Last week, Penn State extended an offer to three-star cornerback Donovan Johnson. The Detroit native is a class of 2017 recruit, and a one-time teammate of ex-Penn State commit Lavert Hill before Hill transferred schools for his senior season.

The Nittany Lions became the 11th FBS school, and third Big Ten school (Nebraska and Wisconsin) to offer a scholarship to Johnson. Iowa State, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia are the other four power-five conference schools that have extended an offer to Johnson.

As of now, Johnson does not have an offer from either Michigan or Michigan State. Odds are, an offer from one of those two schools would shake up his recruitment. Right now though, I would think that if Penn State can get Johnson on campus they should at least be in the conversation for him.

Penn State Makes The Cut
In the past week two prospects named Penn State as part of their top group. Three-star class of 2017 offensive tackle Eric Douglas released a top seven that included Penn State, while four-star class of 2018 wide receiver Xavier Williams Tweeted out a top six that included Penn State.

Douglas, a Mallard Creek (NC) native, was supposed to visit Penn State for their junior day last month but failed to make the trip. I would expect Douglas to make a visit to Penn State at some point this spring, and a visit is something the Nittany Lions will have to get from Douglas if they are going to secure his commitment.

It will not be easy to keep Douglas from going to one of the four Carolina that made his top group, but James Franklin and company can never be counted out. One thing they have proven during their time in Happy Valley is that if they get a prospect on campus for a visit anything is possible.

Xavier Williams is a Florida native, and has not visited Penn State yet. However, with him being a 2018 recruit the staff obviously has more time left to recruit Williams.

I would expect him to visit Penn State this summer, and for the staff to put the full court press on Williams. Williams will be one of the top wide receiver recruits in the country in the 2018 recruiting class, so it is a great thing that Penn State is in such a good spot early on.

That will do it for this week. There should continue to be lots of recruiting news in the coming weeks, especially as spring practice and visits start to rev up. As always, stay tuned here at Victory Bell Rings for all the need to know Penn State recruiting news.

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