Penn State Football Recruiting Roundup April 20, 2016

This past weekend was a huge recruiting weekend for the Nittany Lions. The Blue-White Game capped off what has been an extremely busy spring recruiting period. Now the staff will begin to gear up for the spring/summer evaluation periods, as well as the busy summer recruiting schedule. Here is a look back at this past weekend’s recruiting news, as well as some previews and predictions of what is to come in this week’s recruiting roundup.

The Offensive Line Gets Better
We will start with the two commitments Penn State picked up this weekend. Four-star Pittsburgh Central Catholic offensive lineman CJ Thorpe, as well as three-star Montvale (NJ) offensive lineman Robert Martin committed to the Nittany Lions while visiting on Saturday.

Both Thorpe and Martin are solid gets for the Nittany Lions, especially Thorpe, who is one of the best interior offensive line recruits in the country. You can read more about Thorpe here, and Martin here.

It is possible that this could start a bit of a domino effect for the Nittany Lions in terms of offensive line recruiting. No matter what happens, four-star IMG Academy offensive lineman Robert Hainsey will have a spot in this class, but that can not be said about other offensive lien recruits.

The two I am specifically looking at are Stow (OH) guard/center Michael Miranda, and Connecticut native Andrew Stueber. Both Miranda and Stueber visited Penn State for the Blue-White Game, and for both it was their second trip to Happy Valley this spring.

I believe Stueber will remain a tackle because he is a true offensive tackle prospect, while Martin and Hainsey are swingmen and Thorpe is a guard. It is a different story for Miranda, though. If Miranda wants to be guaranteed a spot in this class, and he has named Penn State his leader in the past, he may have to jump on it quickly.

Honestly, I was surprised he did not commit this past weekend. I expected CJ Thorpe to commit, but when Robert Martin committed I expected Miranda to follow to make sure he had a spot. It is possible that the commitment of Martin took Miranda’s spot. Still, I would not be surprised at all if Miranda and/or Stueber committed to Penn State sooner rather than later.

Blue-White Weekend Visitors
So, how about the visitors this past weekend? Penn State wound up with a very impressive visitor group that was highlighted by many of their top targets. To go along with the aforementioned offensive linemen, quarterback commit Sean Clifford, linebacker commit Dylan Rivers, and defensive end commit Damion Barber were all in town.

As for uncommitted recruits the list included players such as linebacker Avery Roberts, linebacker Drew Singleton, safety Derrek Pitts, wide receiver Evidence Njoku, defensive tackle Fred Hansard, linebacker Jordan Anthony, cornerback Lamont Wade, wide receiver Mark Webb, and safety Scotty Nelson, among others. The three most intriguing players on this list are Singleton, Anthony, and Wade.

Singleton and Anthony were both late additions to the visitor list, both deciding on Friday to visit. Penn State has a big need at linebacker in this class, and Singleton is one of the top 100 prospects in the country according to 247 Sports. Singleton has Michigan as his top school, and this was his first visit to Penn State in quite awhile. The Nittany Lions appear to have at least gotten themselves back into the conversation for the Garden State standout.

As for Anthony, the IMG Academy product flew up from Florida to attend the Blue White Game. Anthony, a Maryland native, has always had Penn State in his top group and the Nittany Lions remain one of the top two or three schools on Anthony’s list.

Class of 2018 commit Micah Parsons was also in attendance. Joining Parsons was class of 2018 wide receiver Darryle Simmons, safety Kwantel Raines, and quarterback Phil Jurkovec. Jurkovec is the top quarterback in the country in the 2018 recruiting class, and the Pine-Richland native could very well end up the number one overall recruit in the country for 2018. He has visited Penn State multiple times already, and the Nittany Lions are in a good position for Jurkovec early on.

Avery Roberts Set To Decided
Four-star Concord (DE) linebacker Avery Roberts will announce his college decision Thursday. Roberts will choose between Penn State and Nebraska, but things do not look good for the Nittany Lions.

For a longtime Roberts seemed like a Penn State lock, but he seems to have started to lean toward Nebraska. Roberts really likes that Nebraska was his first power-five offer, he also likes the fact that the Cornhuskers have offered his younger brother and Penn State has not.

James Franklin and his staff also seem to have some concerns about Roberts due to his age. Roberts will turn 19 in October, and will turn 20 as a true freshman in the fall of 2017. Due to that, there could be a  concern that it’s possible Roberts has already maxed out physically- which is something you never want in a recruit.

We will see what happens when Roberts announces tomorrow. However, unfortunately, I am expecting him to choose the Cornhuskers.

Lamont Wade Update
Maybe the most important recruiting development to come out of this weekend for Penn State involves four-star Clairton cornerback Lamont Wade. 247 Sports ranks Wade as the second best cornerback in the country, and he chose Penn State’s spring game to visit over Ohio State.

This was Wade’s third visit to Penn State since January, and it is possible he will be back in Happy Valley again in the next few weeks. Penn State definitely entered the spring period trailing Ohio State, but they have made up a lot of ground this spring.

Over the course of the past week I have had multiple conversations with a source and I am starting to feel very confident about where the Nittany Lions stand. “Something has moved Penn State up a few notches with Wade,” I was told by this source last week. Since then, Wade has chosen to visit Penn State for their spring game instead of Ohio State and he might be planning another visit.

I spoke with this source again Tuesdayt and they told me they believe Penn State may have surpassed Ohio State as Wade’s top school. Even if not, Penn State is gaining steam and fast with one of the nation’s 50 best players.

Honor For CJ Thorpe
One of Penn State’s newest commits, guard CJ Thorpe, announced on his Twitter page Tuesday that he has been selected to play in the Under Armor All-American Game.

Thorpe will join Penn State quarterback commit Sean Clifford in the game, and it will be a great opportunity for Thorpe. It will give Thorpe the chance to get better by work against some of the best high school football players in the country. Also, it is always good exposure for a recruiting class to have multiple commits in a game like this.

Congrats, CJ!

Penn State Makes The Cut
Late last week five-star running back D’Andre Swift Tweeted out a top 10 that included Penn State. This comes as no surprise since Swift has visited Penn State more than every other school he has visited combined to this point.

Even though the Nittany Lions are among Swift’s top schools, if not his leaders, landing his commitment will not be easy. Swift has visited Georgia twice in the last three weeks, and is also very high on Florida State.

I ultimately believe Penn State’s chances of landing Swift will come down to how the Nittany Lions perform on the field this fall. If the product improves, I see Penn State being tough to beat. If not, I believe Swift will definitely head south.

That will do it for this week. It was a busy weekend for Penn State in terms of recruiting news, and it is bottled up into a nutshell here. As always, stay with us here at Victory Bell Rings for all and any breaking Penn State recruiting news.