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Penn State Football Recruiting Roundup: June 1, 2017

By Marty Leap

Dec 3, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; during the Big Ten Championship college football game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; during the Big Ten Championship college football game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Welcome to this week’s Penn State football recruiting roundup

There are very few times during the calendar year when the world of Penn State football recruiting is a slow one. Right now is most definitely not one of those times.

The Penn State Football coaching staff has been hard at work on the recruiting trail, and this past week was no different. Last weekend the Nittany Lions hosted one of their top targets on campus. Also during the past week, the Nittany Lions have made the top group for multiple top targets of theirs.

So, let’s begin this week’s Penn State football recruiting roundup.

A Top Offensive Line Target Visits 

Last weekend, 4-star offensive tackle Rasheed Walker visited Happy Valley. This was Walker’s first visit to Penn State since late January, and it was a great visit for Walker and the Nittany Lions alike.

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Entering the visit, Penn State was the team to beat for Walker’s services. This most certainly did not change after this visit. Penn State already has a top-100 offensive tackle commit in Nana Asiedu, and now they are hoping to add a second in Walker.

Rasheed Walker will look to take some more visits before announcing his college decision. Odds are, Walker will announce his commitment before the start of his senior season in the fall. Unless something changes, the Nittany Lions will be the team to beat for Rasheed Walker.

This is shaping up to be one of the best offensive tackle classes that Penn State has ever signed.

Zack Kuntz, Jesse Luketa To Enroll Early

Two of the top tight end recruits in the country are committed to Penn State. These two players are Pat Freiermuth and Zack Kuntz. This past week, we found out that Kuntz plans to enroll early at Penn State.

The six-foot-eight, 221-pound Kuntz will now be enrolling at Penn State in January. This will give him a great opportunity to play as a true freshman in the fall of 2018. Penn State’s depth chart at tight end will be wide open in the fall of 2018 after Mike Gesicki graduates after this season, and Kuntz should have a chance to capitalize.

Kuntz has all the tools needed to be a playmaking tight end in college. One area he needs to improve is that he needs to add muscle and get stronger. By enrolling early, this will happen much quicker as he can get into Dwight Galt’s workout program five months sooner than he otherwise would have.

Zack Kuntz will compete at The Opening Finals later this month.

Earlier this week, four-star linebacker Jesse Luketa also announced that he will be enrolling early. Safety Isaiah Humphries also plans to enroll early.

Penn State Makes The Cut

A quartet of top Penn State targets released a top group of schools of Twitter this past week, and the Nittany Lions made the top group for each of these four players.

First off, there is four-star linebacker Jack Lamb. Jack Lamb released a top 5 consisting of Notre Dame, Oregon, UCLA, Washington, and the Nittany Lions.

Jack Lamb visited the Nittany Lions during the spring and plans to again this summer. Both of his parents are Penn State graduates. In fact, he is named after Penn State legend Jack Hamm. While a looming Notre Dame visit could shake things up, right now, Penn State appears to be the team to beat for the inside linebacker from California.

Next, there is defensive end Jayson Oweh.

Penn State is one of Jayson Oweh’s top 10 schools. The other 9 schools in his top group are Georgia Tech, Harvard, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin.

The New Jersey native has watched his recruitment blow up in recent months. Since Penn State offered in April, Notre Dame and Ohio State have joined the party. Oweh’s most recent was to Happy Valley on May 20th. Right now, the Nittany Lions appear to be the clear-cut leader for Oweh.

Also, there is the top 10 of four-star safety Kwantel Raines.

Joining the Nittany Lions in the top 10 of Kwantel Raines were Cal, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, Pitt, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. However, right now at least, this appears to be a three school race between the in-state schools and West Virginia.

Dating back to January, Raines has visited Penn State four times in the past five months. Obviously, the Nittany Lions are in a great spot for the Aliquippa star. However, it will be a battle to land Raines.

Every year Pitt lands a local WPIAL kid with offers from everywhere that decides to stay home. This year, that could very possibly be Kwantel Raines. Furthermore, with Isaiah Humphries already on board at safety and the Nittany Lions landing Isheem Young being seemingly a question of when and not if it is possible that Raines will not have a spot at Penn State if he waits too long to commit.

Finally, there is five-star defensive end and ex-Penn State commit Micah Parsons. Although, Parsons’ top list is a rather confusing one. The reason for the confusion is that in his Tweet he called it a top seven, but the graphic he Tweeted included nine schools.

The other schools listed by Parsons are Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State, Miami, Michigan, and Nebraska. After being committed to Penn State for over a year, Micah Parsons de-committed from the Nittany Lions on April 23.

While Penn State still has a chance at landing Parsons, in my opinion, it is a slim one. I do believe they are in his top two, however, I will be very surprised if he ends up anywhere other than Ohio State.

Next: Four 2017 Start Times Announced

That will do it for this week. As always, stay tuned here at Victory Bell Rings for all of the latest news in the world of Penn State football recruiting.

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