Penn State Football Recruiting: A lost commitment and a big visitor weekend

Welcome back to the weekly look at all things Penn State football recruiting here at Victory Bell Rings – the recruiting roundup.

Happy Friday, friends! Not only is it Friday, it is the Friday of official visit weekend in Happy Valley. That makes this weekend the most important recruiting weekend of the year in the world of Penn State football recruiting.

On top of it being official visit weekend, the Nittany Lion coaching staff has been hitting the road hard this week visiting recruits and commits. Additionally, Penn State’s 2018 recruiting class has also lost a commitment this week.

There is a lot to tackle, so let’s begin this week’s Penn State football recruiting roundup.

Penn State loses a commitment

We will start this week’s recruiting roundup with the bad news – the de-commitment of four-star offensive tackle Antwan Reed.

For a variety of reasons, I will not go into much detail here. However, this was not your typical de-commitment. That said, I wish Antwan the best of luck in whatever the future holds for him.

With the de-commitment of Reed, Penn State’s 2018 recruiting class currently has 20 members. This puts the Nittany Lion class fifth in the country according to the team composite rankings of 247 Sports.

Official visitor weekend

This weekend is the big official visitor weekend in Happy Valley. Minus Isaiah Humphries, Jordan Miner, and Trent Gordon who have already taken their official visits, all 17 class of 2018 commits will be on official visits.

Joining these 17 young men in Happy Valley this weekend will be three of Penn State’s top remaining targets. These three players are five-star defensive end Micah Parsons, four-star defensive lineman Tyreke Smith, and four-star offensive tackle Rasheed Walker.

This is an important weekend so that the future Nittany Lion teammates can continue to get to know each other, form relationships, and bond. Furthermore, it gives the staff the chance to lock up any commits that might be wavering. Luckily, Penn State does not have any such commits this year.

Also, this season, Penn State’s 17 commits can help to recruit three of the Nittany Lions’ top remaining targets. Going into this weekend the Nittany Lions appear to be the team to beat for Parsons, Smith, and Walker. This weekend the Nittany Lions have the opportunity to really distance themselves from the pack for these three players.

Parsons is set to announce his commitment and sign his letter of intent on December 20, Smith will announce his commitment at the Under Armor All-American Game on January 4, and Walker has no set plans for his commitment.

Coaches hit the road

In the past weekend Penn State’s coaching staff has been hitting the road hard.

Last weekend James Franklin and new tight end coach Tyler Bowen attended five-star class of 2020 wide receiver Julian Fleming‘s game last Friday. Then on Saturday, Franklin attended class of 2019 quarterback commit TaQuan Roberson‘s state championship game.

The coaching staff also hit the road hard this past week visiting class of 2018 commits.

Furthermore, Tyreke Smith got a visit from Brent Pry while Josh Gattis checked in on four-star legacy wide receiver recruit Solomon Enis.

Next: A pair of Nittany Lions set to transfer

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.