Penn State football recruiting: Coaches hit the road, weekend OVs, and more

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

Recruiting keeps college football coaches busy year round. This is especially true in the world of Penn State football recruiting due to James Franklin and his staff being one of the most relentless staffs in the country when it comes to recruiting.

In just 13 days (February 7) the traditional National Signing Day will take place. On this day programs around the country will be looking to put the finishing touches on their 2018 recruiting classes and Penn State is no exception.

In an effort to close the class out strong James Franklin and his staff have been hitting the road recruiting in the past week. Additionally, attention has started to shift to the 2019 and 2020 classes with new offers being handed out and players being visited. The staff is also set to host a pair of official visitors this weekend.

With all of that said, let’s begin this week’s Penn State football recruiting roundup.

Coaches hit the road

James Franklin and his assistants have been all over the map in the past week visiting both current signees, as well as class of 2018, 2019, and 2020 targets.

James Franklin and defensive line coach Sean Spencer traveled to Maryland last Friday to visit class of 2020 defensive lineman Bryan Bresee. In the early rankings for the 2020 class, Bresee is the number one player in the country.

Bresee has already visited Penn State multiple times and he will again this spring. Bresee’s recruitment will be a marathon and a war, but the Nittany Lions will have as good a chance as any to land a signature from Bresee.

According to Adam Friedman of Rivals.com, Franklin and Terry Smith were in North Carolina on Monday. The duo went south to check in on five-star class of 2019 running back Quavaris Crouch and class of 2020 athlete Maleik Faust. The Nittany Lions, along with South Carolina, are one of two programs that have already offered Faust.

Tuesday morning, Franklin and Spencer were in the Lehigh Valley to check in on class of 2018 signee Jahan Dotson.

On Wednesday night, Franklin and Spencer were in home for an in-home visit with class of 2018 defensive tackle signee Aeneas Hawkins.

The Cincinnati native is set to enroll at Penn State in June.

Penn State set to host a pair of official visitors this weekend

This weekend, a pair of class of 2018 signees will take their official visits to Penn State. Lions247 reports that these two players are wide receiver Jahan Dotson and offensive lineman Juice Scruggs.

When the Nittany Lions held their big official visit recruiting weekend in December, Dotson was still committed to UCLA. This is the reason why Dotson, who flipped to Penn State during the early signing period, will take his official visit this weekend.

As for Scruggs, the Erie native had a prior commitment during that weekend and was therefore unable to make the trip to Happy Valley back in December.

New offers go out

During the past week James Franklin and his staff have extended a few noteworthy scholarship offers. The first of these offers we will look at went to class of 2019 offensive lineman Jakai Moore.

The Nittany Lions are one of eight FBS programs that have offered Moore thus far. Moore will visit Penn State this spring and the Nittany Lions should be one of the teams to beat in this recruitment.

A second noteworthy offer was handed out to a five-star class of 2019 defensive tackle. This defensive tackle is Faatui Tuitele.

Tuitele is a Hawaii native, and will be a massive uphill climb for the Nittany Lion. However, now that players can take official visits in the spring and summer months this increases the odds of Tuitele officially visiting Penn State substantially and if the Nittany Lions can land an official visit anything is possible.

The final big offer of the week was extended to class of 2020 wide receiver Porter Rooks.

Rooks is a Charlotte, North Carolina, native and one of the best high school football players in the country. 247 Sports ranks Rooks as the tenth best player in the country in the 2020 recruiting cycle. After offering Rooks, the coaching staff will now fight to get Rooks on campus. Penn State could very well be a darkhorse in this recruitment moving forward.

The latest on Rasheed Walker

This past weekend top-100 offensive lineman Rasheed Walker officially visited Ohio State. The Waldorf, Maryland, native is Penn State’s top remaining class of 2018 target and is set to choose between the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes on National Signing Day.

Entering his official visit to Columbus, Walker was seen as a Penn State lean. However, many people, myself included, believed that his official visit to Columbus would swing things in favor of the Buckeyes. While Walker had a strong visit to Columbus, the Nittany Lions may have weathered the storm and if nothing else Walker’s visit to Columbus did not turn him into a Buckeye lean.

Now, this is not to say he is any sort of lock to sign with Penn State or even close to. Things may hinge on how Walker’s in-home visits with James Franklin and Urban Meyer go. Nittany Lion assistant coaches will also visit Walker this week after visiting him last Thursday.

It also remains possible that Walker takes an unofficial visit to Penn State before signing day. Furthermore, according to Land of 10’s Tyler Donohue, running back signee Ricky Slade may do his own in-home visit with Walker in an attempt to help the Nittany Lions land him.

This is a recruitment that will continue to be a war between the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes until National Signing Day on February 7. You can read more about Walker’s Ohio State visit from Adam Friedman here.

Next: 2018 signee profile: PJ Mustipher

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.