Penn State football recruiting: New offers go out, finishing 2018, and more

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

With the 2018 recruiting cycle officially over, it is now full steam ahead for 2019, 2020, and even 2021 in the world of Penn State football recruiting. Even with James Franklin and his staff started to rev up their attention to the 2019, 2020, and 2021 recruiting classes, it is currently a bit of a slow period for Penn State football recruiting. The Nittany Lions are now two weeks removed from their first junior day of the spring and their coaches are enjoying some well deserved post-signing day downtime.

Despite this, there are still some topics to discuss this week when it comes to Penn State football recruiting. On top of putting the bow on top of their elite 2018 recruiting class, the Nittany Lion coaching staff has been busy extending new offers this past week,

All of that said, let’s dive into this week’s Penn State football recruiting roundup.

Wrapping up the 2018 class

Penn State’s 2018 recruiting class is elite. It is the school’s best recruiting class since at least 2006, and one of its best of the modern recruiting era.

In the end, their class checked in at 5th in the FBS according to 247 Sports. They finished their class with a bang by landing top-100 offensive tackle Rasheed Walker on signing day last Wednesday, and they beat out their arch nemesis Ohio State Buckeyes to land Walker.

You can read more about Walker’s commitment here, and the class as a whole here. The Nittany Lions’ 2018 recruiting class is the type of class that can help the program reach the College Football Playoff and beyond.

New offers go out

A trio of notable offers that have gone out in the past week to players in the class of 2019 are defensive lineman Adisa Isaac, offensive lineman Doug Nester, and quarterback Taisun Phommachanh.

Taisun Phommachanh is a top-100 prospect from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who 247 Sports currently ranks the top dual-threat quarterback in the country in the 2019 recruiting class. As for Adisa Isaac, he is a four-star defensive end from Brooklyn. Look for the Nittany Lions to become a major player in each of these recruitments.

As for Doug Nester, the Huntington, West Virginia, native is a top-100 recruit in the 2019 recruiting cycle and one of the best high school offensive linemen in the country. Additionally, Nester has also been committed to Ohio State since August 5, 2017.

Now, the Nittany Lions will start to push to get Nester on campus for a visit. If that happens, it could, yet again, be game on between James Franklin and Urban Meyer on the recruiting trail.

The Nittany Lions also offered four-star tight end Isaiah Foskey.

Foskey is a native of Concord, California. He is just the fourth tight end offered by the Nittany Lions thus far for the 2019 cycle, so it is obvious the staff is very high on Foskey. The next step for James Franklin and company will be to try and get Foskey on campus for a visit.

Date set for next junior day

After hosting their first junior day of the spring two weekends ago, James Franklin and company have now set the date for their next junior day. According to Ryan Snyder of Blue White Illustrated, this will be in March.

Snyder reports that the Nittany Lions next junior day will come on Saturday, March 24. It will fall during spring practice — allowing recruits to watch the coaching staff in action in practice. Keep March 24 circled on your calendars moving forward.

Penn State makes the cut

On Wednesday evening, five-star class of 2019 cornerback Derek Stingley released a top 10 that included the Nittany Lions. The other nine schools in the Baton Rouge native’s top 10 are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, Stanford, Texas, and Texas A&M. You can read more about that from Steve Lorenz of 247 Sports here.

While the Nittany Lions have no chance of landing Stingley, despite him visiting campus last summer, making his top 10 is still a great sign for the program. In the past Penn State never even would have been under consideration for a five-star player from Louisiana. However, the program’s brand is once again becoming one of the best in the FBS and this is just another sign of that.

Next: Breakout Candidate: DT Kevin Givens

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.