Penn State Football Recruiting: Player Profile Grant Toutant

Penn State football recruiting has secured its first commit in the Class of 2020.

With the college football regular season winding down, recruiting news will start to heat up for the upcoming classes. Coaches will begin to worry less about game plans and focus more on brining in the newest crop of top talent available. Penn State football recruiting has its first member of the 2020 class.

Six-foot-six, 280-pound offensive tackle Grant Toutant announced that he will be taking his talents to State College to play for the Nittany Lions.

Toutant is a Michigan native, and attends De La Salle Collegiate in Warren. The high school junior has offers from Wisconsin, Pitt, Indiana and Duke. Toutant is considered a three-star prospect by 247sports.com.

Penn state offered Toutant on October 17. Toutant took in the sites and sounds on a Penn State football recruiting trip to Beaver Stadium in late October and witnessed the Nittany Lions beat Iowa, 30-24.

Toutant has everything a coach would want in offensive tackle. He’s long, athletic and strong. His training regimen is great and he can credit a lot of his athletic ability to time spent in the “gym.” He spent eight years of his life in competitive gymnastics. 

In terms of blocking ability, Toutant is an excellent pass blocker, with the arm length needed to keep pass rushers away. He moves well laterally and is aggressive. Toutant constantly plays through the whistle.

Toutant needs to get comfortable in his frame and continue to fill out. He’s got all the physical tools needed to play at the next level. Once he steps foot on campus, coaches will develop him into the type of player you could see starting on Saturdays in the Big Ten.

Off the field, Toutant has stated that academics were a big part in his decision process. It doesn’t hurt having a smart guy in the locker room.

Toutant took to Twitter to announce his commitment to Penn State before the Nittany Lions hosted Maryland in the finale of the 2018 regular season.

It would be good to see him continue to develop his run blocking game, add some weight and strength to his frame and continue to improve on his awareness. Toutant is a gem and it’s good to know that Penn State football recruiting is focused on grabbing developmental three-star talent. There are other talented players Penn State has their eye on in the Class of 2020.

Hopefully, Toutant’s commit starts a trend and other players from both the 2019 and 2020 classes jump onboard soon.