Former Penn State football commit Aaryn Parks set to visit a rival

Two weeks ago, four-star offensive tackle Aaryn Parks backed out of his commitment with the Penn State football program. Now, he’s off to explore other opportunities, beginning with a Happy Valley enemy.

The recruiting process for Penn State football’s 2020 class has been a whirlwind. One day they are in good shape, ranking just outside of the top ten as a draft class. In a matter of days, they fall off and drop closer to the 30s range. Why did Penn State all of the sudden regress in their rankings? Well, they had a few initial commitments flip the switch, and re-open their recruiting.

Although only one school snatched up one of the three recent de-commitments in Grant Toutant, that still left the other two prospects without an idea of where they really want to play. Penn State wasn’t exactly the problem in their case — rather the players decided they might’ve made their decisions a bit too early. It’s understandable, but also frustrating for the organization.

The recruiting process goes on, but the losses definitely hurt. Although it’s not a guarantee that Aaryn Parks and Josh Moten definitely move on, the Nittany Lions surely aren’t banking on their return. When both Parks and Moten pulled away from their promise, they mentioned that Penn State will still be considered. But a major part of the reason why they both de-committed was because they wanted to test the playing field by taking on additional visits.

Finally, Parks gets on another teams schedule, and he’s set to take on his first official visit since telling Penn State he’s opening up his recruitment again. And unfortunately, he’s getting interest from an in-state rival. This weekend, Aaryn Parks is set to take on a visit to Pittsburgh — a team that made him an offer right after the Nittany Lions did around this time last year.

At this time, Penn State is still the predicted landing spot for Parks, according to 247 Sports’ crystal ball predictions. Being that Pittsburgh will be his first official visit since pulling away from Penn State, that percentage is sure to see a plummet if everything goes well between the Panthers and Parks this weekend.

Considering that Parks is taking on only his second reported visit during his recruiting process,  it will probably be a while until he makes his next decision. Knowing that he wasn’t totally sure he got it right during the first go-round, he will be sure to take his time making a decision as he tests the recruiting pool once again.