Penn State football: James Franklin making strong push for 4-Star TE
Penn State football head coach James Franklin keeps working on getting a commitment from 4-Star Canadian tight end, Theo Johnson.
The Nittany Lions fans in Happy Valley don’t have much to do this week as the bye week is present. With no game happening, Penn State football fans and players can focus on watching the rest of the Big Ten do their thing this weekend.
The Penn State coaching staff, on the other hand, they are still working. After a Wednesday night practice, Nittany Lions’ head coach James Franklin revealed to the media afterward that he plans on keeping busy during the bye week.
Instead of sitting around and reviewing game film for hours, Franklin and his staff have made plans to check out some of their top recruiting targets from all over. Not only to check them out live and direct but to show that they are genuinely interested in bringing these targeted prospects onto the team in 2020 or beyond.
Franklin’s trip started as early as Thursday night. He will continue his visits on Friday and make it back to Happy Valley on Saturday for an early practice with the team. Then after practice wraps up, Franklin plans to hit the road once again to check out a Saturday night game.
Who was on the schedule for Thursday?
On Thursday, Franklin was reportedly leaving to head up to Canada. Along with Penn State’s tight ends coach, Tyler Bowen, Franklin was headed to a Holy Names High School game to check out four-star tight end, Theo Johnson in action, according to 247 Sports’, Sean Fitzpatrick.
At this point, Penn State fans should be quite familiar with Johnson as the Nittany Lions seemed to have recruited him more than anybody at this point. Dating back to July of last year, Johnson has made numerous visits to Happy Valley.
He’s been in Pennsylvania for the Nittany Lions six times, to be exact. His most recent visit came two weeks ago when he attended the Penn State versus Buffalo matchup under the lights. Although he was there to check out his brother, who played for the Bulls, Johnson still caught up with the Penn State coaching staff.
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Thursday night was just another meeting between Johnson, Franklin, and Bowen. And looking at Johnson’s recruiting schedule, it won’t be the last. His official visit to Happy Valley is scheduled for October 19th. He’s already taken on one to Iowa and another to Georgia. Now, we’ll see if he keeps Michigan in the mix as well.