Evaluating Penn State football’s 2021 WR Haul

Penn State football has struggled to fill out the 2021 recruiting class, but wide receiver has a chance to be the crop’s strength

Critics have had their fair share of comments for Penn State football‘s 2021 recruiting class.

One position that has caught some flak recruiting wise, has been wide receiver. There has been some inconsistencies in recruiting there due to the fact that Penn State is on their fourth positional coach in as many years.

At one point, the Nittany Lions had a commitment from a highly ranked 4-star wide receiver in Dont’e Thornton. Thornton committed in February of 2019, but opened things back up that August.

Thornton was the headliner of a group of three receivers from Maryland that then WR coach Gerad Parker had a strong relationship with. The other two were 4 stars Kaden Prather and Jalil Farooq.

Prather decided to commit to West Virginia, where Parker is now the offensive coordinator, and Farooq is headed to Oklahoma.

Current WR coach Taylor Stubblefield caught some heat for how this played out, but he was just starting to create a relationship with these targets, while other schools were creating stronger relationships with them. He was also attempting to create these relationships during a pandemic, not really easy to do.

Any thought that Stubblefield isn’t a capable recruiter can be put to bed by looking at the progress he’s already made with 2022 WR targets in a short time. He has a 4-star on board, and has Penn State in great position with multiple other top targets.

Despite the situation explained above, there’s a lot to like out of what Penn State does have committed at the receiver position in 2021.

Let’s start with Liam Clifford, the younger brother of Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford. At the time of his commitment in October of 2019, Liam was a mid 3-star and some questioned if the only reason he was a take was because of his brother. Worth noting that Penn State never offered Nolan Rucci’s older brother, or Saquon Barkley’s younger brother.

That idea has been torn to shreds this Fall as Clifford has destroyed defenses in the state of Ohio. Just last week, the 6’1 195 wideout caught 12 passes for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns. 247 Sports also ranked him as a 4-star in their most recent update.

Clifford is an excellent route runner, but also has solid hands and footwork. It definitely helps that he got to spend his quarantine with Penn State’s starting quarterback. He looks to be capable of playing in the slot or out wide. Could be a contributor by his sophomore year and a starter the following year. James Franklin and his staff made the right move to take Clifford, because he’s blowing it up now.

The other receiver in this class is Lonnie White Jr. White Jr. is an interesting story; he didn’t pick up a Penn State offer until April and then committed in May. At the time, White Jr. wasn’t ranked high at all, because he had been rated as a quarterback and he was committed to Clemson to play baseball. He wasn’t expected to play college football, then Penn State decided to offer him as an athlete.

When Penn State offered him as an athlete, the recruiting services rated him as one and bumped him to a 4-star.

White Jr.  is a tremendous athlete, he is capable of playing D1 football and baseball, and also plays basketball at Malvern Prep. At 6’2, he has great size for a receiver and is also physical and tough to bring down. He also possess the speed and vertical for the position.

Some think he could turn into a star as a wide receiver, once he is removed from his days as a high school quarterback. He was expected to move to receiver for his senior year, but Malvern hasn’t played yet due to the pandemic.

The major concern with White Jr. isn’t that he’s not a good player, it’s that he’ll never get to campus. He had a phenomenal Summer on the baseball circuit and has shot up draft boards.

This mock draft by Fueled By Sports, has White Jr. going 20th overall to the New York Yankees. Last year’s 20th overall slot value was $3,242,900, meaning White Jr. would walk away from that to play football at Penn State.

White Jr. is in an interesting spot though, because the draft is usually held in early June, around the time that freshmen report to Penn State for the first time. In 2021 though, the draft has been moved to mid-July, meaning he’d already be enrolled at Penn State for the Summer session. According to Major League Baseball rules, high school prospects are eligible for the draft as long as they have not already attended college. Once at college, the prospect must wait until the end of his junior year in order to be draft eligible again.

There is the possibility that White Jr. could hold off enrolling at Penn State until after the draft.

It’s definitely not a situation that we’ve seen with a Penn State recruit in recent memory.

Because of this, Penn State is keeping an eye on other wide receivers. Markus Allen recently decommitted from Michigan, he doesn’t have a PSU offer, but there is interest. Penn State is also looking at Prather still, and another West Virginia commit in Andrew Wilson-Lamp. 4-star Keon Coleman just decommitted from Kansas and holds a PSU offer, although they were not major players in his recruitment before his commitment to Kansas, but that could change.

Despite what some consider a down year for Penn State recruiting, they still have two 4-star wide receiver commits, who both have a lot of upside and talent.