The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented football recruits from being able to officially visit schools for a year now, but that hasn’t stopped Penn State Football recruiting’s efforts
The NCAA extended the visit ban until May 31, meaning it will be almost 14 months since the last recruit officially visited Penn State, or any other school. The hope is that the ban will not be extended beyond the end of May.
Penn State football is planning as if that ban will not go any further, as recruits have started to lock in official visits for the month of June.
Three weekends in June seem to be receiving the majority of attention. Two of them, June 11-13 and 18-20, are full of un-committed prospects, while 25-27 seems to be the weekend reserved for Penn State commits.
Thanks to the Penn State Football graphics department, recruits have been able to tweet out graphics with the date of their visit. This allows us to get a good idea of who will be coming to Happy Valley.
https://twitter.com/AllarDrew/status/1369648170838355970?s=20
Recruits who have tweeted about visiting on 11th to 13th include, 4-star running back Nicholas Singleton, 4-star defensive end Joe Strickland and 4-star corner back Jaeden Gould.
For the 18th to 20th weekend, prospects expected to be there are 3-star defensive ends Anto Saka and Keon Wylie, and 4-star corner back Ryan Turner.
These lists will most likely grow as we get closer to June and receive more clarity on what visits will look like.
The weekend that seems to be reserved for commits will include, Jerry Cross, Mehki Flowers, Drew Allar and Kaden Saunders. The other four commits; Drew Shelton, Ken Talley, Beau Pribula and Anthony Ivey have not publicly stated that they will attend yet, but chances are they will.
All of this right now is tentative, of course. The NCAA will most likely make a decision within the next month pertaining to the visit ban. If the ban is lifted, the next debate becomes the protocols that schools will need to follow with recruits on campus.
Official visits are a big deal, because it is the one time a program is allowed to roll out the red carpet for a recruit. The school covers the expenses of lodging and food for the recruit and his family during their stay, and usually give out some gifts and apparel.
The weekend that the commits will get together will have more of a feeling of a family reunion, while the weekends for un-committed recruits will be more business-like for the staff.
These weekends will be big, as Penn State looks to continue their success in the 2022 recruiting cycle.