Penn State Football’s Whiteout return great news on recruiting front

Penn State Football is set to host Auburn in a massive top 25 showdown during this year’s Beaver Stadium White Out on Saturday night.

Saturday night’s No. 10 Penn State Football vs. No. 22 Auburn matchup will bring the return of the famous whiteout game in Beaver Stadium, after a one year absence due to the pandemic.

While Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin is hoping the raucous crowd will give his team a strong homefield advantage during the game, he’s hoping they do one other thing as well, help him recruit.

The whiteout is the Penn State Football game that most high-level high school recruits choose to attend, because of the wild environment, and because it usually is the biggest game on the schedule.

This year is no different, as recruits from the 2022, 2023, 2024 and even 2025 classes from all over the country will be in Happy Valley this weekend.

Penn State Football is hoping to continue the insane recruiting success they had this Summer, which propelled them to the No. 1 class in 2022 cycle. While there are few spots remaining in the 2022 class, this will be an opportunity to get the 2023 class going.

The 2023 class only has one commit so far, being 5-star offensive lineman Alex Birchmeier. Obviously, Birchmeier is fantastic start to the class, but the Nittany Lions have their eyes on more top targets.

Some of the 2023 targets who have tweeted they will be there this Saturday include: 3-star CB Lamont Payne, 4-star LB TaMere Robinson, 3-star LB Phil Picciotti, 4-star OL Antonio Tripp, amongst many others.

When the dust settles, there will likely be over 100 recruits, committed and uncommitted ones, at the game on Saturday. Most, if not all, of Penn State’s 2022 commits are expected to be in attendance.

While probably none of the 2024 recruits on hand will commit right after this game, it will be a lasting memory for them that they will have in the back of their mind when that decision day comes for them, whether it be months or years down the road.

Winning this game will certainly help Penn State not only this year, but for years to come, as the recruits’ experience will be better with a Nittany Lion victory.

The whiteout has played a huge role in recruitments before, Saquon Barkley attended the whiteout while committed to Rutgers and notes that it played a role in him ultimately flipping.

Franklin and his staff will hope this whiteout has the same effect on recruits.