A look back at Nick Singleton’s epic recruitment
5. Senior season to enrollment
Nick Singleton went on to be a star for Governor Mifflin High School during his senior season.
In 11 games, Singleton carried the ball 165 times for 2,049 yards and 41 touchdowns. These insane stats helped Governor Mifflin make a deep run in the state playoffs. This season would eventually make Singleton the Gatorade National Player of the Year, a massive honor.
Shortly after committing, Singleton was also rated as the No. 1 running back in the country by 247 Sports, an honor he held through the end of the cycle.
However, Notre Dame did not stop recruiting Singleton.
In October of 2021, members of the Irish staff made a visit to Singleton’s high school, believing the recruitment was far from over.
In the same article as in the slide prior, Tom Loy of Irish Illustrated reported that Notre Dame was still trying with Singleton.
"Later this week, area recruiter and tight ends coach John McNulty will stop by Governor Mifflin to check in on Singleton. This visit isn’t just some random stop en route to another school. This was intentional. From what we’re told, the staff has been in constant communication with Singleton since July and believes it’s worth it to stop by during Notre Dame’s bye week. There is a feeling inside the Gug that he hasn’t closed the book on Notre Dame quite yet."
This is a great piece on the insights of Singleton’s recruitment.
Whether or not Singleton was privately still interested in Notre Dame is unclear. From a public standpoint, he was not. Singleton attended numerous Penn State home games in 2021 and was very pro Penn State on social media.
The Penn State staff did a great job to hold onto Singleton, and the entire 2022 class, after a rough end to the 2021 season that included a lot of struggles with running the football.
On Dec. 15, 2021, Notre Dame and everyone else’s pursuit of Singleton ended with him signing his letter of intent to Penn State.
Singleton went on to enroll early at Penn State and was given No. 10. Many expect him to start the season as Penn State’s No. 2 running back, with some expectations that he could even start right away.
James Franklin, Ja’Juan Seider and the rest of Penn State’s staff deserve props for pulling through this very long and tough recruitment. This was one of the best recruiting battles we’ve seen Penn State win in a long time.