Penn State Football: What still needs to be done in the 2023 recruiting class

Keep recruiting edge rushers

Penn State has two solid edge rushers committed in 4-star prospects Tomarrion Parker and Jameial Lyons, but that doesn’t mean they should stop recruiting the position.

There have been plenty of times where a player looks like a defensive end now and eventually turns into a defensive tackle. While it’s not projected to be the case with either of Penn State’s commits, it doesn’t hurt to give yourself more insurance.

There aren’t too many viable options out there right now for Penn State, but there are two hypotheticals that make sense.

The first is simple, win the recruitment of 4-star Jalen Thompson, who became a top target earlier this summer. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound edge rusher also has the likes of Michigan State, Pitt and Cincinnati after him. He currently does not have a commitment date set, so it’s possible he drags his recruitment into the season and takes visits for games.

Landing him would be a great way to cap off the defensive line haul in this class.

The second option is to land 4-star linebacker Kaveion Keys from Virginia. He looks to be down to the Nittany Lions and North Carolina, as they are the two schools he took an official visit to.

If Penn State lands the 6-foot-3 Keys, it would give them to luxury of moving either Keys or new commit Ta’Mere Robinson to the edge if either grew too big for linebacker.

Both would likely start their careers at linebacker, but as in the case where players grow from ends to tackles, they also grow from linebackers to ends.

Landing both Thompson and Keys would be something, but at least getting one of the two would give the defensive staff some more options down the road.