Penn State Football: 3 regrets from 2023 recruiting cycle
![Central Valley’s Matt Gerovac eyes Laurel Highlands QB Rodney Gallagher, who barely escapes the end zone for 4th down during their WPIAL playoff game Friday at Central Valley High School. [Lucy Schaly/For BCT]Central Valley Football Beats Laurel Highlands 36 7 In Wpial Playoffs](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F67934491b0c553e914ce01c6e99fb66dbc9705066269dbebd8530195716fef73.jpg "Central Valley’s Matt Gerovac eyes Laurel Highlands QB Rodney Gallagher, who barely escapes the end zone for 4th down during their WPIAL playoff game Friday at Central Valley High School. [Lucy Schaly/For BCT]Central Valley Football Beats Laurel Highlands 36 7 In Wpial Playoffs")
2. The misses at wide receiver
Penn State Football ended the 2023 cycle with just one wide receiver in 4-star Carmelo Taylor.
The speedy Taylor could give the Nittany Lions a KJ Hamler type deep ball threat in a couple years, but to just grab one wide receiver hurts.
Penn State had two other wide receiver commits throughout the cycle in 4-star Yazeed Haynes, who flipped to Georgia and 3-star Ejani Shakir, who parted ways with the team.
The loss of Haynes will certainly hurt because well, if he’s good enough for the back-to-back national champs, he’s good enough to play anywhere.
It’s not just the decommits though, there were flat out misses like in-state 4-star Rodney Gallagher, who ended up at West Virginia. While it’s been reported that NIL played a role in that recruitment, it’s still a tough one to swallow.
Losing two in-state 4-stars in Haynes and Gallagher at wide receiver is a big blow and it may be a reason why wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield was let go after the season.
Penn State made up for these misses by adding Dante Cephas and Malik McClain from the transfer portal, but they are one-to-two-year fixes instead of three-to-four-year ones.