Week 4 wasn’t just Matt Campbell’s debut in the Big Ten; it was also a major recruiting showcase for Campbell’s new program. He and his staff hosted 60+ recruits for Week 4 against Wisconsin, and all were on hand to see the team blow a 17-point lead and meltdown in the second half to lose as 10-point home favorites.
It wasn’t a great showing, but that doesn’t mean it can’t lead to commitments from the recruits on hand. And if it does, that would certainly take the sting out of a loss that meaningfully lowered Penn State’s prospects for the 2026 season but didn’t derail the long-term vision Campbell has in place.
Of course, winning while building up the program would be ideal, but Week 4 exposed how far away this Penn State roster is from competing at the top of the Big Ten, so success on the recruiting trail is almost more important than the results on the field this season, at least as far as the pursuit of the program’s first national championship since 1986 is concerned.
It was a long list of recruits, and any commitments would be positive, but landing these three players in the near future would be the best silver lining the Nittany Lions could hope for.
3. Chase Guers, 2027 3-star WR
Guers wasn’t the highest-ranked player in attendance. In fact, he wasn’t even the highest-ranked 2027 wide receiver flip target for the Nittany Lions who was there at Beaver Stadium (3-star Rutgers commit Jamar Taylor). But Guers is an in-state product from Blue Mountain High School, the No. 20 player in PA according to 247Sports Composite, and he’s at a position of desperate need.
Without Koby Howard on the field, Penn State’s wide receivers, aside from redshirt senior Chase Sowell, looked helpless to separate from Wisconsin’s defensive backs. Campbell and wide receiver coach Kashif Moore need an infusion of talent, but currently have only one commit in the 2027 class, four-star Landon Blum, who plays eight-man football in Iowa.
Blum has serious upside, but could have a steep learning curve, and after whiffing on Jamir Dean, Deshawn Hall, and Khalil Taylor, Penn State just needs another wide receiver to take a chance on in the class, or else it will need to be a big-time player in the portal. Guers received an offer on Sunday, so it seems Penn State will make a push to flip him from WVU.
2. Brandon Murphy Jr., 2028 4-star ATH
Even if Penn State can flip Guers or Taylor before signing day, wide receiver still needs to be a priority going forward, especially when there’s an in-state player as talented as Brandon Murphy Jr. Murphy is the No. 148 overall player by 247Composite, and the 6-foot, 195-pound athlete from Clairton, PA, can play both ways as a safety and wide receiver.
Regardless of where he plays, he needs to do it in Happy Valley. Penn State can’t get by without dominating in-state recruiting, and that was a struggle in 2027, Campbell’s first full cycle.
1. George Parkinson IV, 2028 4-star EDGE
Landing George Parkinson IV should probably be priority No. 2 for Penn State right now, right behind beating Northwestern on Friday. Regardless of the state of the current roster, a top-100 in-state player like Parkinson would be a priority, but Penn State also needs a difference-maker off the edge.
Parkinson could be that guy, but Ohio State, LSU, Oregon, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are all in the mix for the No. 2 player in PA, and all five of those programs meaningfully outspend the Nittany Lions. Or at least they did in 2026.
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