Penn State football's Class of 2027 wide receiver situation is getting stickier by the day, and head coach Matt Campbell can't afford another Big Ten program picking up a prospect right out of his backyard.
Four-star wide receiver Matthew Gregory announced his commitment to UCLA on Friday, June 12. Campbell extended him an offer back in December 2025 and he attended the Nittany Lions' Junior Day as well at the end of January. However, Penn State fell off on his recruitment as the Bruins, LSU, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame all rose to the top.
As a result of Gregory, who is a Pottstown, Pa. native, committing to UCLA, the Cornhuskers got right to work trying to snatch another four-star wideout away from the Nittany Lions. In addition to Khalil Taylor being a blue-chip prospect, he's another Pennsylvania native from Gibsonia.
Penn State hasn't hit big with in-state prospects, but four-star wide receiver Khalil Taylor is still on the board
Now, Pennsylvania and Campbell have been like water and oil in this recruitment cycle. In comparison to former head coach James Franklin's classes since 2022, Penn State had anywhere between seven and 11 Pennsylvania natives committed (excluding the Class of 2026). Only three of Campbell's 20 commits are in-state prospects.
One by one, in-state recruits are coming off the board and not falling where the Nittany Lions need them to. Franklin was keen on keeping Pennsylvania talent at home, and even with the coaching change, that principle should remain.
Campbell can't redeem himself fully in this recruitment cycle unless he initiates a few flips between now and the early signing period, but he can help control where a few remaining uncommitted, blue-chip prospect land.
One of them is, of course, Taylor. He is the No. 82 recruit nationally, No. 13 wide receiver, and No. 4 player from Pennsylvania, per 247Sports Composite rankings.
Campbell has made great progress in his recruitment to the point where the Nittany Lions have almost a 100 percent chance to land him. However, Nebraska isn't backing down from this fight.
After Taylor's official visit on June 5-7, he canceled the remaining visits he had scheduled. He visited Colorado the weekend prior, but nixed the Cornhuskers and Alabama Crimson Tide from his calendar. Penn State also tallied up quite a few expert predictions following that weekend. In other words, Campbell got everything except the verbal commitment out of the official visit.
At first, that was a huge step in the right direction. While a commitment would have been ideal and would have proven Campbell's intriguing official visit approach worthwhile, the Nittany Lions couldn't really complain. No other school even appeared to be in serious contention with Penn State. Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule made sure that didn't remain the case.
Taylor re-scheduled an official visit and will be in Lincoln, Neb. this upcoming weekend for the final batch of official visits, according to reports.
Officially knocking out an SEC threat in Alabama is a positive to take away from Taylor's recruitment development, but Penn State has to beat out its Big Ten foe. He doesn't have much of a choice in the matter either. Regardless of which schools put their names back in the hat for the wideout, the Nittany Lions need Taylor. Point blank.
Add us as a preferred source on Google