Nation’s No. 1 RB opens the door for Penn State to land his commitment again

Kemon Spell was one of the first players to make up his mind in the 2027 recruiting class, committing to Penn State in August 2024, heading into his sophomore high school season. However, that gave the five-star running back from McKeeseport, PA, plenty of time to change his mind. 

Spell de-committed from the Nittany Lions in October, 14 months after his commitment, and just days after Penn State fired James Franklin, though his commitment was wavering in the days leading up to that decision. Now, however, Spell could be coming back around on Penn State and Franklin’s replacement, Matt Campbell. 

With Campbell in place as the program’s next head coach, Spell seems to be opening the door to rejoining the 2027 Penn State recruiting class. He recently told Dylan Dawson, “Great hire. I want to get to know (Campbell) and see if Penn State is still an option for me.” 

5-star RB Kemon Spell is singing a much different tune about Penn State with Matt Campbell

While that is not exactly a re-commitment message, it’s a far cry from the damning assessment he had of the program just a few months ago. 

“I want to be in a winning program, to be honest. They can’t win big games, and that’s something I want to do,” Spell said in an interview with On3. “Then coach Franklin got fired, and that just put me over the top.” 

In that same interview, Spell also cited former running back coach Ja’Juan Seider's departure for Notre Dame as another reason that he cut ties with the Nittany Lions. Along with Notre Dame, Spell is a top recruiting target for Georgia, Miami, Ohio State, and USC. That’s stiff competition for Campbell and his general manager, Derek Hoodjer. 

Campbell led Iowa State to unprecedented success over his ten seasons in Ames. There really aren’t many reasons to doubt that he’ll succeed with greater resources in the Big Ten. Still, Campbell has never proven that he can recruit elite four and five-star talent. Iowa State never had access to that caliber of player, so it’s not exactly a certainty that Campbell and his staff will immediately be able to lock down a recruit like Spell. 

It’s not just Spell either. The PA 2027 recruiting class is loaded with elite talent. Spell is the No. 7 player in the country by 247Sports Composite Rankings, the highest-ranked player in the state. He is one of four PA players in the Composite top 100 and one of 13 in the top 300. 

If Campbell and Hoodjer can land much of that in-state talent, it could be the foundation of a future championship team. If not, it will be a massive wasted opportunity for the program because classes like that in PA don’t come around every year.