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Nation's No. 1 RB decommits from Penn State and it's all on James Franklin

Things are going from bad to worse for the Nittany Lions.
Braulio Perez
Braulio Perez

Victory Bell Rings

McKeesport's Kemon Spell (20) gets taken to the ground by multiple Aliquippa defenders during the second half of the WPIAL 4A Championship game Friday evening at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, PA. / Michael Longo/For BCT / USA TODAY NETWORK

Once it was announced that Penn State football had decided to part ways with James Franklin, you knew it was going to have a brutal impact with recruiting. Well, several Nittany Lions commits have decided they won't be Penn State-bound after all. The list includes Kemon Spell.

Penn State immediately loses elite LB commit after firing James Franklin

Ranked five stars and the No. 1 running back in the country for the 2027 class, Spell said not long ago that he was no longer '100 percent' committed to the program. However, he just told On3's Hayes Fawcett that following the Franklin update coming on Sunday, he has made the call to decommit from the Big Ten side:

5-star running back Kemon Spell has decommitted from Penn State football

This really shouldn't come as a major surprise. As we mentioned above, Spell recently said that he wasn't fully committed and he was going to take a look at other programs. With Penn State falling to 3-3 and firing Franklin, the writing was on the wall for Spell here.

Now that he has opened up his process, the Georgia Bulldogs figure to be a major player in his recruitment moving forward. Georgia recently offered Spell and it was clearly a tender that he was waiting for. Kirby Smart and Co. waited a while to put that offer on the table, but they must have had a plan all along.

According to the 247Sports Composite, the 5-9, 205-pound Spell is ranked five stars, the No. 1 running back in the country, No. 1 prospect out of Pennsylvania and the No. 8 prospect nationally for the 2027 class. Yeah, he's an elite target.

Other teams to keep a close eye on moving forward include Notre Dame, Ohio State and others. When Penn State originally landed Spell, fans everywhere were fired up about his potential with the offense moving forward. Things aren't meant to be here for Penn State, though, as Spell has decided he wants to play his college ball for a different powerhouse. The hits keep coming for the program.

Braulio Perez

Braulio Perez

Braulio Perez is an NCAA Content Director for FanSided, joining Minute Media in 2017 after 2.5 years at the Newark Star-Ledger as a high school sports reporter and 2.5 years at the Lynden Tribune as sports editor. While with the Lynden Tribune, Perez was named the Sports Writer of the Year in 2012 for his division by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. At the Star-Ledger, he also assisted in coverage of college football recruiting. Perez's focus has been on college football recruiting, high school sports, the NFL, NCAA and English Premier League. He is also a regular contributor for 247Sports' Cougfan.com.