Penn State football recruitment isn't getting any better in the wake of former head coach James Franklin's firing.
Franklin himself is working on rallying his former Nittany Lion commits to join him at his new home, Virginia Tech. Now at an ACC, high-ranked recruits might give Franklin a chance, but might also be looking at more powerhouses to take their talents to. Schools, like Ohio State and even Nebraska are gaining traction with many Penn State de-commits or those who reopened their recruitment.
Coming in hot alongside Big Ten schools, is a very familiar foe in recruitment: No. 9 Notre Dame.
Top 4-star Penn State commit is slipping away, on an official visit to Notre Dame
Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame continue to be Penn State's kryptonite
Four-star Matt Sieg is the latest to put the Fighting Irish into consideration, reopening his recruitment while staying committed to the Nittany Lions. Freeman joins Pittsburgh trying to pluck Sieg out of Happy Valley. After defeating the Panthers 37-15 on their own field in Week 12, Notre Dame has a good pitch to throw at Sieg to pull him out of Pennsylvania entirely.
Freeman already succeeded in taking a recruit out of Pennsylvania, four-star offensive lineman James Halter. While Halter wasn't committed to Penn State, the Nittany Lions were in his top choices alongside Pittsburgh. He chose the Fighting Irish over the home-state schools.
Proving Notre Dame's point further that it has no issue collecting tokens from Penn State and Pennsylvania entirely, it currently is the leader in landing five-star running back Kemon Spell. Spell was initially committed to the Nittany Lions and stood by his loyalty to the program during the non-conference slate of 2025. When things crashed and burned, Franklin's firing was Spell's perfect excuse to de-commit. Since then, it's looked like Freeman found an up-and-coming running back to add to his roster.
Even before the 2025 season started, Notre Dame beat Penn State out for a number of recruits. Four-star quarterback Teddy Jarrard was among them, slashing the Nittany Lions' hopes of landing a promising quarterback for the future of the program.
As recruits de-commit and look elsewhere, Penn State's classes are going to get shallower and shallower. Without a new head coach certain to lead the team moving forward, the blue and white can't expect recruits to be on standby, and other teams around the country won't allow that anyways. As they seek to keep commits from swaying over to the Hokies with Franklin, they can't forget about Freeman's recent history in winning those recruitment battles either.