Penn State wasn’t favored to land four-star edge rusher Marvin Nguetsop, but as a Northeast product, playing his high school football at St. Thomas More School in Connecticut, he was certainly on Matt Campbell’s radar. On Saturday, Nguetsop chose Ole Miss over Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State, among other contenders, and while he wasn’t expected to join the Nittany Lions, he’s another blue-chip name off the board.
BREAKING: Four-Star EDGE Marvin Nguetsop has Committed to Ole Miss, he tells me for @Rivals⁰⁰The 6’7 265 EDGE chose the Rebels over Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 30, 2026
“Let’s get to work🦈🦈”https://t.co/tDtGEdqeFR pic.twitter.com/AyO2QC3QEt
Nguetsop, heading to Oxford, Mississippi, puts a bit more pressure on Campbell and his staff to close the deal with the three edge rushers heading to Happy Valley this Friday for Penn State’s biggest official visit weekend of the offseason.
For Carter Blattner, that means getting the New Jersey three-star to shut down his recruitment. For Ifeanyi Emedobi and Zahmar Tookes, that means pulling off a significant recruiting upset for a commitment.
Matt Campbell faces an uphill battle with Ifeanyi Emedobi and Zahmar Tookes
With 20 commits, Penn State’s 2027 class ranks 16th in the country by Rivals, a decent start, but not one littered with blue-chip talent for Campbell and general manager Derek Hoodjer. The volume is impressive, but the goal of this weekend, with 26 players expected to arrive on campus Friday, should be to add high-end quality, not just more quantity, to their inaugural class in Happy Valley.
Four-star defensive lineman Stanley Montgomery is a top-100 player by Rivals Industry, but the highest-ranked and only true edge rusher in Penn State’s class so far is Blattner, ranked No. 444 in the nation and No. 44 at EDGE. Aside from Emedobi and Tookes, Elijah Guertin is the only other EDGE scheduled for an OV to Penn State this spring. He’s expected to arrive on June 12, but the 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive end from Rhode Island is the 1,241st overall recruit in the class. In-state four-star Abraham Sesay included Penn State in his top 6, but does not have a visit scheduled.
Currently, Emedobi has five predictions logged to Michigan, where he is overwhelmingly expected to commit. The fact that he hasn’t yet may be a slight cause for optimism, but it would take a herculean effort to sway him at this point. Tookes is even more heavily predicted to commit to Florida, with five predictions rolling in since his weekend visit to Gainesville. The Rivals Prediction Machine has Tookes predicted to Florida at 96.2 percent.
The lack of EDGE interest might be by design
It doesn’t appear that Penn State is going to land either player. In the short-term, that’s not exactly a disaster. Max Granville and Yvan Kemajou both have sophomore eligibility and are expected to either start or play a major role in the EDGE rotation with Ike Ezeogu, a redshirt senior from Iowa State, and Alexander McPherson, another defensive end with sophomore eligibility after transferring from Colorado.
Plus, one of Penn State’s biggest wins as it tried to salvage a 2026 recruiting class was four-star EDGE Jackson Ford. Another was flipping four-star EDGE Elijah Reeder from Iowa State. Those moves may explain why Campbell and Hoodjer haven’t been particularly active at the position in the 2027 cycle, even as the EDGE rotation is one of the biggest questions on the 2026 roster.
Emedobi and Tookes are still players to watch this weekend, as Nguetsop was before he committed to Ole Miss, though he didn’t have an official visit scheduled to Penn State. However, Campbell and Hoodjer might be wise to spend their resources elsewhere.
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