After Lex Cyrus spurned Penn State, James Franklin should turn to these 3 recruiting targets

The 2024 college football season is fast approaching but with over 40 days until the kickoff of Week 0 and even longer before the Nittany Lions head to Morgantown for Week 1, the focus of the Penn State fanbase is still construction of the 2025 recruiting class. On Thursday, four-star receiver and Harrisburg native Lex Cyrus chose South Carolina over Happy Valley, so James Franklin and his coaching staff now need to redirect their attention toward other potential recruiting targets. 

Despite missing out on Cyrus, a crucial recruit for both his position and geographic proximity, Penn State’s class is still No. 9 in the nation with 22 commits. Headlined by cornerbacks Daryus Dixson and Jahmir Joseph, much of the focus has been on the defensive side of the ball, but landing one of these three offensive recruits could quell concerns about this class. 

Bell is still the ultimate pie-in-the-sky wide receiver recruit in the 2025 class for Penn State. He’s an athletic four-star who has dominated California high school football, a state that Franklin has recruited well in this cycle. While Bell isn’t the speed threat that Cyrus was, his polish as a route-runner and impressive quickness for his size would give the Nittany Lions a different element than what Jeff Exinor Jr. Penn State’s lone four-star pass catcher in the class, provides. 

The problem with Bell is that USC and Ohio State are both very interested and while Bell could be scared off by the glut of talent that the Buckeyes boast at the position, USC is the favorite to keep him at home in Southern California. 

In the 2025 class, Penn State already has commitments from three Florida products, Bekkem Kritza, and Randy Adirika, and Antonio Branch Jr. So, Franklin and his staff are comfortable plucking top talent out of the Sunshine State. As a legitimate speedster who has feasted on go-routes in high school, Howard would be a nice consolation to Cyrus, but his lack of size and questionable footwork could slow his integration process into the college game. 

Penn State appears to be in a two-horse race with Ole Miss for Howard’s services and he was likely the first call that wide receivers coach Marques Hagans made after Cyrus rebuffed the offer. 

It’s easy to point to the lack of wide receiver talent and Drew Allar’s struggles as the reasons that Penn State lost to Ohio State and Michigan in 2023, but the issues with the offense ran much deeper than that. James Franklin prioritized Julian Fleming in the transfer portal and the play-calling issues cost Mike Yurcich his job, but there wasn’t much done to upgrade the offensive line that, despite the notoriety of Olu Fashanu, struggled against top-tier competition. 

Against Ohio State, even with an average time to throw of 2.85 seconds, Allar was pressured a staggering 23 times on 48 dropbacks and had the pocket awareness to only get sacked three times. Michigan pressured him 15 times on just 28 dropbacks with a time to throw of 2.86. Most criticism of Allar is fair, but his offensive line never gave him in chance in those two games. 

Goodman would be an interior presence that Penn State doesn’t have in the 2025 class which only includes two three-star offensive linemen. The Nittany Lions and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein have done a good job recruiting up front, especially in the 2023 class that featured J’Ven Williams, Alex Birchmeier, Chindy Onoh, and Anthony Donkoh. Then, in 2024 Trautwein landed Cooper Cousins, but the O-line doesn’t have a foundational piece in the 2025 class, at least not yet. 

Goodman is expected to make his commitment in either late July or early August and has narrowed down his finalists to Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, USC, and Penn State.