The summer between a player’s junior and senior year of high school is when the dominos begin to fall in the recruiting process, and this year is no different. Last week, as I discussed, Penn State was able to reel in four recruits for the 2016 cycle. This week was another big week for coach Franklin and staff. On Tuesday, strong side defensive end Daniel Joseph announced his commitment to the Nittany Lions via Twitter. Joseph is a 4 star prospect and is the number 5 rated player in the state of Illinois according to 247. He bolsters an already strong defensive class for the Lions. He has great size at 6’3 and 240 LBs and is very athletic and explosive. Joseph also plays tight end where he’s made some pretty nifty catches. From his highlight tape, I saw him split a double team, race across the field and sack the QB, for a man that big, that’s impressive. Joseph chose Penn State over Michigan and Michigan State, as they were his top 3.
Joseph wasn’t the only news from the week. 4 star LB Cameron Brown announced his top 6 schools, and Penn State was amongst them. 4 star receiver Steven Smothers also announced his top 6, and Penn State was there again. Both players are from Maryland, and if PSU was to land both, then they would own 5 out of the 10 best prospects in Maryland, and that wouldn’t sit well with our friends at Maryland. It is believed Brown is Happy Valley bound while Smothers is leaning towards West Virginia. The Lions also made the top 10 for 4 star WR Tre Nixon who is from Florida, chances are he’ll stay in the south, but Penn State was his only northern school which makes things interesting.
The Lions have also been drawing interest from the nation’s top kicker, Quinn Nordin whose crystal ball once read 100% Michigan, now reads 67% Penn State.
Most of Penn State’s recruiting success comes from the recruits themselves. Shane Simmons is one of the most out spoken prospects in the nation and just tweeted yesterday that another commit was on the way, so we’ll have to stay tuned.
In other news, Penn State had 4 recruits head to The Open in Oregon this weekend.
They are:
QB Jake Zembiec
RB Miles Sanders
DL Shane Simmons
CB Lavert Hill
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