Commit Number Six

Blogging is a funny thing. You may have noticed I slacked off last week as there wasn't much news to talk about. Blogging is somewhat of a leap of faith as you always trust new events will keep happening to give you something to talk about. When you get into slow periods, like last week, you start getting antsy for some news to happen. I woke up this morning with no plan for what I was going to write about. But sometimes you never know what will be waiting for you on the message boards. This morning it was another defensive back.

Fresh off the heels of bring in Darrell Givens and Stephen Obeng-Agyapong Penn State landed another cornerback when Derrick Thomas gave his commitment to Joe Paterno.

According to the recruiting sites Thomas stands six feet tall and weighs 177 lbs with sub-4.5 speed. Scout ranks him a three star prospect while Rivals has not yet given him a star ranking. Thomas was entertaining offers from Maryland, Pitt, and Illinois as well as Penn State. He sited his relationship with Larry Johnson as a major reason why he commited to Penn State.

With Willis, Givens, Obeng-Agyapong, and now Thomas it appears our secondary of the future is taking shape. But not only that, it appears we may have a future captain in this group.

They are the fourth and fifth players to commit for this class. Among the recruits that preceded them was strong safety Malcolm Willis, a teammate of Givens at Lackey who also struck up a friendship with Obeng-Agyapong when they visited Penn State at the same time.

An engaging personality, Willis might be to this year’s Nittany Lion class what Aaron Maybin was a couple of years ago — a player who successful recruits future teammates. Even while he smiled about two of his friends joining him at Penn State, he went on to talk about how they were already trying to get others, like five-star Maryland linebacker Jelani Jenkins.

‘‘I was talking to [Givens] about it for a few weeks. He was already thinking about it,’’ Willis said. ‘‘He told me he was decommitting [from Ohio State]. I said, ‘OK, let’s take it over.’

Does Willis know any offensive players?