Penn State made a big step toward filling a major need this afternoon when Cardinal Mooney (Youngstown, OH) running back/linebacker Brandon Beachum made a verbal commitment to play football for the Nittany Lions.
While most schools recruited Beachum to play linebacker, Penn State offered him as a running back. At 6'0" and 220 lbs, he's a full load to bring down leading many to believe he may end up being an Aaron Harris tailback/fullback hybrid type player. As a junior, Beachum rushed for 1500 yards and 16 touchdowns in leading Cardinal Mooney to the Division IV State Championship along with teammate and fellow PSU commit Mike Zordich.
Rivals ranks Beachum as the #5 running back in the country while Scout is a little less optimistic in ranking him #41. In any case this is a huge get for Joe Paterno. After not taking a running back in the last class this was a huge need. While Beachum helps fill that, ideally Penn State could use one or two more in this class. But for today we can breathe a little easier knowing we have a good running back in this class.