In what will be the biggest recruiting weekend for Penn State in quite some time, the good folks at 247Sports have confirmed the attendance of over 40 commits and recruits for tomorrow's matchup with Alabama. So let's get right into it...
The Commits
Of the 17 current commits, 12 have confirmed their attendance. The five missing have valid reasons, as I'm sure they would all like to be there. Those coming to State College are:
Armani Reeves
Cam Williams
Jake Kiley
Malik Golden
Eugene Lewis
Nyeem Wartman
Austin Johnson
Brent Wilkerson
Jesse James
J.P. Holtz
Tommy Schutt
Anthony Stanko
The remaining five commits (J.J. Denman, Skyler Mornhinweg, Derek Dowrey, Brian Gaia, and Joey O'Connor) will either be attending their own games or living in Colorado. Either way, having 12 of the current commits there, especially guys like Cam Williams and Eugene Lewis, will do wonders for the recruits. Expect Cam to be constantly in the ear of many of the players listed below.
The 2012 Recruits
All of the following players have confirmed their attendance. The weather might keep some of them away, but as of right now, they all plan to be in Happy Valley tomorrow.
Brionte Dunn, RB (OH)
Devin Fuller, QB/ATH (NJ)
Joel Caleb, WR (VA)
Kent Taylor, TE (FL)
Canaan Severin, WR (MA)
Korren Kirven, DL (VA)
Quanzell Lambert, LB (NJ)
Jamil Pollard, DT (NJ)
Demetrious Cox, S (PA)
Bam Bradley, S (OH)
Will Mahone, RB (OH)
These are all big names, but the ones to keep an eye on are Fuller, Taylor, Cox and Mahone. These are at the top of the Board for PSU at the moment, and I'd be willing to bet that PSU lands at least two of them. Dunn, Caleb, Kirven, Lambert, and Pollard are likely headed elsewhere, while Severin and Bradley remain wild cards.
The big question mark here is the attendance of Noah Spence. His game on Saturday, which would have almost certainly kept him out of Happy Valley, has been rescheduled for Sunday. There is no confirmation as of yet that he'll plan on making the relatively short trip from Harrisburg to State College, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him on the sidelines tomorrow.
UPDATE: Noah Spence will not be in attendance. He will be preparing for his own game on Sunday. Can't fault that decision.
The 2013 and Beyond Recruits
In addition, Penn State will play host to the following players, each of whom will be top targets once their respective recruiting years get into full swing.
Ben Gedeon, ATH (OH, Class of '13)
Dajuan Drennon, DL (NJ, Class of '13)
Derrick Green, RB (VA, Class of '13)
Patrick Kugler, OL (PA, Class of '13)
Greg Webb, DL (NJ, Class of '13)
Ryan Switzer, ATH (WV, Class of '13)
Adam Breneman, TE (PA, Class of '13)
Buddy Brown, LB (NJ, Class of '13)
Delando Johnson, ATH (MD, Class of '13)
Ryan Burns, QB (VA, Class of '13)
Here, the main guys on the list are Green (a talented RB out of Virginia), Breneman (will be PSU's top TE target, depending on what happens with Kent Taylor this year), and Burns (a quality QB for next year's class).
There may also be some Class of '14 prospects in attendance, but we have not confirmed that at this point.
Finally, Quenton Decosey, a basketball recruit covered by Eric in his great recruiting post, is on an official visit to Penn State this weekend.
It will hopefully be a great weekend for recruiting, and a couple of the guys mentioned are on commit-alert, despite our previous guesses that the next siren would be far off. Steve Wiltfong wraps it up nicely:
This recruiting weekend is similar to the one Penn State hosted against Ohio State back in 2005, and against Michigan last fall. Both dates went a long way towards the Nittany Lions recruiting success in those classes, a top-10 year in 2006, and several key difference makers in 2011. It’s hard to imagine Coach Joe Paterno and company won’t see the same type of results this Saturday.
Now let's see some success this weekend, both on the field and off.