Penn State Recruiting: Johnathan Walton Decommits

After a weekend visit to Tennessee and a scholarship offer to boot, high school linebacker Johnathan Walton decided that he wanted to look around at schools for a little longer and rescinded his verbal commitment to Penn State. Despite wanting some more time to make his college decision before Signing Day, Walton said that Penn State is definitely still in the mix.

Walton still has a visit to South Carolina coming this weekend, a school that offered him a scholarship earlier this month after he committed to the Nittany Lions. In addition to Penn State, South Carolina and Tennessee, Walton seems to be drawing interest from Minnesota, Mississippi State and Auburn.

Linebacker is becoming a position of need for Lions, and while Walton is not completely gone yet, his commitment elsewhere would be a blow softened by last month's recommitment by Zayd Issah. Walton, however, was one of a few players Penn State recruited from the Deep South, in addition to Kasey Gaines, Neiko Robinson and Parker Cothren. Hanging onto all four of them would only help to continue Penn State's new southern pipeline for recruits.

If Walton were to leave, Issah and Brandon Bell provide for two other great recruits in this position, but the 2013 class is pretty slim pickings for another linebacker at this stage; former target Buddy Brown is committed to Temple. News came out last week that the staff offered Clemson commit Ben Boulware but that he was happy with where he was at.

Walton has been receiving a lot of SEC interest over the past month and a decommitment doesn't come as too much of a surprise. The departure of Ted Roof from the coaching staff probably didn't help things either. It seems as though Signing Day will be the earliest we find out if Walton will head north or stay close to home for his college career.

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