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Committany Nation (10.17.14): Official Visits and More

James Franklin makes this job infinitely more interesting.

By Nick Polak
Four star CB commit and US Army All American John Reid
Four star CB commit and US Army All American John Reid
Lions247

Welcome to this week's second edition of Committany Nation. Today we'll have a rundown of who is taking official visits and where, who else will be playing in high school all star games, and a new offer that has been sent out by the staff. Get excited.

You Can't Have a Recruit Without the Recruiting

There have been quite a few opinions shared about verbally committed kids taking visits to other schools since the news of Brandon Wimbush's flip to Notre Dame. Regardless of what your personal feelings are on the matter, know that it's something that you, as Penn State fans, need to start getting used to. James Franklin is going to recruit highly rated recruits as often as he can, and if the early returns are any indication, he's going to reel in a good number of them. There are many obvious upsides to bringing said recruits on board. However, with the monster that recruiting has become these days, kids are feeling more and more pressured to commit sooner and sooner. That means that when a lot of these guys commit, they are far from done in regards to receiving offers and hearing from other coaches. As a result, although their intentions may be pure, these kids will most likely take their official visits whether they are committed or not. In fact, Penn State is playing the game of trying to flip commits just as much as other schools, so don't knock the kids for changing their minds every so often. They are, after all, 17 and 18 years old. But that's enough of the serious stuff.

  • Adam McLean has set three of his official visits thus far.

Adam will likely take his other two visits as well.

  • Four star defensive tackle Tim Settle will be making an official visit to Penn State this weekend.

We'll have more on a full list of visitors for the whiteout showdown later on next week. To give you a quick preview though, you'll be very SaTisfied with A lot of the visitoRS.

  • I was talking with offensive line commit Steven Gonzalez, and he told me that while he doesn't have any official visits planned right now, it's something he's thinking about. IF he was to decide to take them, he told me that the schools that would receive visits are Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, and maybe Wisconsin and South Carolina. He was giving off the vibe (in my opinion) that those official visits were unlikely to happen. Only time will tell, though.

More All Americans

After Penn State commits Ryan Bates, Sterling Jenkins, and Adam McLean were honored with their official uniforms for the Under Armour All America Game this January, other members of the 2015 class were officially invited to participate in the U.S. Army All American Bowl. Four star wide receiver Juwan Johnson (Glassboro, NJ) and four star cornerback John Reid (Philadelphia, PA) were given their jerseys this week.

Also, take time out of your day to read this article from Sean Fitz at Lions247 (I believe this article is free). It paints a wonderful picture of John Reid, and talks about how he wants to set an example and be a leader.

This year's US Army All-American Bowl will take place on January 3rd, 2015, deep in the heart of Texas.

An Important New Offer

The staff has extended some new offers of note.

First off, one of the cornerbacks that we mentioned in the last update who Penn State was reportedly targeting, now officially holds his scholarship offer to be a Nittany Lion. Juwuan Briscoe, the three star cornerback from Thomas Stone High School in Maryland who is currently committed to Clemson, now has the chance to come play at Penn State. In my opinion, Briscoe is probably the most likely recruit to flip his commitment to the Nittany Lions, but I have been wrong plenty of times before.

As with all of the committed cornerbacks that the staff is targeting, nothing of note will happen until they make it on campus. That shouldn't be a problem for Briscoe however, so we should hear more about him very soon.

That's all for now. I just a quick update today to make sure you're all caught up heading into the weekend. This past week saw the addition of lots of new footage on Hudl for many of Penn State's commits and targets as well. Next week, be on the lookout for some breakdown of that tape, to see what the Lions are in store for when these guys arrive on campus.

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