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Oh, Hello: Illinois DE Daniel Joseph Commits to Penn State

Remember when we were worried about depth along the defensive line lol

By Bill DiFilippo

Daniel Joseph, ladies and gentlemen!

Stats:

Hometown/High School: Lake Forest, IL/Lake Forest Academy

Height/Weight: 6'3"/240 lbs.

Recruited By: Ricky Rahne

Starz n' Sheetz:

Starz: 4* 247/ESPN, 3* Rivals/Scout

Sheetz: Penn State (obvi), Bowling Green, California, Duke, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami (OH), Michigan, Michigan State, NC State, Nebraska, New Mexico, Northwestern, Rutgers, Stanford, Syracuse, Toledo, Vanderbilt

Cinema:

The Tale:

Here's one that nobody saw coming. Seriously, get a load of this:

Joseph is an ultra-talented defensive end out of Illinois who nobody thought was coming to Penn State (although to be fair, he had two predictions on his crystal ball). The three/four-star lineman committed to Penn State via his Twitter account, a little less than four months after the Nittany Lions offered him a scholarship. According to 247, Joseph and his father visited State College on June 20. His top two, according to Rivals, was Penn State and Michigan, so James Franklin managed to pull a highly-regarded recruit from the midwest away from Jim Harbaugh. Nice.

Also: remember coming into last week, how we were worried about depth along the defensive line in this class? Since then, Franklin has pulled in three defensive tackles and a defensive end. HE LISTENS TO US.

The Outlook:

Like many of the other players Franklin has grabbed in this class, Joseph is a really, really good athlete. In addition to playing along the defensive line, he lines up as a tight end on offense, where he is adept at catching passes and blocking. He is the No. 73 recruit in America on ESPN and the No. 128 recruit in the country on 247.

However, Joseph is a defensive lineman. ESPN considers him an underrated prospect and thinks that he has the raw talent to one day be great. To be 100 percent honest, we haven't scouted him as much as we would have liked, because none of us saw his commitment coming.

With Joseph's commitment, Penn State now has the No. 2 class in the Big Ten and the No. 6 class in America, according to 247. At only 15 members, Penn State has the third-smallest class in the top-10 of 247's rankings.

You can give Joseph a follow on Twitter right here: @_DanielJoseph_.

Welcome to Penn State, Daniel!

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