Committany Nation (8.27.15): Wade Narrows his Focus, Swift and Kaindoh Talk Top Schools and More!

Lamont Wade is Noticing Five

One of the top players in Pennsylvania in 2017 class, is CB Lamont Wade (Clairton, PA). According to the 247Composite, Wade is the #2 player in Pennsylvania, the #7 cornerback, and the #52 player overall. In a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he singled out Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, UCLA and West Virginia as the schools who are recruiting him the hardest right now. You can check out the full article here.

Wade is a top target for the Nittany Lions in 2017, along with many other Pittsburgh-area targets.

New Rivals250

The other day, we saw the release of the new Rivals100, which included three Penn State commits. Now that the full Rivals250 rankings have been released, let's see where the rest of the Nittany Lion commits landed.

#64- RB Miles Sanders

#93- DE Shane Simmons

#97- OT Michal Menet

#156- DT Karamo Dioubate

#182- CB LaVert Hill (very important update on him coming)

#202- C Connor McGovern

For reference, all of Penn State's commits dropped in the rankings, except Karamo Dioubate. Jake Zembiec also fell out of the top250 (Guess which camps he didn't attend? The Rivals camps!).

Other Penn State targets are Rashan Gary (#2), Terrell Hall (#54), Damar Hamlin (#132), Aaron Hansford (#148), Brendan Ferns (#216) and Tre Nixon (#221).

As usual, I will leave you to speculate on why there were so many uncommitted recruits who rose in the rankings, and so many committed ones who fell.

LaVert Hill Update

LaVert Hill is still committed to Penn State.

Cherrypicking from Rutgers?

As you've surely heard by now, Kyle Flood is in some trouble. Rutgers' 2016 recruiting class isn't much to write home about at the moment, but it's not devoid of some interesting talent. So the question has to be asked. If Kyle Flood loses his job, are there any Rutgers commits worth trying to flip? As far as Penn State is concerned, there are only two that would really hold any appeal.

S Patrice Rene is the first. As a former Penn State target, the staff already knows him well. They focused their attention elsewhere as his recruitment moved along, but he could be of interest as we approach National Signing Day, and the staff feels they want another safety. Of course, this need would be mitigated by a commitment from PSU legacy, Andrew Pryts, who is likely to commit very soon. It's also possible that if the staff is in position to grab someone at the last second, they would prefer Pittsburgh product, Khaleke Hudson, to Rene.

The other player of possible interest would be QB Anthony Russo. Russo (Archbishop Wood, PA) isn't a very highly-touted player, holding three stars and a 0.8529 ranking on the 247Composite, but he's performed quite well this summer in spite of said ranking. He was an Elite 11 finalist along with Penn State commit, Jake Zembiec. However, Russo was named as one of the "Elite 11" when all was said and done, after a very strong performance at The Opening.

If Penn State's staff decides that they want two quarterbacks in the 2016 class after all, Russo could be a prime target. Plus, it helps that he was high school teammates with current Penn State freshmen, Ryan Bates and Jake Cooper.

Swift Still Interested

One of Penn State's absolute top-of-the-board targets in 2017, is all-purpose running back, D'Andre Swift (St. Joseph's, PA). Swift did an interview with Rivals the other day, in which he talked about some of his top schools, including some SEC powerhouses and Penn State.

Swift's Crystal Ball currently reads 100% in favor of Penn State, but this isn't even remotely close to a sure thing for the Nittany Lions, so don't read into that too much.

Kaindoh Still Loves Penn State

Joshua Kaindoh is a five star prospect for 2017, the #1 defensive end and #16 player overall (according to the 247Composite). He's also extremely interested in Penn State. In the video on the page linked here, Kaindoh discusses his current top three- Penn State, Ohio State and Maryland.

Here's what he had to say about Penn State-

"I just feel like that's the place for me. Penn State, when I went there, I just felt like I should be here, my gut's telling me I should be here. The coaching staff, everything, the stadium, academics, everything."

Kaindoh's crystal ball currently favors Penn State over Ohio State.