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On the heels of Alex Barbir's commitment to Penn State, Quinn Nordin is no longer a Nittany Lion. On Wednesday night, the top kicking prospect in all of college football announced that he was de-committing from Penn State.
Nordin originally received his offer from Penn State on Jan. 26, 2015. The Nittany Lions proceeded to recruit him hard for some time, and was considered the leader for the best kicking prospect on record since 2012, according to his 247Composite Score. There was some concern that he would commit to Michigan, mostly because the Wolverines would also offer him the opportunity to play lacrosse, but ultimate, the Nittany Lions won out. On July 10, 2015, Nordin released a wonderful video of him getting off of a plane to announce his commitment to Penn State.
After committing to Penn State, Nordin took numerous visits to Michigan, as well as official visits to Baylor and USC (and a few to Penn State). After a full season of the Wolverines succeeding and the Nittany Lions struggling, it's hard to think that Nordin wasn't swayed at least a little bit by what he saw on the field. An inconsistent Penn State team seemed to push Nordin to start to look at Michigan a little harder (and eventually other schools), and that ultimately led to the Penn State staff feeling that they couldn't trust that he would end up with the Nittany Lions.
While losing Nordin, the No. 1 kicking prospect in the country and the No. 714 overall player in the class of 2015, according to his 247 Composite score, isn't good news, Penn State already had its contingency plan in place before the news of his de-commitment. The Nittany Lions still have Joey Julius and Tyler Davis on campus, as well as a commitment from the country's No. 8 kicker, Alex Barbir. Incoming punter recruit, Blake Gillikin, isn't too shabby of a kicker, either (check out his 56-yard bomb from his senior season).
In the end, it seems as if Nordin let his recruitment play out a tad too long to end up playing his college football with the team he originally committed to. When Alex Barbir was ready to commit to the Nittany Lions, the staff was eager to accept it, rather than wait out Nordin's decision and risk not getting a kicker at all. Quinn's has been an interesting recruitment to follow, and one that ended up far more dramatic than expected.
Nordin has an official visit scheduled to USC this weekend after visiting Baylor last weekend, and will make his final decision between the Trojans, the Bears and Michigan on National Signing Day. Quinn is a great kid, and deserves all the best wherever he winds up. Hopefully we'll get to see a Nordin-Barbir special teams battle one day.
— Quinn Nordin (@QuinnNordin) January 28, 2016