Ladies and gentlemen, Jordan Miner!
Stats
Hometown/High School: Tampa, FL (Winegrass Ranch)
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 177 pounds
Recruited By: Terry Smith
Starz ‘n Sheetz
Rankings: Four-star on 247, Rivals, ESPN, and Scout
Notable Offers: Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Pitt, Tennessee
Highlights
The Tale
— Uno (@Jordanminer01) July 6, 2017
Jordan Miner was good enough to pickup his offer from the Nittany Lions last October, but the Florida defensive back didn’t make the trip to Happy Valley until the first week of June. Following his visit to State College, Miner said his time at Penn State “set the bar” for all following visits. Apparently that bar was pretty freaking high, as Miner decided to make the call for the Nittany Lions just one month later.
With the addition of the four-star Miner, Penn State’s 2018 class regains the No. 4 spot in the 247Composite team rankings. Just for comparison sake, Pitt has the 42nd ranked class.
Outlook
This wasn’t a great year in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic/whatever you want to call Penn State’s recruiting base for cornerbacks; just two of the nation’s top 30 cornerbacks are from the region — Anthony Lytton (Maryland) and Kalon Gervin (Michigan). So credit to the staff for going national, and being able to pull in Miner (Florida) and Trent Gordon (Texas), all while continuing to be in the thick of it for Houston Griffith (Illinois/Florida).
I touched on this last week, but Miner should offer some versatility in the secondary. He’s slated to play cornerback, but once he adds some weight, he could be a candidate to move over to safety, if needed. Regardless of where he ends up, he’s a lanky, athletic kid that might need some polish, but the tools are all there to excel at the next level.
If Miner stays at cornerback, it’s hard to see him not taking a redshirt season. He could use a year to add some mass, but perhaps more importantly, the Nittany Lions are sitting pretty at cornerback. They should have John Reid, Amani Oruwariye, Lamont Wade, and Zech McPhearson all returning in 2018, and that’s not even counting the rest of the 2017 cornerbacks — Tariq Castro-Fields, Donovan Johnson, and DJ Brown. Plus, walk-on transfer Jabari Butler should push for playing time, too.
Terry Smith deserves a ton of credit here for how he’s rebuilt this unit. It wasn’t all that long ago that Grant Haley and Christian Campbell were being thrown into the fire as freshmen out of necessity. Now, the Nittany Lions are at the point where they can afford to let a prospect like Miner sit and learn for a year or two before seeing the field.
Welcome to Penn State, Jordan!