Blessed & Honored: Hakeem Beamon Trending Toward Happy Valley, While Penn State Offers D.C. OT

PREVIEWING BEAMON’S DECISION

Today is the day as Virginia four-star Hakeem Beamon will be making his college commitment. While we still don’t know which schools he’ll exactly be choosing from, it’s become clear that Penn State is expected to be the choice. As of this writing, the Nittany Lions own 100% of the 14 predictions for Beamon on 247Sports, so unless something greatly changes in the next 10 hours, it appears that Penn State will be getting better later this evening.

D.C. THREE-STAR OT LANDS PENN STATE OFFER

Although Penn State sits in a good position for a number of offensive linemen, that didn’t stop the Nittany Lions from extending an offer to three-star offensive tackle Walter Rouse.

The 6-foot-6, 285-pound Rouse might be just the No. 1189 prospect in the country, but his offer list is Top 247 level worthy, having landed offers from top-tier programs like Stanford, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and now Penn State. Rouse is also an extremely intelligent kid with your elite academic universities — Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, and the Ivys — in the thick of things. We’ll see if any of the football blue bloods can sway Rouse away, but he seems like a perfect fit for Stanford.

On the field, he’s raw a player, but the upside is there. Obviously, terrific size and length, but it’s his quickness and coordination in space that projects him to potentially be a left tackle. Played more physical than I expected, which is always a positive sign. Wish he had more pass blocking highlights to get a better idea on his footwork and such, but this is normally the case with run-heavy high school schemes. Would like to see him use his length better as he has a tendency to go short with his arms, but that’s not unforeseen with high school tackles who can simply just overpower their defender anyway.

All-in-all, I like the offer. Rouse should join the offensive line target group of Xavier Truss (OT), Jakai Moore (OT/OG), Anthony Whigan (OT/OG), and Saleem Wormley (OG). Still thinking four is the number on the O-Line this year, so three from this group since Caedan Wallace already has one spot. I think like the secondary did in May, this is a place where all it could take is for one to pop to start a domino effect.

NITTANY LIONS OFFER 2020 PA PROSPECT

Penn State continues to work on what could be a special 2020 class, now offering Western PA four-star tight end/offensive tackle Michael Carmody.

Penn State adds to a really good early offer list — Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, etc. — for Carmody. At 6-foot-5, 265 pounds, it seems most likely that Carmody will end up at offensive tackle, as Sean Fitz pointed out. Also of note, but Carmody is the younger brother of incoming Notre Dame basketball freshman Robby Carmody. The Irish could be players in this one too should they offer.

FOUR-STAR TENNESSEE RUNNING BACK SET FOR OFFICIAL VISIT

In the “Oh, this is from out of nowhere” category, Penn State will be hosting four-star running back Eric Gray for an official visit on June 8, according to his 247Sports profile. Gray appears to be favoring mostly SEC schools as five of them (Ole Miss, Mississippi St, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas A&M) make up his top seven, with Stanford and Penn State being the only non-SEC programs.

Even with Devyn Ford committed, the Nittany Lions taking two running backs would make some sense. Right now, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown, Ricky Slade, and Devyn Ford make up Penn State’s scholarship running backs for 2019. But if Sanders has a big year and goes to the NFL, all of a sudden that depth chart isn’t looking too hot.

NO. 1 TIGHT END HAS PENN STATE IN TOP FIVE

Should have mentioned this in Wednesday’s B&H, but the No. 1 tight end in the country, Hudson Henry, named his top five with Penn State making the cut.

Henry will be a tough pull from Arkansas, where his brother — current San Diego Charger Hunter Henry — was a star tight end. But even if he doesn’t end up at Arkansas, Stanford appears to be running No. 2.