New Offers

This past weekend was the first of multiple camps that the Penn State coaching staff will hold on campus for high school prospects this summer. At their first underclassman showcase camp, the Nittany Lion coaching staff extended a trio of scholarship offers.

Class of 2020 athlete Curtis Jacobs was one of the players offered after James Franklin and his assistants watched him run. Jacobs hails from one of the best high school programs in the state of Maryland - McDonogh School which is the alma mater of freshman defensive tackle PJ Mustipher.

With this offer, the Nittany Lions should become major players for the four-star talent.

Joining Jacobs were class of 2019 punters Anthony DaSilva, Ben Kiernan, and Kyle Romenick. All three of these offers, however, are of the preferred walk-on variety.

DaSilva hails from Bethlehem Catholic in Pennsylvania, Kiernan is a North Carolina native, and Romenick is from South Carolina. With Blake Gillikin entering his junior season the coaching staff would love to add a PWO punter in the 2019 class. These three punters are players to keep an eye on moving forward.

Big Official Visit Weekend On Deck

In past years the second weekend of June typically was not a big recruiting weekend for James Franklin and Co., but with the NCAA’s new official visit rules this has changed.

This weekend the Nittany Lions are set to host some serious talent on official visits. Four-star wide receiver John Metchie, four-star linebacker Lance Dixon, and four-star quarterback Michael Johnson Jr. are all slated to be in town on official visits this weekend, according to their 247Sports profile pages.

With the exception of Johnson Jr., who the Nittany Lions have a great chance to make a move with this weekend, Penn State is in the top group if not the leader for each of these prospects.

The most important visitor of the group though is four-star safety Lewis Cine who will be in town, according to Land of 10’s Tyler Donohue. The top-50 safety prospect was considered a Penn State lean before moving from Massachusetts to Texas, and while the Nittany Lions still control Cine’s 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictions, this is the first time he will be back in Happy Valley since the move. Combine this with Cine looking to make a summertime decision, and CJF and company have the opportunity to make a big mark on the four-star prospect this weekend.

This is also a big weekend for the Nittany Lions and Metchie. The Candian transplant has come close to committing to Penn State in the past. With a good visit this weekend, the Nittany Lions should find themselves in excellent shape for Metchie, even with an emerging threat from Alabama and Michigan.

As for Dixon, Coach Franklin and his staff would love to pair him with Brandon Smith as the linebackers in their 2019 recruiting class. A good visit this weekend could put the Nittany Lions in the driver’s seat over Wisconsin, who Dixon will be officially visiting next weekend.

Penn State Makes The Cut

This past week the Nittany Lions made the top group of a trio of elite 2019 players — running back Austin Jones, wide receiver John Dunmore, and the aforementioned linebacker Lance Dixon.

As was discussed above, Dixon will be in Happy Valley for an official visit this weekend and the Nittany Lions are in great shape there. As for the other two, it is a sign of the growing Penn State brand. Penn State has become a program that national recruits want to be associated with.

Additionally, Dunmore is one of Ja’Juan Seider’s guys from Florida and appears to have a decent amount of interest in the Nittany Lions. He’s yet to visit Happy Valley, but a visit should be in store since Penn State is the only school in his top seven he has yet to visit.