Blessed & Honored: Making The Cut For Johnson And Young

HARRISON DELAYS DECISION

Five-star Zach Harrison originally planned to make his commitment on his birthday on August 14, but that is no longer the case as the Ohio defensive end postponed his decision for a later date.

It is important to note that Harrison’s decision to hold off on his announcement came before the Urban Meyer saga started at Ohio State, but one would imagine that the turmoil in Columbus doesn’t help the Buckeyes’ case for Harrison. While I still am in “believe it when I see it” mode when it comes to a five-star Ohio prospect spurning the Buckeyes for another Big Ten school, it is looking likelier and likelier that Harrison could be headed to Penn State or Michigan.

OHIO DEFENSIVE TACKLE DOWN TO SIX

Continuing with the Ohio theme, Columbus’ Rodas Johnson cut his list down to the six schools, and guess what? The Nittany Lions made the cut!

Johnson has had a weird recruitment, with Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin all (allegedly) having the lead at one point in time during his recruitment. We’ll see if Penn State pushes for Johnson, who was most recently in Happy Valley for the Blue-White game, but it does appear that the Nittany Lions would like one more defensive tackle in the class. They just hosted Jared Harrison-Hunte and Ben Smiley for the Lasch Bash, and sent out a new offer to Maryland DT D’Von Ellies on July 30.

Plus, don’t forget about France’s Jeffrey M’ba. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound Frenchman has an offer from the Nittany Lions, and will be playing football for the first time in America in just a few weeks. If his film comes close to matching his elite measurables, he could be someone Penn State really pushes for in the fall.

PA ATHLETE TRIMS LIST

Recently off a visit to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania running back Aaron Young announced his top five on Tuesday with Penn State making the cut.

Rutgers is actually viewed as the favorite here, as Young’s older brother — 2018 cornerback Avery Young — just enrolled in Piscataway earlier this summer. We’ll see if the Nittany Lions can overcome the strong family connection and make up some ground now that they’ve put themselves in the hunt.

ENROLLING EARLY

Sean Fitz of Lions247 reported last Friday that QB Ta’Quan Roberson, QB Michael Johnson Jr., WR Emery Simmons, LB Brandon Smith, DB Tyler Rudolph, DB Marquis Wilson, and DB Keaton Ellis would all be enrolling early at Penn State for the 2019 spring semester. Donnie Collins of the Scranton Times-Tribune also added that JUCO OL Anthony Whigan would be enrolling early as well.

It’s always a positive to have guys enroll early for the obvious reasons — winter workouts, 15 spring practices, and adjusting to college life without being in-season. Out of that group, Brandon Smith is probably the most intriguing name. He already has good size at 6-foot-4, 228 pounds, but a full six months with Dwight Galt before his freshman season even begins is going to be big time.