THE SKINNY
Height/Weight: 6-foot-5, 270 pounds
Hometown/High School: Düsseldorf, GER/Düsseldorf Panther - U-19A
Rating: ★★★ (0.8559 247Sports Composite — No. 970 overall)
Notable Offers: Colorado, Indiana, Rutgers, UCLA, Virginia
HIGHLIGHTS
THE TALE
This may come as a surprise, but being that Darkwa played in Germany, his recruitment got off too a bit of a late start. After he went unsigned during the early signing period, a host of schools decided to offer — UCLA, Colorado, Indiana, and of course, Penn State. Darkwa made his official visit to Happy Valley last weekend, and following, it didn’t take him long to make the call for the Nittany Lions.
Darkwa joins Hakeem Beamon and D’Von Ellies as defensive tackles in the class, and becomes the 21st commit in Penn State’s class overall.
OUTLOOK
I’m not going to lie, it’s tough to take a whole lot away from Germany film. That isn’t to say that European prospects haven’t flourished in America — the program that Darkwa is affiliated with, PPI, sends numerous Europeans to FBS schools every year — but the competition level between the football overseas and in the states is (as you can imagine) night-and-day.
Still, here’s what we do know: there just aren’t many high school seniors who are 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, and move as well as Darkwa does. He’s extremely raw and will certainly need a couple years, but the upside is absolutely there. Let S&C coach Dwight Galt add 40 pounds to his frame, and then let defensive line coach Sean Spencer work his magic, and Penn State very well could have themselves a real player here.