Oh, Hello: Three-Star OG Nicholas Dawkins Commits to Penn State

THE SKINNY

Height/Weight: 6-foot-4, 300 pounds
Hometown/High School: Allentown, PA (Parkland H.S.)
Ranking: ★★★ (86.00 247Sports)
Notable Offers: Boston College, Northwestern, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and West Virginia

HIGHLIGHTS

THE TALE

Nick Dawkins, the son of former NBA player Darryl Dawkins, made his first visit to Penn State back in October, but wasn’t offered by the Nittany Lions until March 23 of this year. From that point, it was pretty clear that Penn State would be a major player, but with commitments from two other interior offensive linemen (Golden Israel-Achumba and RJ Adams) in the time since then, it wasn’t known if Dawkins still had a spot.

As it turned out though, he did. Dawkins made a visit to Happy Valley today, and during the trip, made the call for the Nittany Lions.

With the addition of Dawkins, Penn State now has nine commits in its 2020 recruiting class. Dawkins’ verbal pushes the class up to No. 9 overall, according to the 247Sports Composite ranking.

THE OUTLOOK

Dawkins joins OT Grant Toutant and the aforementioned offensive guards Israel-Achumba and Adams to make a four-man offensive line class for Penn State, and it doesn’t appear that the Nittany Lions are done on that front. Four-star OT Aaryn Parks is expected to announce his commitment on May 2, and with the Nittany Lions being the heavy favorite on the 247 Crystal Ball, it would be quite the shocker if this four-man class doesn’t expand to five in the next two weeks.

The question is: how many more will be taken on the offensive line after that? Six has seemed like the working number for a while now, and with names like Michael Carmody, Olu Fashanu, and Jimmy Christ still out there, I think it’s safe to assume a six-man class is realistic for 2020.