WHITE OUT RECRUITING WEEKEND IS UPON US

Each calendar year there are certain weekends that are massive recruiting weekends for Penn State. The big three are the Blue White Game, July’s annual Lasch Bash, and the White Out weekend.

With the White Out weekend just a few days away, that means one of the biggest, most important recruiting weekends of the year is here for James Franklin and his staff. So, what is on the docket for the Nittany Lions and their staff?

Possibly the most important thing for the weekend for the Nittany Lion staff is the peer recruiting that can be done. There are plenty of instances when peer recruiting can be just as effective, if not more effective than the recruiting job that coaches can do. Penn State should host a large chunk of their top 15 2023 recruiting class, as well as 2024 commit Cooper Cousins, this weekend. Franklin and the staff will have the commits ready to work un-committed visitors hard this weekend.

Most of the un-committed visitors on campus will likely be of the 2024 and 2025 variety. That said, any 2023 recruits who make it to campus this late in the cycle is always noteworthy and that is something that should be monitored.

It also would not be a surprise to see Penn State add a commit this weekend. There could be more than one 2024 prospect who could pop after being on campus this weekend. Even if there are not immediate results, when pen hits paper for Penn State’s 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes there will be plenty of signees who will look back on this upcoming weekend as a key moment in their recruitment.

FORMER COMMIT, FOUR-STAR DL TARGET SETS COMMITMENT DATE

Following a strong official visit to Happy Valley in June high four-star defensive lineman TJ Parker committed to Penn State. Later in the summer, Parker would re-open his recruitment. Even though he has de-committed from Penn State the Nittany Lion coaching staff has continued to recruit Parker hard and are still among his finalist as his decision nears.

While the Nittany Lions will continue to recruit Parker hard between now and November 21st it does not appear that he will circle back and re-join Penn State’s class. While it appears that Parker remains high on the Nittany Lions and the coaching staff, there also appears to be some other forces working against them in his recruitment.