Where does Penn State recruiting stand for 2023 as signing day approaches? (2024)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A drama-free early signing period is always the goal.

Penn State is two weeks out from the early signing period, and it feels like the Nittany Lions should achieve that goal before they head to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. But in the world of college football recruiting, things can always get interesting in a hurry.

Here’s a collection of thoughts on where things stand with Penn State’s 2023 class, as well as the early outlook on involvement with the transfer portal.

• Penn State has commitments from 19 players. It could still add another player or two to this class, but it is likely keeping space freed up for transfer portal additions to help fill more immediate needs. The Nittany Lions have been especially active with wide receiver offers since the transfer portal opened Monday. Penn State knows it’ll be without Mitchell Tinsley next season, but the way it’s going after one receiver after the next makes me wonder if it knows there will be other vacant spots in that room. We’ll see.

• The class is ranked 13th in the 247Sports Composite and headlined by three top-100 recruits in five-star offensive lineman J’ven Williams, four-star offensive lineman Alex Birchmeier and four-star linebacker Tony Rojas. Penn State has commitments from the top three players in Pennsylvania and five of the top 10 in Virginia.

• Don’t expect four-star prospect Rodney Gallagher to flip to Penn State. Gallagher was at the regular-season finale against Michigan State, but coach Neal Brown being retained at West Virginia likely spells the end of any potential change of heart. Gallagher, the No. 4 prospect in Pennsylvania in the 247Sports Composite, lives 30 miles from Morgantown. Assuming he signs with WVU, he’ll be in Beaver Stadium next fall when Penn State opens the season with the Mountaineers.

• Four-star cornerback Daniel Harris of Miami’s Gulliver Prep remains one to keep an eye on during the next few weeks. It seems to be a Penn State versus Georgia recruiting battle. Penn State would love to add an elite corner to this class — Harris took an official visit to Penn State in June and decommitted from Georgia in November — but expect Georgia to be hammering home all the reasons why Harris committed there in the first place. Another trip to the College Football Playoff for the Bulldogs can’t hurt that pitch.

Don’t rule out coaches Ja’Juan Seider or Terry Smith, but it is always more difficult to land someone that far away from Penn State’s typical recruiting footprint. The program has made a push south this cycle, though, and keeping commitments like King Mack (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Elliot Washington (Venice, Fla.), Conrad Hussey (Fort Lauderdale) and DaKaari Nelson (Selma, Ala.) hasn’t been easy. We’ll see if Penn State gets to the finish line with all four still in the fold. It’ll be a notable feat, given the fertile recruiting territory all these players are coming from.

Seider and Anthony Poindexter were in Fort Lauderdale on Friday to watch Hussey, Mack and St. Thomas Aquinas play Tampa Jesuit in a state semifinal game.

• The success of Joey Porter Jr. (who’s draft-bound) and Kalen King (who will be back in 2023) should help make Penn State an enticing landing spot for cornerbacks. Smith has done a great job over time with these corners, and if Porter can bust the streak of Penn State never having a defensive back drafted in the first round, it’ll be another reason why corners should want to come to Happy Valley. Package that with the success of safeties Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown, and Penn State has become a more enticing destination for defensive backs.

• Joseph Mupoyi could be one of the last commitments for this class. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound three-star edge rusher plays at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Conn., the same school as Penn State cornerback commit Zion Tracy. James Franklin and Stacy Collins were in Connecticut last week.

Franklin and staff have been gathered around dining room tables and posed in front of Christmas trees, officially marking the fast-paced start to in-home visit season.

Great having the Head man Coach Franklin and Coach Collins on THE LAKE this morning! @coachjfranklin @CoachCollins46 #STM pic.twitter.com/WLIFWEpcar

— Coach Anderson (@Coach_Ander5on) December 2, 2022

See Also

For Penn State Recruiting, Another Impressive July

• One of the most interesting stories to know about this class comes from four-star edge rusher commit Jameial Lyons. I sat down with Lyons at Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic High School a few weeks ago. Lyons’ weight gain was one of the biggest reasons his recruitment happened. He was a 180-pound safety when COVID-19 started in 2020. His high school coach kept telling him he needed to become a defensive end. Lyons shrugged it off until he got serious about adding the necessary weight to play on the line.

In the past two years, he’s gone from 185 pounds to 250.

“I was eating 24/7. Just sitting around and being fat,” Lyons said, adding that while gyms were closed during the pandemic, he was doing push-ups and as many body-weight workouts as he could. “From 185 pounds to 250 pounds is a big difference, especially when you’re not really moving much for a year straight (because of the pandemic). It was unhealthy weight. … When we first started practicing, I ran and got tired right away.”

He now looks the part of a future Big Ten defensive end and has learned how to play at this new weight. Lyons laughs about his days as a safety and how they are long gone. He will enroll at Penn State in the summer and could be an under-the-radar gem for this class.

• What is Penn State’s pitch to a 2026 quarterback target in Colorado? That was the genesis of my call to quarterback DJ Bordeaux over the weekend. Bordeaux, a 2026 QB at Thunder Ridge High School, which is about an hour away from Boulder, recently added a Penn State offer. Penn State saw Bordeaux at the USA Football Camp when he was in seventh grade, and national recruiting coordinator Kenny Sanders has been keeping tabs on him ever since. Bordeaux said Penn State coaches kept telling him once he got varsity film they’d see about a scholarship offer. Bordeaux was playing JV all season, but in the playoffs he made his first varsity start.

After two starts, Sanders FaceTimed him with a surprise.

“I thought it was going to be a regular call, and then coach Franklin got on the phone and he was asking me how my day was, how my season was going and everything,” Bordeaux said. “He was like, ‘Yep, we’re gonna go ahead and offer you.’ It was crazy.”

Before this season, Bordeaux hadn’t watched a Penn State game. He has now. Watching Nicholas Singleton, the Big Ten freshman of the year, left a favorable impression on Bordeaux. He’s seen glimpses of the future of the offense. With Deion Sanders taking over at Colorado — Bordeaux said he had an offer from the previous Colorado staff — Bordeaux’s going to be in an interesting position to see what the Buffaloes do just an hour down the road.

• Sticking with the way-too-far-down-the-road quarterback theme: Julian Lewis, the Class of 2026 QB at Carrollton High School, is competing for a state title this weekend. Penn State extended an offer to Lewis in fall 2021 when he was in eighth grade. He won the varsity starting job this season and is playing for Joey King, who was Trevor Lawrence’s high school coach.

• As expected, Penn State hasn’t been hit hard by transfer portal losses at this point. It’s pretty much been standard movement with backup players seeking opportunities elsewhere, including quarterback Christian Veilleux, defensive lineman Rodney McGraw, cornerback Jeffrey Davis Jr. and offensive lineman Maleek McNeil.

Penn State is among the finalists to land former South Florida receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., who is announcing on Christmas. Penn State has also extended a scholarship offer to the Pac-12’s leading receiver, Dorian Singer of Arizona. Singer had 1,105 yards this season. Kent State receiver Dante Cephas and Oregon receiver Dont’e Thornton are among the early wave of receivers Penn State is also targeting, along with many other schools.

(Photo of James Franklin: Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)

Audrey Snyder has covered Penn State since 2012 for various outlets, including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Patriot-News and DKPittsburghSports. Snyder is an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and is the professional adviser for Penn State’s student chapter. Follow Audrey on Twitter @audsnyder4