If [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag]’s mission is to keep the top talent from Pennsylvania close to home, then Sunday’s recruiting update from Rodney Gallagher should be considered a step in the right direction. Gallagher, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2023 revealed his top eight schools, and Penn State was among those named.
Gallagher is a 5-10 athlete who has the ability to play receiver, and he has been used as a slot receiver. Gallagher is the second-ranked player in Pennsylvania in the Class of 2023 according to the recruit rankings from 247Sports, and he makes the cut of the top 100 players in the country. Penn State has a commitment from the top recruit in Pennsylvania already on the board with offensive tackle [autotag]J’ven Williams[/autotag] from Reading. Penn State is considered a favorite for the No. 3 Pennsylvania recruit, edge rusher Ta’Mere Robinson, and last week saw Penn State receive a commitment from edge rusher [autotag]Jameial Lyons[/autotag], the No. 7 recruit in the state. Gallagher recently participated in the Polynesian Bowl.
Penn State was involved early on in the recruiting process for Gallagher. The Nittany Lions were the first FBS program to extend an offer to him in April 2020, with an offer from West Virginia and Michigan coming in the days after. As the offers began coming in from schools like Michigan State, Notre Dame, Arizona State, and Wisconsin, Gallagher made a few visits to Penn State. Gallagher unofficially visited in June 2021, September (for the Auburn game), and once more in October (Indiana game) and November (Michigan game). Franklin made a visit to Gallagher in January of this year as more offers continued to flow in.
The other schools making the top eight for Gallagher along with Penn State included Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, West Virginia, and Oregon. Notre Dame hosted Gallagher for a weekend visit, allowing the Uniontown recruit to visit Notre Dame’s spring game. Gallagher says he plans on taking visits to Oregon, Oklahoma State, and Texas in June. He has mentioned he would like to be able to commit to a school sometime in July. He will be making another visit to Penn State before making a decision as well.
— Rodney Gallagher 3rd (LLC💕) (@Rodney_G3) April 24, 2022
Penn State seems to be in a favorable spot in this recruiting battle, but Franklin and his staff will have to push hard to secure his commitment away from Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, or West Virginia. All four have great cases for landing Gallagher.
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