Work is still ongoing for Penn State in the class of 2025 recruiting cycle.
With official visits just around the corner, it’s time for [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff to start landing some of their top targets in this class as they sit with just 13 commitments as of now.
For comparison, the Nittany Lions have had 20 or more enrollees in every class since 2021. That means there is plenty of room left for Penn State to add more players.
They picked up some good news when making the top six list of four-star recruit [autotag]Jarquez Carter[/autotag].
The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive lineman from Florida is ranked as the 33rd-best player at his position according to On3’s Industry Rankings.
He’s already scheduled to take an official visit to Penn State, so maybe it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that they would be included in his top six, but he’s coming off a stretch where he saw five Power 4 conference heavy hitters over the winter and spring.
Other schools that made Carter’s cut are Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Miami, and UCF.
BREAKING: CO/25 4 ⭐️ DT Jarquez Carter ( @JarquezCarter ) has cut his list down to 6️⃣ schools‼️
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Jarquez is a 6’2 ( 285 LBS ) DT out of Newberry, FL. He ranks as a top 20 DT in 2025 and a top 50 recruit in Florida according to rivals.
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Let him know what’s the move?! ⬇️🤔 pic.twitter.com/7i1XWqTZiI— Steezo (@SteezoDsgn) May 22, 2024
He’ll be taking his first official visit to Florida this upcoming weekend, followed by Penn State starting June 7, followed by a trip to UCF the week after that.
Right now, On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine has the Gators as massive favorites to land the four-star with a 73.6% chance. UCF is second at 9.1%, while Penn State comes in at 2.9%.
Carter told Keegan Pope of On3 that “Miami, Ohio State, and then between UCF and Florida” are recruiting him the hardest right now, so it sounds like the Nittany Lions might not be too far in the race.
Penn State has been able to recruit the state of Florida fairly well under Franklin, and with Tom Allen taking over the defensive coordinator role, they should be able to maintain that based on Allen’s past high school coaching in the state.
It will be interesting to see how this process develops coming out of his official visit to Happy Valley.