Penn State has been crushing it on the recruiting trail for the Class of 2022, but the Nittany Lions came up short on a recruiting effort to land one of the top recruits in the state of New York. Instead, James Franklin and his staff were trolled in quite a mighty way by four-star linebacker Moses Walker.
Walker announced his commitment on Thursday evening, with Penn State being in the final two along with Rutgers. It seemed expected that Walker would make his commitment to the Scarlet Knights, but his announcement video played a fast one on Penn State.
In a splashy announcement video, an image of the Nittany Lion logo was being etched in a laser light, suggesting Walker was announcing his commitment to Penn State. But after a few seconds, an image of Walker in a Rutgers football uniform takes over and his commitment to Greg Schiano and his program became official.
But the level of this troll game was escalated by Walker going so far as to tag Franklin and assistant recruiting coordinator Alan Zemaitis in the tweet.
This is HOME. @coachjfranklin @GregSchiano @RUCoachFran @ZemaitisTouch_ @recruitgfx @Hayesfawcett3 @BrianDohn247 pic.twitter.com/kaW9HezSLg
— Moses Walker (@moseswalker) July 15, 2021
This is pretty unnecessary, obviously, and perhaps it speaks more to the type of character of the Rutgers program being pulled together by Schiano than anything else. But perhaps that is just what Rutgers is looking for anyway; players with all the confidence in the world to create a stir with a program they are clearly trying to chase in the Big Ten pecking order.
To their credit, Rutgers has been stringing together a very solid recruiting class in Schiano’s first full recruiting cycle back with the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers has the No. 12 recruiting class in the nation according to the most up-to-date composite team rankings produced by 247 Sports. Penn State currently is back up to No. 2 after a brief step back to No. 3 in the last week. Ohio State remains No. 1 overall.
But questions do remain. Was Walker seriously considering Penn State as he approached his decision? Or was this all part of his master plan all along? Whatever the case, we’ll see what kind of impact Walker has when he lines up against the Nittany Lions in the coming years. Don’t think this tweet won’t be remembered by those in a Penn State uniform.
And, to be fair, it’s not as though Penn State commits haven’t played similar games with the Big Ten opposition. So maybe what goes around comes around?
Follow Nittany Lions Wire on Twitter and like us on Facebook for continuing Penn State coverage and discussion.
[vertical-gallery id=3908]
[listicle id=4516]
[lawrence-related id=4323,3190,4439,4388,4382]