Tag: Class of 2026

Badgers offer four-star athlete from New Jersey

Wisconsin offers another NJ athlete

Wisconsin offered Jordan Thomas, a four-star athlete from Oradell, New Jersey, on Thursday. The 6-foot, 175-pound player still has two more years of high school football at Bergen Catholic before he’d look to take the leap to the collegiate level as a member of the class of 2026.

Thomas has now received 14 Division 1 offers, including Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State along with the Badgers in the Big Ten. He has experience playing both wide receiver and cornerback, so he’ll likely reel in plenty of more offers down the line.

Along with Thomas, Wisconsin has also offered his Bergen Catholic class of 2026 teammate defensive lineman Jermaine Kinsler.

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Penn State recruiting notebook: Ethan Grunkemeyer’s big night and Mylachi Williams wins in Ireland

Penn State QB commit Ethan Grunkemeyer thrashed Drew Allar’s alma mater and this PSU commit scored a victory in Ireland.

For some high school football players, this week has been the first chance to put on the pads and play a game. For a few others, this was Week 2 of the high school football season. Whatever the case may have been, and wherever the game may have been played, it has been a big weekend already for some of Penn State’s commits in the Class of 2024 and beyond.

Penn State quarterback commit [autotag]Ethan Grunkemeyer[/autotag] led his team to a massive non-conference victory on Friday night. One of Grunkemeyer’s recruiting classmates in the Class of 2024, [autotag]Mylachi Williams[/autotag], helped lead his team to a victory in Ireland. And one of Penn State’s newest commits, Class of 2026 running back [autotag]Messiah Mickins[/autotag], was on fire in his season-opening performance on Friday night.

Here is a quick roundup of some of the top high school football notes involving some future Nittany Lions.

Penn State lands elite 2026 running back in surprise commitment

Penn State lands surprise elite running back commitment for 2026

Wow! When it’s going good, sometimes things just keep getting better.

That seems to be the case for Penn State right now on all fronts. They’re ranked seventh in the country heading into the 2023 season. Their 2024 recruiting class is top 10 nationally and they’re flying up boards for important prospects in 2025.

Now, [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff got more good news with a surprising commitment coming from 2026 running back [autotag]Messiah Mickens[/autotag] on Saturday.

The 5’10” 200 pound prospect is from Camp Hill Trinity High School in Pennsylvania and is rated as the number one player in the state for the class of 2026.

After one season of high school football, he was on Penn State’s radar early as they became the second team to offer him in January 2023. In June, Mickens attended a camp at Happy Valley and took an unofficial visit later in July.

Apparently the time spent on campus around the program and coaching staff was enough to convince the talented prospect to give his commitment to Penn State.

He chose the Nittany Lions over notable schools like Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan.

Mickens becomes the first prospect from the 2026 class to commit to the Nittany Lions. It’s a surprise timeline wise because he has so much time remaining in his recruiting process.

“How they treat me and family when we come up,” he told On3 when asked why he committed to Penn State.

It’s unclear right now how hard of a commitment it is by Mickens and if he’s going to shut down other schools that try to reach out. However, right now he has a strong connection to the school and coaching staff.

“Also my position coach, I love what he does with his running backs and how he uses them. Also, just being in my hometown, my family can make most of all the games and play for your state when it’s big time football. Just feels like home everytime I go and I’ve been around a lot of colleges. My heart is just in state college,” he tells On3.

It’s a major signing for Penn State. Right now, Mickens is the 30th overall prospect in the 2026 class according to 247Sports. He is an incredible building block to start creating a class around when they focus more of their attention on that class.

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Penn State extends offer to ’25 four-star receiver from Texas

Penn State has handed out an offer to one of the top wide receivers in the Class of 2025.

There is no question that Penn State is looking to level up its recruiting success at the wide receiver position. And now the Nittany Lions are getting involved in the early recruiting battle for a four-star wide receiver in the Class of 2025 from the state of Texas.

Kaliq Lockett, a four-star receiver from Sachse, Texas, attended a Penn State football camp over the weekend while making a few college visits at the end of the month. Lockett was given a scholarship offer from Penn State before he left town. The offer from Penn State is at least the 14th offer on the table for Lockett, one of the top wide receivers and players from Texas in the Class of 2025.

Among the other offers received by Lockett include Big Ten programs Michigan and Nebraska. Other Power 5 offers have come in from Utah, Texas Tech, Arizona State, TCU, and Louisville. More will certainly be on the way given his recruiting ranking in the Class of 2025.

247Sports ranks Lockett as the 18th-best wide receiver in the nation and the 16th-best player overall from the state of Texas.

After attending the Penn State camp and picking up his offer, Lockett took his next stop at Michigan for his second visit to Ann Arbor in the last couple of months. He took an unofficial visit to Louisville before getting to State College as well.

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Penn State extends offer to ’26 wide receiver from New Jersey

Penn State is the second offer for New Jersey Class of ’26 receiver. Nittany Lions may have inside edge.

When Penn State isn’t looking to secure the top high school recruits in the state, they are checking in on the top players from neighboring states like Maryland and New Jersey. And over the weekend, Penn State got a jumpstart on its recruiting efforts with New Jersey wide receiver Nyqir Helton, from Winslow Township.

Helton announced his scholarship offer from Penn State on his X, formerly known as Twitter, account. Helton attended Penn State’s final elite camp of the summer over the weekend and left with a scholarship offer in hand.

It is still too early for Helton — a 6′-0″, 170-pound receiver — to have a recruiting ranking as a member of the Class of 2026, but this is his second FBS offer on the table. The Penn State offer is the first for Helton from a Power 5 program. The only previous offer on record came from UConn. UConn extended an offer in mid-June.

Here is something else to keep in mind when it comes to the ongoing recruitment of Helton. His high school football coach at Winslow Township is former Penn State running back Bill Belton. And his offensive coordinator? That would be former Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg. Those should be some terrific resources for information and feedback on the Penn State experience if Helton chooses to go to either for some insight to playing for Penn State.

 

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Penn State one of two schools with early offers to 2026 QB DJ Bordeaux

Penn State is putting in plenty of early work on a quarterback recruit in the Class of 2026.

Penn State just recently put the finishing touches on its Class of 2023 and the early work is already being put into forming the Class of 2024. But let’s fast forward a bit to the Class of 2026. Yes, that’s right. We’re skipping right over the Class of 2025 because Penn State has already extended an offer to a quarterback target in the Class of 2026 in hopes of getting an early jump on the competition. But they are not alone.

DJ Bordeaux, a 6′-2″ quarterback out of Littleton, Colorado coming off his freshman season of high school football, is considered a quarterback prospect to keep on the radar. Apparently, that news did not slip by the Penn State coaching staff. Penn State is one of two schools to extend an offer to Bordeaux, with Colorado being the other much closer to home (and with Deion Sanders rejuvenating the program on the recruiting trail).

Bordeaux passed for 829 yards and seven touchdowns in nine games during his freshman season of high school football. After playing a backup role for the majority of the season, Bordeaux blossomed in the final three games of the season with the bulk of his stats being piled up in the final three games of the season, including a 326-yard performance with three touchdowns in early November, his first game with significant playing time. It was his first start, and it came in the 5A state playoffs.

There will certainly be more offers coming this recruit’s way, and it remains to be seen just how Penn State will fit into the picture over the next three years. Penn State is about to embark on the 2023 season with [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] expected to be the starting quarterback. The Class of 2022 prized recruit should easily be expected to get two years of starting experience under his belt at the minimum, and a chance of starting in 2025 is still on the table down the road. But Penn State could be ready to break in a new starting quarterback in 2026. Could that end up being Bordeaux?

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Notre Dame offensive lineman Joey Tanona medically retires

Tough break for the freshman.

Sometimes, life just isn’t fair. Notre Dame freshman offensive lineman [autotag]Joey Tanona[/autotag] has learned that the hard way this year. This past offseason, Tanona was in a very bad car accident. Now, we’ve learned that the concussion he suffered in that accident was bad enough that he has been forced to medically retire from football.

The decision was not for a lack of effort as [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] said Tanona attempted to get back into playing shape. However, it just wasn’t to be as Freeman alluded to in his comments:

“Mentally and physically, he was not in a place where he was ready to play football. He decided to medically retire. He will still be here to get his degree. That’s the greatest thing about this place. We can guarantee one thing – that at some point, the game of football is going to be over. But you have a chance to get a degree from this university and you a chance to be successful. He’s in good spirits.”

You never want to see someone’s college football career end before it even begins, but it’s something Tanona, a former four-star recruit and All-American Bowl selection, regrettably will have to live with. Luckily, as Freeman said, he will stick around to earn his degree from a prestigious university. No, it’s not exactly the same as being able to suit up for the Irish, but like every football player who graduates, that degree will have far more everlasting effects than anything that happens as a student-athlete.

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Running back recruit Gi’Bran Payne commits to Notre Dame

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

For the past month-and-a-half, our Michael Chen has been keeping tabs on Gi’Bran Payne, a running back recruit based in Cincinnati. Earlier this week, Payne set Good Friday as the day he would announce his decision. True to his word, he did just that, and it’s good news for Irish fans:

Notre Dame’s gain is a loss for Indiana, with which Payne previously had signed a letter of intent before asking for and being granted his release. Not so coincidental is that Marcus Freeman hired Hoosiers Deland McCullough to the same position after losing Lance Taylor to Louisville.

As for whether the Irish needed another running back in their 2022 recruiting class, Irish beat writer Pete Sampson of The Athletic offered this:

“With Payne on board, Notre Dame should have five scholarship running backs on the roster this fall with Chris Tyree, Logan Diggs, Audric Estime and Jadarian Price. A year from now, that number could grow to seven after adding Class of 2023 commitment and top target Jayden Limar, who plans to visit for the Blue-Gold Game next weekend.

Would Notre Dame really carry seven scholarship running backs at one time? Probably not, which might be a tell of future roster turnover. There’s nothing wrong with letting a group of four-star prospects fight it out for carries, then wishing those at the bottom of the depth chart well if they’re looking for a bigger opportunity.”

Hey, if running back becomes as powerful a position for Notre Dame as tight end, there’s nothing wrong with that.

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Incoming Notre Dame guard J.J. Starling named to McDonald’s Game

Nice honor for the kid.

For only the second time since 2005, a future Notre Dame player has been named a McDonald’s All-American. J.J. Starling, who hails from Baldwinsville, New York, but is playing this season at La Lumiere in La Porte, is the first McDonald’s All-American to represent Notre Dame since Demetrius Jackson in 2017. As part of the honor, Starling will take in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago in March. Barring another COVID-19 cancellation, this will be the first game actually played since 2019.

Starling is not merely a great player who happened to pick the Irish as his landing shop. Per 247Sports, he is the Irish’s top-ranked recruit since 2000. Once he put pen to paper, he replaced Jackson as No. 1 in that category. Talk about a strange coincidence.

Of course, you never know how players are going to perform in their collegiate careers. On the aforementioned list, Irish freshman phenom Blake Wesley doesn’t even rank in the top 20. It really is all speculation based on how they perform before college. Let’s hope they get it right with Starling.

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Notre Dame presents offer to forward recruit Alex Karaban

The Irish are after a forward that’s on a bunch of schools’ radars.

Notre Dame is going after a player who has every intention of taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible. For the past two years, forward recruit Alex Karaban has played prep basketball in New Hampton, New Hampshire. As a senior, he will attend the renowned IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. That commitment to excellence was too good for the Irish to ignore, so they decided to become the latest program to make him an offer:

It’s hard to know for certain which direction Karaban is leaning towards. 247Sports believes Penn State and Northwestern, two schools he made official visits to in June, are the top contenders. Rivals forecasts him heading to Indiana. Of course, he also could choose one of the many other schools that have offered him, including Purdue, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Iowa, UConn, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Stanford, LSU, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Creighton and even Harvard.