Tag: Deion barnes

Penn State extends offer to standout defensive tackle transfer David Blay

Penn state extends offer to one of the top defensive tackles in the transfer portal.

If history repeats itself, then Penn State won’t be that active in the transfer portal. [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] hasn’t used that newfound weapon as a way to build a roster, instead preferring the development option which has turned this program into a perennial Big Ten contender.

Things could be a bit different this time around, though.

There are clear needs the Nittany Lions will have to fill ahead of next season with the potential departures upcoming by way of graduation and the NFL draft. To remain in title contention, they’ll need to find some ready-made players who can come in and make an impact.

Franklin and [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] believe they have identified one.

According to Sean Fitz of BlueWhiteIllustrated, Penn State has extended an offer to transfer defensive tackle [autotag]David Blay[/autotag], the first scholarship they have extended in the portal to date.

Interior defenders are huge for the success of teams around the country, and if the Nittany Lions are able to land Blay, that would be a huge win for them.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder was named First-Team All-Conference USA after compiling 46 total tackles, 10.5 of them for loss, while also wracking up 6.5 sacks.

Blay is a Pennsylvania native from Levittown, but as an unrated prospect in high school, he wasn’t on the radar of many teams and enrolled at Division II program West Chester University to start his collegiate career.

Now, he is one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal with 247Sports listing him as the 17th-best prospect available and No. 2 overall at his position.

Penn State will have a battle on their hands if they want to land him, so it’s a good sign the coaching staff is making him a priority early on.

Penn State adds 2025 edge rusher Chaz Coleman to their class

Penn State was able to strike in the 2025 class again, adding a promising edge rusher to the class.

Penn State is coming off a great showing against Washington where they completely dominated the Huskies in front of a White Out crowd. That was a huge result for more reasons than one.

Not only were the Nittany Lions able to bounce back and remind everyone they are one of the best teams in college football despite another loss to Ohio State, but there were tons of recruits on campus who were ready to be blown away by the atmosphere and the performance of the program who is recruiting them.

Mission accomplished.

Penn State picked up a commitment from 2025 athlete [autotag]Chaz Coleman[/autotag] who was in Happy Valley for his official visit this past weekend, a trip that will span until Monday.

Ranked as a three-star by On3’s Industry Ranking, the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder plays both quarterback and edge rusher for Warren G Harding High School in the state of the Ohio.

He will be playing on the defensive line for the Nittany Lions during his collegiate career, potentially getting a boost in the ratings once he is viewed specifically as a pash rusher.

Penn State is excited to get him on board.

A really late riser in the process, Coleman didn’t receive his first Power 4 offer until August of this year. The Nittany Lions were even later to extend a scholarship to him, officially offering him one in September. As an athlete who has played multiple positions on the football field and across different sports, [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] and the staff believe he has a high ceiling when it comes to getting after the passer at a high level.

If he can reach that ceiling, this will be a huge get for Penn State.

Their jewel of the edge rusher class, [autotag]Max Granville[/autotag], reclassified to the 2024 class and is already on campus as part of this roster. That left a hole in this group as the Nittany Lions searched for other talented defensive ends.

Coleman could be exactly that, and although he is likely a project at this point in his career, he should be someone to keep an eye on once he arrives to Happy Valley.

Penn State makes top schools list of four-star 2026 edge rusher

Penn State among the top schools on four-star edge rusher’s list for 2026.

Penn State has been active in the 2026 recruiting cycle, already securing six commitments that range from in-state prospects to those from multiple states around the country.

It’s an impressive showing for them so far, but they will continue to be active and try to build relationships through this fall that carries over into the all important spring period next year.

Defensive line coach [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] emerged as a star on the recruiting trail in the 2025 class, and even though it took him a little while to get going and land some commitments, he still was able to get some of the best prospects on his board.

He wasted no time in the 2026 cycle, already landing four-star edge rusher [autotag]Daniel Jennings[/autotag].

Now, he got some good news regarding another target as [autotag]Anthony Jones[/autotag] included the Nittany Lions in his top schools list that also featured Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, UCLA, Arizona State and California.

The four-star California native has been busy taking visits to schools around the country, narrowing his scope from the roughly 18 scholarship offers that he has received so far.

Standing at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, he’s rated as a four-star prospect who is considered the 18th-best player at his position and No. 204 overall per On3’s Industry Ranking.

He has yet to visit Penn State, but wants to get to campus sometime this fall. According to Chad Simmons of On3, he plans on taking official visits during the spring and summer before announcing his commitment (subscription required).

Jones would be a major addition for the Nittany Lions, getting two four-star recruits in the same class to come off the edge.

Penn State lands first 2025 defensive tackle in Randy Adirika

Penn State added a defensive tackle to its loaded Class of 2025 lineup.

While the majority of players in the class of 2025 have announced where they will be playing their college football, Penn State is still working on those top prospects on their board who remain undecided.

There are still plenty of positions [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff are hoping to fill within this group. Defensive tackle seemed to be the most prevalent since they had yet to earn a commitment from a player at that position.

[autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] has done a great job landing edge rushers in this cycle, winning some massive recruitment processes, so with that all but shored up, he can turn his attention over to the interior.

Some rumblings started to occur that the Nittany Lions were getting close to landing another Florida prospect in [autotag]Randy Adirika[/autotag] ahead of his commitment date, and the 6-foot-3, 280-pounder made it official late on July 9.

“The environment, their style of football, the way they develop and winning culture are the main reasons I committed to Penn State. I was there only [twice] so far, but the atmosphere is amazing and the people are what stands out,” he told Ryan Snyder of BlueWhiteIllustrated.

Penn State beat out in-state program Miami and USC to land the talented three-star defensive tackle who is listed as the 44th overall player at his position by On3’s Industry Ranking.

“The decision was very hard because I had two other schools recruiting me very well. The staff is amazing. Everyone is very down to earth and genuine people. Coach Deion Barnes did a very good job recruiting me and I trust and believe he can help me get to the next level,” he added.

Something that might have helped the Nittany Lions get this recruitment home is that Penn State quarterback commit [autotag]Bekkem Kritza[/autotag] is his high school teammate at Miami Central.

The three-star signal caller has vocal about how he wants to help the Nittany Lions build a strong recruiting class in 2025, and it seems like he was able to help them land a talented prospect down in Florida.

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Penn State working to flip Ohio State edge rusher commit

Penn State is working hard to flip this in-state edge rusher from his Ohio State commitment.

It’s been a great couple weeks for the Penn State Nittany Lions on the recruiting trail.

After getting some tough news regarding some of their top targets, they were able to land many talented recruits they were pursuing and even won some hotly-contested battles.

With [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff continuing to pursue top uncommitted players in the 2025 cycle so they can secure a top ranked class, there are still some recruits committed elsewhere who they will try to flip.

One is [autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag], a four-star edge rusher from Philadelphia who was once rated as the top player in the state before getting overtaken by Matt Zollers.

With Franklin’s emphasis on keeping the top in-state recruits in Pennsylvania to play for Penn State, it was tough when Mathis announced he had committed to Ohio State.

Rated as the 60th-best player in the country and No. 5 at his position by 247Sports’ Composite Rankings, the 6-foot-6, 225-pounder would be a huge boost for the Nittany Lions as [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] continues to put together his edge rushing group.

Until a player officially signs his letter of intent, they can decommit and decide to play football elsewhere.

According to Tyler Calvaruso of 247Sports, he thinks Penn State will continue to pursue Mathis, especially after he took an official visit to Happy Valley on June 21 with his high school teammate and Nittany Lions commit Jabree Wallace-Coleman (subscription required).

What comes out of it will be seen, but it never hurts for Franklin and his staff to continue working on the talented edge rusher to see if he might be interested in joining this program when it’s time to make things official.

The prospect of staying home and having his teammate with him might be alluring.

Wallace-Coleman and Penn State weren’t highly involved back in January when Mathis made his first decision to join the Buckeyes.

Maybe things have changed now and he might be considering decommitting and signing with the Nittany Lions.

It’s worth it to keep trying until he officially signs on with another program.

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Penn State lands another four-star edge rusher in Jayden Woods

Penn State adds another four-star commitment from edge rusher Jayden Woods.

This time on the calendar suggested there would be a lot of decisions coming for top players across the country about where they’re going to play college football, and Penn State was hoping they would land many of their top targets.

A lot of eyes were on two coaches in particular as [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] and [autotag]Marques Hagans[/autotag] really had their first full recruiting cycle this offseason.

For a while, both had only landed one commit when [autotag]Lyrick Samuel[/autotag] jumped on board in the receiver room, however, since then, Barnes has been on an incredible run that continues to get better.

Not only did he get his first one in Cortez Harris, but he followed that up with a huge victory to land Max Granville, poaching him from the state of Texas to beat out Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

As if that wasn’t good enough, the Nittany Lions have landed another four-star edge rusher in [autotag]Jayden Woods[/autotag].

The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder is a consensus four-star in the class of 2025 and is ranked 23rd at his position and 201st overall by On3’s Industry Ranking.

This was another recruitment that was seen as something potentially hard to get home as Woods is a Kansas native and was heavily being pursued by Kansas State and Tennessee.

They were able to get him on campus twice in 2024, including an official visit that took place on the weekend of June 7.

The edge rusher talked about developing a good relationship with Barnes and the interesting connection his family has with [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag], as he recruited Woods’s father to Kansas State back when Franklin was coaching there.

He is now the 19th commit for Penn State in the class of 2025 as they continue to put together a group that could finish towards the top of national rankings with their continued pursuit of other top targets on their board.

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Four-star edge rusher Cortez Harris commits to Penn State

Penn State concludes wild recruiting weekend with commitment from edge rusher Cortez Harris.

It has been a rollercoaster for [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and the Penn State football program on the recruiting trail this week.

There was a ton of momentum going in their direction as they landed some standout defensive backs who were at the top of their list. But after thinking they had a hard commitment from running back Alvin Henderson, he flipped to Auburn.

That was later followed by linebacker DJ McClary decommitting and joining Rutgers’ recruiting class.

Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, they had a backup plan in place for Henderson as they earned a commitment from instate four-star running back Jabree Wallace-Coleman while also landing safety Braswell Thomas.

Franklin and his staff continue to stay hot.

Penn State landed another four-star recruit in edge rusher [autotag]Cortez Harris[/autotag] out of Maryland. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound prospect was on campus for an official visit this past weekend.

Ranked as the 26th-best player at his position and No. 288 in the 2025 cycle by On3’s Industry Ranking, he becomes the first defensive lineman commit for the Nittany Lions in this class.

Following Harris’ commitment, Penn State is now up to 17 and is knocking on the door of being a Top 10 class.

From the sound of it, the relationship he established with [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] was a big deciding factor in him picking the Nittany Lions over his other two finalists Maryland and Tennessee.

There was some pressure on Barnes to start landing some recruits on the defensive line since he hadn’t yet in this cycle, but all the intel that has been coming out is that Penn State was close to getting commitments, and Harris is the first domino.

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Four-star edge rusher impressed by Penn State on official visit

Penn State could be a rising contender for this four-star edge rusher in the Class of 2025.

Penn State has plenty of work to do in their class of 2025, and while 13 commits on the board right now aren’t quite where they want to be, there’s a chance that number increases substantially over the next couple of weeks following their official visit weekends.

Based on the busy summer calendars for a lot of the top recruits across the country, the Nittany Lions could find themselves battling it out for many of their top targets into the fall.

That would be a bit different than what they experienced in the last cycle, but each year offers various challenges, especially in this new NIL world.

So, coming out of their first major official visit weekend, some information is now being reported about where Penn State stands in the recruitment of those who were on campus.

One they seemed to impress was four-star edge rusher [autotag]Cedric Works[/autotag].

This was a late-blooming relationship as they only first offered him in February even after he took his first visit in the fall. However, once they extended a scholarship, things have started to rapidly progress.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Ohio native is ranked as the No. 86 player in the country and 11-best at his position by 247Sports.

Without a single defensive lineman committed to their 2025 recruiting class, [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] is looking to close on a strong note and has become heavily involved in trying to land Works.

Tyler Calvaruso of 247Sports caught up with the edge rusher coming out his visit and it sounds like they have put themselves in solid position to land him. He was able to see the hard-working culture that has been established in his position group and got to know his host [autotag]Jameial Lyons[/autotag] better and saw how someone with a similar background has succeeded at Penn State (subscription required).

Works has more upcoming official visits on his calendar to see Cincinnati, Florida, and Kentucky. Once those conclude he’s expecting to have a decision before his senior season of high school begins.

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Elite 2025 edge rusher puts Penn State in top eight

Penn State is in the thick of the race for a commitment from four-star defensive lineman Mariyon Dye out of Indiana.

Penn State is looking to make a push heading into their official visit calendar to put together another solid recruiting class in this cycle after things have progressed relatively slowly in comparison to ones in the past.

Sitting with just 13 commits as of now, there are plenty of players at different positions they can still pursue.

The breakdown is four defensive recruits compared to nine offensive ones, so the defensive staff has their work cut out for them heading into this portion of the calendar. [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] has some work to do as well, with zero defensive line commits as of yet.

However, some things have started to progress and the Nittany Lions got some good news when elite four-star edge rusher [autotag]Mariyon Dye[/autotag] included them in his top eight list.

Other schools that made the cut are Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, LSU, Florida State, Tennessee, and Purdue.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder from the state of Indiana is listed as the 164th-best player in the country according to On3’s Industry Rankings, but On3 themselves are much higher on him, rating him No. 40 in the class and the fifth-best at his position.

Dye has only taken one visit to Penn State, coming back in March of this year.

It seems like a major uphill battle for the Nittany Lions as the talented edge rusher has five visits upcoming on his schedule and none are to Happy Valley.

On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine has the Buckeyes as the overwhelming favorites to land the four-star, listing them with a 93.3% chance.

There is no commitment date set by Dye as he goes into these visits.

“I’ve been feeling good about my recruitment. I know that I’m really blessed to be in the position that I am now. I’m trying to get a really good feel about some of my top schools … I will be ready when I get that gut feeling. It will also be when I have a good feeling about my relationship with the coaches and when we have bonds that go beyond football. These relationships will be important, as well as how I fit in their scheme,” he told Hunter Shelton.

Penn State still has time to get further onto his radar, but it seems like they are going to be on the outside looking in barring a major change in his recruitment.

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Elite 2026 defensive line prospect locks in Penn State visit

Penn State is already working on recruiting in the Class of 2026 with an upcoming official visit.

Penn State is entering the most important part of their recruiting calendar this month as official visit season begins and their top class of 2025 targets will come to Happy Valley as these prospects prepare to pick their college program.

There’s still a lot of work to do for [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff as they sit with 13 commits and plenty of players they would like to land are still preparing to make their decisions.

But, while the 2025 class is garnering the headlines, the recruits in the class of 2026 are getting out and laying the groundwork with unofficial visits.

It’s important to create relationships and establish connections early in these processes, and the Nittany Lions have been aggressively doing so with two new coordinators in [autotag]Tom Allen[/autotag] and [autotag]Andy Kotelnicki[/autotag].

With that in mind, it was reported by Ryan Snyder of On3 that consensus four-star 2026 defensive lineman, [autotag]Titan Davis[/autotag], will come to Happy Valley for the first time on May 18. Penn State didn’t make his early top schools list, so getting him on campus and around the coaching staff should help them get on his radar (subscription required).

Davis is a 6-foot-5, 238-pound lineman from St. Louis is listed as the No. 66 player in the 2026 class and sixth-best player at his position.

He’s only taken five visits so far, three of them to Nebraska, so hosting the talented prospect this weekend while other elite players in the class are also scheduled to take a trip will be huge for Penn State.

[autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag] has hit the recruiting trail hard since taking over as defensive line coach in 2023, but he’ll continue to get the opportunity to start recruiting players from scratch and landing Davis would certainly be a huge win.