Tag: Kiandrea Barker

Penn State’s 2025 football commitment tracker

We have an updated football commitment tracker for Penn State following Monday’s latest commitment.

Penn State got off to a fast start with assembling its Class of 2025 on the recruiting trail. James Franklin and his staff quickly put together a class ranking in the top 10 of the national recruiting rankings even before the Class of 2024 was wrapping up for good. An early focus on defense was noticeable with Penn State’s recruiting plans for the Class of 2025 and some key players from neighboring states were among the early highlights of the recruiting class.

We will be keeping tabs on the Penn State Class of 2025 all the way through the recruiting cycle up until the commitments sign with Penn State. Should there be any players backing off their commitment, we will track their status as well as their recruiting process plays out.

This tracker will be updated as necessary, with the most recent update being made on February 20, 2024.

Penn State gets commitment from 2025 3-star RB Tiqwai Hayes

Whiteout effect? Penn State received a second commitment in as many days after the whiteout game.

The White Out Game on Saturday was not only a big event on the field, but it’s also one of the most important recruiting weekends on the year for [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and their staff.

They’ve used that game as a big selling point to players across the country they are recruiting.

The gameday atmosphere, the nationally televised game, and the overall spectacle is a huge factor when swaying prospects to the Penn State program.

The Nittany Lions were able to land a four-star 2025 linebacker after the game and now have added another player in that class with a commitment from a three-star instate running back.

[autotag]Tiqwai Hayes[/autotag] announced his commitment to Penn State on social media Monday. He livestreamed the event on his personal Instagram account and posted his announcement.

Hayes is a 5’10” 190 pound running back from Aliquippa, PA. He’s accumulated over 3,700 yards and 56 touchdowns as an underclassmen in high school.

He chose Penn State over Ohio State, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Michigan State, West Virginia and Cincinnati.

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On3’s Industry Rankings has him ranked as the 10th overall player in the state of Pennsylvania and the number 29 running back.

“I visited everywhere and nothing is like Penn State. I love the crowd, obviously. Their education is also top tier,” Hayes told BlueWhiteIllustrated. “They’re RBU, they’re the Lawn Boyz. They always have successful seasons. I’m excited to be part of that.”

As a freshman, he earned 4A Player of the Year honors for Pennsylvania and has been a top producer for Aliquippa, who was in the state championship last season.

He’s the fourth player committed to Penn State in the class of 2025. He’s the second running back joining [autotag]Kiandrea Barker[/autotag].

Hayes also told Ryan Snyder of BlueWhiteIllustrated that he’ll now be recruiting other players to join the class, saying, “Oh, I’ll be after a lot of guys. They got to come here. How could you not? All the dogs need to come play with us.”

It’s been a good start for Penn State in the 2025 class as they look to potentially add more commitments after the White Out.

Follow Brad Wakai on Twitter and TikTok.

Auburn offers 4-star RB committed to Penn State

Auburn has entered the race for Kiandrea Barker, one of the top running backs in the 2025 recruiting class.

Four-star running back [autotag]Kiandrea Barker[/autotag] may be committed to Penn State but [autotag]Cadillac Williams[/autotag] and Auburn is still pursuing the 2025 prospect, extending him an offer to him Saturday.

From Beebe, Arkansas, he has been committed to the Nittany Lions since April 16 but Auburn is one of several schools that have kept up their pursuit of the 5-foot-11, 183-pounder.

He is the No. 239 overall player and No. 23 running back in the 247Sports Composite ranking. He is also the No. 38 player from Texas.

Auburn already has one commitment in the 2025 class in four-star defensive lineman [autotag]Malik Autry[/autotag].

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Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow JD on Twitter @jdmccarthy15.

Two from Penn State included in ESPN’s Top 300 recruiting ranking for 2025

ESPN released its Top 300 recruits for 2025, and these two Penn State commits made the cut.

The Class of 2024 is still half a year away from beginning to sign their letter of intent, but the eyes of the recruiting world are always looking to what comes next. On Tuesday, ESPN released its ESPN Junior 300 rankings for the first time to give a glimpse at how the recruiting staff at ESPN is evaluating the nation’s top junior talent around the country.

And Penn State has two of the top 300 players lined up in its Class of 2025 haul already.

Offensive tackle Jaelyne Matthews is Penn State’s highest-rated recruit in the Class of 2025 so far, and he is the first of the two commits to appear in ESPN’s top 300 ranking for 2025. Matthews checks in at no. 81 on the ESPN recruiting ranking with a four-star ranking.

Matthews now carries four-star ratings from four recruiting outlets with ESPN, On3, 247Sports, and Rivals all forming a unanimous four-star rating. And all four have Matthews as a top 100 player on their respective rankings with Rivals going as high as 53 and 247Sports going the lowest with 98th in the nation overall. Regardless, everyone seems to agree just how much of a win this commitment is for Penn State as it continues to build quality depth and strength on the offensive line through recruiting.

Matthews was Penn State’s first commit in the Class of 2025, continuing a recent trend of having a big offensive lineman be the first commit on the board for the program the past few years. Matthews, from Toms River, NJ, recently committed to play in the 2025 All-American Bowl. Matthews committed to Penn State in late January of this year.

The second of two commits to appear in ESPN’s top 300 ranking for the Class of 2025 is running back Kiandrea Barker, from The Woodlands, TX. Barker is a relatively new commit to the recruiting class, giving his verbal commitment to the Nittany Lions in mid-April. Barker is ranked 241st on ESPN’s recruit ranking with a four-star rating.

That gives Barker a consensus four-star rating with four-star grades from 247Sports, On3, and Rivals as well. The other three recruiting outlets do have higher overall rankings for Barker with Rivals going as high as 123rd in the nation and 247Sports and On3 ranking Barker 202nd and 217th, respectively.

See the full ESPN Junior 300 rankings to see what prospects are at the top.

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Badgers offer four-star running back committed to Penn State

Wisconsin offered Kiandrea Barker, a four-star class of 2025 running back who has already committed to Penn State.

Wisconsin offered Kiandrea Barker, a four-star class of 2025 running back who has already committed to Penn State. The 5-foot-11, 183-pound athlete shares the same hometown as three-star quarterback Mabrey Mettauer, who has committed to Wisconsin already.

Considering the fact that there is still two years before Barker would join a college program, Luke Fickell and Wisconsin still have a realistic shot at gaining his commitment if he decides to walk away from heading to State College.

The Badgers have had some of the best running backs in the nation over the past few decades and in recent years, stars like Jonathan Taylor and Braelon Allen have been in the backfield at Camp Randall.

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Recruiting Roundup: 7 four-star prospects make college commitments

It’s spring game season in college football and with it comes a busy time on the recruiting circuit.

It’s spring game season in college football and with it comes a busy time on the recruiting circuit.

This past weekend, over a dozen highly ranked high school football players from around the country announced their college commitments, including seven recruits with a four-star rating. Here’s a review of who they are and where they are going.

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Penn State football snapshot profile: RB Kiandrea Barker

Let’s take a look at a snapshot profile of 2025 four-star running back Kiandrea Barker.

Penn State continues to build their running back room into an impressive group of young players. In 2022, it was the Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen show. In 2023, London Montgomery will enter the mix of a talented running back room.

However, let’s jump ahead a few years into the class of 2025, where the Nittany Lions brought in a four-star commitment in [autotag]Kiandrea Barker[/autotag] out of Texas.

Barker had plenty of offers from around the country, including Florida State, Miami and Mississippi State.

But, Barker eventually made his way to State College, where he will enter a running back room that is full of youth.

The Nittany Lions lost Keyvone Lee to the transfer portal earlier in the offseason, and Devyn Ford has stepped away from the team.

So, that leaves Penn State with a limited running back room that they have done an impressive job building back up.

Let’s take a look at the profile of Kiandrea Barker.

Penn State’s 2025 football commitment tracker

Penn State got an early jump on its Class of 2025. Updated commitment tracker.

Some say it’s never too early to get a jump on a recruiting class, especially if the right player is sitting there for the getting. Penn State doesn’t usually pile up commitments two years in advance, but it did get an early jump on the Class of 2025 with a January 2023 commitment from offensive tackle [autotag]Jaelyne Matthews[/autotag] from New Jersey.

And with that, the Class of 2025 was officially underway. We’re keeping track of every commitment to Penn State in the Class of 2025, and we’ll keep tabs on any player who ends up backing off a commitment if necessary.

This tracker will be updated as necessary, with the most recent update being made on April 17, 2023.

2025 four-star RB commits to Penn State

Penn State adds four-star running back for 2025 to cap Blue-White weekend.

While all eyes were on Penn State’s annual Blue-White Game this weekend, they picked up another recruiting commitment from a running back in the class of 2025. The recruiting focus has moved to the growing 2024 class, but it’s never too early to get players from younger classes locked into the program.

That was the case on Sunday when four-star running back [autotag]Kiandrea Barker[/autotag] announced his commitment to Penn State. He spent a two-day visit over the weekend and didn’t leave State College without giving his early commitment to the Nittany Lions.

Barker is a 6’0″ 185 pound prospect from Arkansas but plays high school football in Texas for The Woodlands High School. 247Sports has him ranked as the 68th player overall in his class and the number nine running back prospect. He had 11 scholarship offers from programs across the country but decided on Penn State over some notable names like Miami, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

This commitment now makes three players already locked into Penn State’s recruiting class of 2025.

Barker told On3 that he grew up idolizing former Penn State running back [autotag]Saquan Barkley[/autotag] saying, “Growing up, I watched Saquan before he got drafted, so I knew that if Penn State ever offered they would be one of my top choices.”

He continued by saying, “Penn State is a great college and they play the kind of football I like… the year that [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] had this past season, I think Penn State is where home is and who can get me to the top level of football.”

Penn State is known as “Linebacker U,” but if they continue recruiting and putting elite running backs in the NFL, that nickname might have to be updated at some point.

It’s clear that the running back position is something that the coaching staff puts an emphasis on when recruiting. Landing a player of Barker’s caliber early in his recruitment process is a huge win for the program.

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Recruiting expert casts new crystal ball for four-star teammates in Penn State’s favor

It’s early, but Penn State gets a pair of crystal ball picks for this four-star Texas high school duo.

Penn State is coming off a big recruiting weekend with a number of recruiting targets taking in the scenes at spring football practice over the weekend. And, perhaps, that played into the recruiting outlook for a couple of players who are on Penn State’s radar for the Class of 2025.

247Sports director of football recruiting Steve Wiltfong cast a pair of crystal ball predictions recently that seem to give Penn State some momentum on the recruiting trail. High school teammates [autotag]Quanell Farrakhan[/autotag] (wide receiver) and [autotag]Kiandrea Barker[/autotag] (running back) are each currently predicted to commit to Penn State by Wiltfong. Barker is a four-star recruit according to 247Sports and Farrakhan has a four-star rating from Rivals. Getting both in a package deal would be a nice recruiting victory for James Franklin and his staff. and Penn State looks to be in a favorable spot for each.

According to the updated calculations from the On3 recruiting prediction machine, Penn State has a 97.7% chance of landing a commitment from Barker and a 98.8% chance of getting a commitment from Farrakhan.

Barker previously revealed his top five schools under consideration earlier in the month, and Penn State was among them. The other schools in Barker’s top five included Mississippi Stae, Ole Miss, Miami, and Florida State.

Farrakhan released his top five schools a day later, and once again Penn State was in the top five. Other schools in Farrakhan’s top five included Florida State, Georgia, TCU, and Tennessee.

Of course, there is a long way to go in the recruiting cycle for 20235, and a lot can change during any player’s recruiting process. But it is good to see Penn State potentially making some early inroads on a couple of talented players out of Texas. The competition on the recruiting trail should be heavy for both of these players though, and judging by the top fives for each, there will be some stiff competition to come in the recruiting process.

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