National Signing Day has come and gone and while the 2025 class is not finished since there is a late signing period in February as well, most of the action happened last week.
Rivals is breaking down each Top 25 recruiting class and we continue here with No. 16 Penn State.
MORE NITTANY LIONS: Penn State's 2025 recruiting class
MORE TEAM SPOTLIGHTS: No. 1 Oregon | No. 2 Texas | No. 3 Georgia | No. 4 Ohio State | No. 5 Alabama | No. 6 LSU | No. 7 Michigan | No. 8 Auburn | No. 9 Texas A&M | No. 10 Tennessee | No. 11 Florida | No. 12 Notre Dame | No. 13 Miami | No. 14 Ole Miss | No. 15 USC
NATIONAL SIGNING DAY: Grading the ACC | Grading the Big 12 | Grading the Big Ten | Grading the SEC | Gorney Awards | Winners and Losers | Who will be the team recruiting champ? | Who's left for the 2025 class? | Auburn beats Bama in-state | Ranking the top Group of Five signees | LSU's Kelly vents about NIL world | Live Blog | Announcement Guide
TRANSFER PORTAL OPENS MONDAY: Offensive transfers available | Defensive transfers available
WHAT WENT RIGHT ...
Down the stretch, Penn State flipped a key tight end, dodged some Ohio State bullets with at least one other prospect and kept others away from flipping as well as the Nittany Lions finished with a top-16 class.
National Signing Day was tight end flip day for Penn State as it landed three-star Brian Kortovich, a flip from Purdue, and the big fish was beating Oregon and others for Michigan flip Andrew Olesh, a key in-state win for the Nittany Lions.
Ohio State was also working to flip Warren (Ohio) Harding three-star athlete Chaz Coleman, who considered a visit to Columbus late, which could have spelled trouble but decided against it and stuck with the Nittany Lions.
Having high-end pass-catchers other than tight end Tyler Warren has been a major issue for Penn State this season. To address that, the Nittany Lions signed four receivers and three tight ends.
And the Nittany Lions might not be done. Long-time four-star North Carolina quarterback commit Bryce Baker is still waiting to see who the Tar Heels hire as coach. If it’s not a home-run hire in his view then Penn State would be where he flips after taking a late visit to Happy Valley.
WHAT WENT WRONG ...
There was only one decommitment late in the recruiting cycle when four-star defensive end Jayden Woods flipped to Florida. Other than that, there were some earlier losses including prolific four-star running back Alvin Henderson but the Nittany Lions weathered those losses.
Where Penn State missed (so far) is with the top of in-state recruiting.
Pennsylvania’s top player is four-star defensive end Zahir Mathis from Philadelphia (Pa.) Imhotep Charter and after backing off his pledge to Ohio State, it looks like Michigan is now the team to beat in his recruitment. Penn State is right there with some others possibly but his only planned visit so far is to Ann Arbor.
There was another big in-state miss as Philadelphia (Pa.) St. Joseph’s four-star linebacker Anthony Sacca, a Penn State legacy whose father played quarterback for the Nittany Lions, chose Notre Dame instead.
PARTING PREDICTION
Prediction: Penn State will flip long-time North Carolina quarterback commit Bryce Baker.
Now, if North Carolina names Bill Belichick its next coach then all bets are off here. But if the Tar Heels prolong this coaching search much more or name a defensive-minded head coach, I predict this will happen.
The Kernersville (N.C.) East Forsyth four-star has been committed to the Tar Heels since June 2023 and he wanted to play there but really hoped Mack Brown was retained. That’s not the case and North Carolina is still searching for its next coach but Baker is expected to enroll early so a final decision needs to be made soon.
Coach James Franklin and his staff have been working hard to flip Baker and get a second QB in this class. If North Carolina doesn’t move fast, it will be Baker.
