Sting Factor: Yazeed Haynes' flip from Penn State to UGA
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Yazeed Haynes committed to Penn State on June 12 shortly after wrapping up his official visit to Happy Valley.
It was a big commitment for the Nittany Lions since Haynes is a four-star receiver, an in-state prospect at Lansdale (Pa.) North Penn and was committed to Rutgers earlier in his recruitment.
But Haynes’ pledge to the Nittany Lions didn’t even last until the end of July as the four-star who looked great at the Rivals Camp Series outside Philadelphia this offseason backed off his commitment on Monday and pledged to Georgia on Wednesday.
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LOCAL REACTION
“This one stings quite a bit as this is the second time this cycle that Penn State has lost a commitment to Georgia, with the other being Joshua Miller. This one stings a bit more as Haynes is a Pennsylvania product and you never want to lose guys from your home state. Not to mention with the loss of Haynes, the Nittany Lions are now down to just one wide receiver commit in this class with Ejani Shakir.
“They could bounce back from this as they are hosting another four-star this upcoming weekend in Justin Brown but in an ideal world you’d like both Brown and Haynes in the same class. Regardless, you just have to move on, hope to land Brown and probably go portal shopping just like last offseason.” - Richard Schnyderite, NittanyNation.com
Sting factor: 8
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NATIONAL REACTION
"Penn State is still doing well with in-state recruiting with more hits than misses but losing someone like Haynes is concerning. This was someone who loved the culture in State College, flipped from Rutgers after his recruitment picked up more and then looked locked in with the Nittany Lions only for an SEC powerhouse to come up North again for a player it wanted.
"If Penn State is going to keep pushing for national status, the Lions have to be able to fend off SEC teams from coming into their home state and taking whoever they want." – Adam Gorney, National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 8