Penn State drops spot in recruiting rankings as dust settles
Penn State football’s late run of recruiting additions boosted its class standing by a spot. Wednesday’s movement in the national landscape during the early signing period dropped it back.
Signing 22 of 23 committed prospects to the Class of 2023, Penn State now stands at No. 14 in the updated On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings.
The Nittany Lions were jumped by Southern Cal, who now appears at No. 13. The Trojans ever-so-slightly edge out Penn State with a score of 91.593 to 91.583, respectively.
That number represents a slight dip for Penn State as the On3 team ranking baseline changed. As opposed to the 18, then 19-man class standard that carried the Nittany Lions through much of December, the average number of commits used in the ranking score has now changed to 20.
As a result, measuring the top 20 members of Penn State’s Class of 2023, its score didn’t change. The Nittany Lions per-recruit average of 90.32 also didn’t change. That average is good for 12th nationally.
“When you talk about this class, we’re very, very happy with the class,” Penn State coach James Franklin said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of balance in the class, offense and defense, as well as early enrollees. We have 11 guys that are scheduled right now to be early enrollees.
“The class is about split from offense to defense, from little guys to big guys. I think we got a really good mix there.”
Breaking down Penn State’s Class of 2023
The Nittany Lions’ class that signed on Wednesday includes 14 four-star prospects and eight three-stars.
Conrad Hussey, the four-star safety prospect out of St. Thomas Aquinas, remains undecided but has until Friday if he wants to make his commitment formal during the early signing period. He is reportedly deciding between Penn State, Florida State, and Miami.
With or without Hussey on board, the Nittany Lions signed one five-star in the On3 rankings in offensive lineman Jven Williams. He’s No. 6 overall in the Class of 2023 according to On3, ranked No. 1 at his position as an interior offensive lineman, and No. 1 in Pennsylvania.
Additionally, Penn State has 10 more players rated in the On3 300, with Alex Birchmeier (No. 50) and Tony Rojas (No. 97) ranked among the top 100.
Where Penn State stands in the Big Ten
Coming out of the early signing day, the Nittany Lions’ place in the Big Ten hasn’t changed.
Ohio State continues to hold down the top spot in the conference, though the Buckeyes dropped a place to No. 5 in the national rankings on Wednesday after suffering a flip of four-star corner Kayin Lee to Auburn.
After the top two of Ohio State and Penn State, the Big Ten has only Michigan (19th) and Michigan State (21) among the top 25 in the updated rankings. Nebraska (32), Iowa (37), Northwestern (38), Minnesota (41), Illinois (44), Maryland (45), and Wisconsin (50) round out the conference’s programs among the top 50, with Rutgers (60), Purdue (64), and Indiana (67) closing it out.
Still, with more movement to come for Penn State and its peers, both in the immediate future as well as in February for the late signing period, those standings will likely again shift, a fact Franklin acknowledged when summarizing the class on Wednesday.
“I’m very, very pleased with the class. As you guys know, this is the first signing day, so there will be another signing day,” Franklin said. “We also have the possibility of some transfer portal options as well. Then we got one guy that we’ve been recruiting for a long time that still hasn’t signed yet. We’ll see how that all plays out.”
