Recruiting News and Notes
Welcome to “Recruiting News and Notes,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly information clearinghouse, a spot for assorted bits of Purdue news, analysis and so on and so forth, intended for GoldandBlack.com members and GoldandBlack.com members only. We do respectfully ask that you please do your best to keep proprietary info shared here within the confines of this site.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
This weekend is another evaluation period for college coaches and they are all very excited about it.
From Purdue’s perspective, they’ll be spread pretty thin.
There are two events in Indianapolis — the Puma circuit (Nik Khamenia, Alex Costanza, Noah Smith) and the old Hoosier Shootout (Luke Ertel, 2027s). In Augusta, Tre Singleton will be playing at the Augusta Live (as opposed to Dead) event. The Peach Jam will open back up to coaches, but it’ll remain to be seen which Purdue targets remain alive. The main event will be the adidas All-America Camp in Atlanta. That’ll have Trent Sisley, Braylon Mullins, Tay Kinney, Anthony Thompson, Bo Ogden and on. How Singleton wasn’t invited to this is beyond me.
So it’s more watching.
Once July ends, the fur starts flying on visits.
Sisley is coming Sept. 6-8 for his official visit. Our expectation is that Antione West comes the 13-15. The moving parts at forward are considerable.
Purdue is likely at the moment we think to get Khamenia, Sebastian Williams-Adams and Singleton. When, we don’t know, but that second weekend would make a lot of sense for one of ’em. (It’s weird to bring in two players at the same position the same weekend.)
It’s possible new names come to the forefront, too. Purdue has been watching and recruiting Kruz McClure from the Columbus area. He’s gotten a bunch of offers since Rock Hill.
If Sisley remains uncommitted after his visit weekend, then the door is wide open for someone else to come in and take the spot potentially. All four of these offers are live, but it’s a safe assumption that no one’s going to commit without visiting. Sisley is the only one of the four to have done so.
Mullins has committed to making an official visit, but when remains to be seen if he can realistically take all the visits he seems intent to take. He is a long shot for Purdue.
There will be junior-year officials, too. Ogden will take one, for sure, and Purdue’s going to work like crazy to get Kinney and Felipe Quinones on campus. There will be more.
Those latter two are two of Purdue’s established point guard targets, a list that may soon add New Jersey’s Deron Rippey, who’s on the verge of a Boilermaker offer. Junior County from Utah, too.
Our sense is that Purdue’s next wave of ’26 offers will include those two and big man Jamyn Sondrup.
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
• Purdue doesn’t figure to add too much to a 2025 class that sits at 13 commitments for the moment. The staff has taken eight offensive players and five defensive players. Positions with multiple players:
Offensive line (3)
Running back (2)
Rush end (2)
2025 commitments
| Player, position, On3 stars | Ht./Wt. | Hometown/high school | Commit day |
| Sawyer Anderson, QB, 3 | 5-10/180 | Dallas/Parish Episcopal | 8/15/23 |
| Grant Beerman, ILB, 3 | 6-4, 215 | West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West | 7/6/24 |
| Landon Brooks, RE, 3 | 6-6/210 | Muncie, Ind./Delta | 3/11/24 |
| Dawayne Galloway, CB, 4 | 6-2/175 | Columbus, Ohio/Franklin | 7/5/24 |
| Cameron Gorin, OT, 3 | 6-5/265 | Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern | 6/20/24 |
| Lebron Hill, WR, 3 | 6-4/185 | Hammond, Ind./Morton | 6/25/24 |
| Rashad Jones, RE, 3 | 6-4/240 | Belleville, Mich./Belleville | 1/23/24 |
| Brian Kortovich, TE, 3 | 6-4/225 | Cleveland/Villa Angela-St. Joseph | 6/11/24 |
| Kuol Kuol, OL, 3 | 6-5/250 | Centerville, Ohio/Centerville | 7/10/24 |
| Drayden Pavey, DL, 3 | 6-3/305 | Cincinnati/Taft | 7/2/24 |
| Ziaire Stevens, RB, 3 | 5-10/170 | Akron, Ohio/East | 11/7/23 |
| Jaron Thomas, RB, 3 | 6-0/200 | Elkhart, Ind./Concord | 6/2/24 |
| Takhyian Whitset, OL, 3 | 6-5/265 | Nashville/Antioch | 4/30/24 |
• 2025 ILB Sam Steward probably will visit between July 25-31; probably won’t be firmed up until next week. The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Homestead product is expected to commit soon thereafter.
• Purdue is expected to continue to recruit some guys who’ve committed elsewhere. Among them: RE Mariyon Dye (Tennessee), WR JonAnthony Hall (Stanford), RE Jayden Woods (Penn State). Never stop selling, right?
• What’s next in offensive line recruiting? As of now, there will be only in-season evaluations of 2025 o-linemen. The staff likes plenty of 2026 linemen all over country. Some of the key ones that have been on campus:
Chanhassen (Minn.) Owen Linder
Maryville (Tenn.) Brody Smith
Mission Viejo (Calif.) J Serra Catholic Josh Haney
• Purdue is sharpening its focus on a couple of 2026 safeties:
Lewis Center (Ohio) Olentangy Kaden Gebhardt
Detroit Divine Child Marcello Vitti
• Westfield (Ind.) DB Deacon King is another in-state down the line target that projects as a LB/SS.
• The staff wasn’t planning on taking more than one 2025 DB. And, it got the one it wanted most in four-star Dawayne Galloway. He has some elite traits with a high upside and is still developing. Galloway was the main piece, which is why the Mason Alexander situation played out like it did (Pitt commit) and Seaonta Stewart officially stuck with Indiana. Don’t expect anymore 2025 DBs to be added–for now.
• Three 2026 running backs at the top of Purdue’s list:
Kory Amachree – Lansing (Mich.) Haslett
Jayzon Thompson – Knoxville (Tenn.) Bearden
Shahn Alston, Jr. – Painesville (Ohio) Harvey
• 2027 QB target Trae Taylor got noticed first by Purdue staffers during a camp in West Lafayette in the summer of 2023 when he was an 8th grader going into his freshman year. A buzz built about a young kid from Chicagoland who was throwing better than anyone at the camp. So, Purdue staffers moved Taylor up that day and had him work with the junior and senior quarterbacks. Taylor ended up being the best quarterback at the camp.
PURDUE FOOTBALL
• C Gus Hartwig recently spent time working out and learning at OL Masterminds in Frisco, Texas, which Boilermaker o-line coach Marcus Johnson also attended. OL Masterminds is a confab where linemen exchange info and work on honing their craft.
