Decision Day Approaching for Top USC Edge Target Jaylen Harvey
Four-Star Quince Orchard Edge Jaylen Harvey revealed a top three of Maryland, Penn State, and USC on Friday. He originally released a top five in June, which featured three schools listed above.
Harvey is the No. 348 overall prospect and No. 27 EDGE in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 99 player in Maryland.
Harvey took official visits to each school in June. He first visited Penn State on June 2, followed by USC on June 16, and Maryland on June 23.
That official visit to USC was a huge success and left the Trojans feeling like they were in a good place moving forward. Right now we believe it’s USC versus Penn St.
“My interest in USC was already there, but when I went up there, I felt like I was home,” said Harvey about the USC official visit. “I felt like I could be myself up there around the coaches and players. Out of all my official visits, USC was No. 1.
“The people out there in Cali are calm, cool, collected and keep to themselves. That’s the kind of person I am.”
School Choice Coming
Although Harvey doesn’t have an exact date set to announce his school choice, he told WeAreSC on Friday night a commitment’s coming fairly soon.
“It’ll be probably be this month before the first game or at halftime against Stonebridge, our third game of the season,” said Harvey. “Our first game is away, but our game against Stonebridge is at home.”
Harvey told us Florida stopped communicating with him this month and that’s why the Gators didn’t make his latest list of top schools. USC hasn’t failed to communicate with Harvey since his June 16-18 official visit.
Roy Manning
USC Rush Ends coach Roy Manning earned commitments from two of USC’s top Edge/OLB targets in June when Kameryn Fountain and Elijah Newby committed. The other two targets for Manning were Harvey and Darien Mayo, who committed to Clemson last month.
Fountain and Newby said Manning was a huge reason they decided to commit to the Trojans. Harvey echoed their sentiment about Manning, although he’s not announcing his school choice until later this month or early August.
“Coach Roy Manning is also a big factor for me with USC,” said Harvey. “He’s been recruiting me since for a year now, so the relationship is really good there. Their business program is also a big factor for me.“
Lincoln Riley
We mention Lincoln Riley often when it comes to the recruitment of USC’s top targets, because Riley plays a vital role in recruiting the guys the Trojans are pursuing. This is especially true with out-of-state prospects who haven’t visited USC on multiple occasions.
“Of course, he’s a really big part,” Harvey replied when asked if Riley was heavily involved with his recruitment. “I feel as though he’s one of the top head coaches in the game right now. Out of everybody, out of all the leagues.”
Why it could be USC
“If it’s USC, I would say the head coach and then just all of the opportunities out there,” Harvey said. “And I don’t care where I go, I’m just trying to get on the field and that opportunity is there for me at USC.”
4-Star Quince Orchard Edge Jaylen Harvey
The DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia)
The USC staff believes the DC Metro Area will be one of the primary regions East of the Rockies to draw talent from in the coming years. Especially with the move to the Big-10 in 2024. Texas will be one of the others.
USC has a number of players from the Washington DC area or played high school there. Including running back MarShawn Lloyd, linebacker Shane Lee, safety Bryson Shaw, rush end Sam Greene, defensive lineman Elijah Hughes and college football’s biggest star in quarterback Caleb Williams. Jordan Addison was also from the DC Metro Area.
Head coach Lincoln Riley and rush end coach Roy Manning are pushing to add All-American Harvey to that growing list.
On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine
The 6-foot-2, 250-pounder holds 36 offers. According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, Penn State is in the lead to land a commitment from Harvey at 92.4%.
This is because there are two On3 predictions in place, however, they were submitted in October of 2022. This recruitment is truly a toss up right now.
RPM was released to the public in December 2021. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
On3 NIL Valuation
Harvey has an On3 NIL Valuation of $37K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.
Scott’s Thoughts
The On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) has Penn St. with a commanding lead over Maryland and USC. The Nittany Lions have a 92.4% chance of signing Harvey, but we’re told reality is it’s an extremely tight battle between USC and Penn St.
WeAreSC isn’t in a position to submit a prediction for the Trojans, but they are definitely heavily in the mix. This despite not much buzz for the West Coast program. Prior to announcing a school choice, Harvey will at least get to see USC play next weekend and get a feel for what the defense may look like in 2023. If he announces on September 14, he’ll get to see the Trojans play thee times.
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