Three storylines to follow during Penn State’s June 7-9 official visit weekend

By Sunday afternoon, Penn State will reach the halfway point in this month’s official visit schedule. Last week, head coach James Franklin and his staff hosted 11 prospects for official visits, and while it didn’t result in any immediate commitments, the Nittany Lions find themselves in a strong position with a few of them.

Now, the staff will welcome 10 more recruits to campus beginning Friday afternoon. Six of them hold four-star ratings in the Industry Rankings, and there’s a good chance that number is even higher when we look back down the road.

So, what should fans be following closely this weekend? Here are the storylines I’ll be watching for over the next few days.

1) Penn State has to lock up Saf. Kainoa Winston

As I noted in yesterday’s recruiting notebook, I believe four-star safety Kainoa Winston is the most important prospect on campus this weekend. Last fall, this recruitment felt like one that Penn State should win without too much of a fight. However, following an official visit to Michigan, Anthony Poindexter and the rest of the staff have some work to do.

It’s no secret that Winston and Top 100 safety JaDon Blair have been at the top of the staff’s board for basically a year now. At one point, I thought Penn State had a real chance to land both of these players. Maybe they still will, as Blair will visit at the end of the month, but right now, keeping Winston close to home, and maybe just as importantly, away from a Big Ten rival, has to be a top priority for the Nittany Lions.

Winston is aware of how well Poindexter has developed his older cousin, Kevin Winston Jr., and I do think that’ll play a role when it’s all said and done. I think those ties will help Penn State get this commitment in the end, but it’s much closer than I thought it would be at the start of the new year.

2) Wide Receiver Dominios

It’s been 109 days since Penn State picked up its first wide receiver commitment in the class, as four-star prospect and New York native Lyrick Samuel committed way back in February. I didn’t expect that commitment to open the floodgates, but when you consider how long Penn State has been pursuing players like Jeff Exinor and Lex Cyrus, both of whom hold four-star ratings in the Industry Rankings, I did think there was a real chance they could wrap up at least one more receiver in the spring.

Now, following his visit last weekend, I do expect Cyrus to make a decision following his visit to South Carolina this weekend. I put an RPM pick in for the Nittany Lions to land Cyrus yesterday, and if that all goes to plan, it’ll give others a reason to start considering a move.

Exinor makes a lot of sense for Penn State, but he also continues to stress publicly that a commitment will come in early July. He also knows the Lions will take him no matter what, so I’m hesitant to predict he’s the one to follow.

That brings us to Matthew Outten.

The Virginia native is very quiet. He also has official visits set to Virginia Tech and Maryland, but all Penn State needs is for one of these three to make a move and it changes the way the staff can go about recruiting the position. Maybe it’ll happen this weekend, maybe it won’t. It’s hard to predict, but they’ll absolutely be pushing hard to get Exinor or Outten to end their recruitments by Sunday.

If they can do that and get Cyrus next week, that’s how the dominos start falling quickly.

3) Who else makes sense for a commitment?

Since the NCAA approved April-June official visits beginning in 2018 – which was the Class of 2019 – the longest we’ve seen Penn State have to wait for a commitment this month was June 21. That came back in 2022 when wide receiver Tyler Johnson was the first player to commit this month. Last year, Penn State already earned a few of commitments by this point, and the same can be said about the 2020 class. Ty Blanding was the first to pop in the 2023 class on June 17.

History only means so much in recruiting, but if those trends continue, there’s a good chance we’ll start to see some decisions made in the next week or so. The main question is, who might it be?

Link: Penn State RB commit Kiandrea Barker shuts down recruitment

There are quite a few players visiting this weekend who, for the most part, have kept their order of top schools quiet. I already mentioned Outten, but players like Ohio cornerback Josh Johnson and Kansas defensive end Jayden Woods both fit the mold of players Penn State should be able to land.

Penn State was the first major program to offer Johnson back in November. The three-star prospect just went to Louisville and is planning to see Arkansas and Iowa, but in my eyes, those are all schools Penn State can realistically beat out. Woods went to Wisconsin last week and has Purdue set for the following week. Again, I don’t see any reason why Penn State can’t beat out those two schools.

It’s hard for me to realistically expect Penn State to add the two California prospects, Daryus Dixson and Phillip Bell. I expect safety Rashad Johnson to take his official visit to Georgia next weekend, while offensive lineman Amory Hills is more of a ‘wait and see’ prospect. Maybe Florida defensive tackle Jarquez Carter will surprise us, but if I’m searching for players who could make an unexpected move, I think Johnson and Woods are the ones to circle.

The post Three storylines to follow during Penn State’s June 7-9 official visit weekend appeared first on On3.