Advanced Scouting: Penn State target Xavier Porter

Most players descending on Happy Valley for this official visit weekend are committed players. In some ways, this might feel like an early celebration rather than a hard sell of the Penn State Football program.

But one of the players not with the Class of 2024 is three-star defensive tackle, Xavier Porter. What does On3’s 81st-overall defensive tackle bring to the program? We’ll look at his highlight tape to get a preliminary sense of his skills.

Penn State finds their type in Porter

If you like quick, aggressive, agile penetrating defensive tackles, your name might be Penn State Football. Porter perfectly fits Penn State’s typical defensive tackle target and shows common skills with previous commits.

He’s not the world’s biggest player, but Porter plays with good strength, hand usage, and athleticism. His awareness of the field also stands out. Porter includes multiple plays where he makes a great second-reaction play, showing that he’s not running blindly around the field.

Porter also shows some nifty skills eluding and defeating double-teams on his highlight tape. Some of those unobvious skills in his film add up to a quality profile.

Questions remain

The biggest question about any shorter defensive tackle, and Porter checks in under 6-2, is about length. Does Porter have the size to grow? Not only does length help with hand fighting, but it assists in the overall mass that a player can add. Porter is a thickly-built prospect already, so is there room for 30 more pounds? Not every player needs to play at 305, but it’s preferable if possible.

The second question, directly relating to Porter’s film, is his pad level. There are highlights where the Penn State target wins, but his pad level is too high. But most of his reps on film don’t show that. He knows how to play with length and leverage, but how consistent is he? Are the majority of his plays with bad leverage? Or is his highlight film representative of his skills. Most of his issues come as a pass rusher, so we know what might be going on.

Fit assessment

It’s as much about fit as skill level for the Penn State recruiting class. Penn State recently signed a similar type of player and defensive tackle profile with Xavier Giliam. Nothing is saying that you can’t take two of the same style player in the class, but if the team had preferences, they’d probably like a taller player to jump on board.

The team has no problem gambling on shorter defensive tackles if they have the oversized length of a taller player. Getting that information will decide how the staff feels that Porter, an already stout player, can grow. However, Porter is a fine candidate to join the class if his height and length numbers match.

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