{"id":8042,"date":"2023-06-18T20:31:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=8042"},"modified":"2023-06-18T20:31:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T01:31:11","slug":"penn-state-sets-the-bar-high-with-dl-benedict-umeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/penn-state-sets-the-bar-high-with-dl-benedict-umeh\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State sets the bar high with DL Benedict Umeh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State hosted an impressive list of talent this past weekend<\/strong><\/a>, but defensive line prospect Benedict Umeh<\/a><\/strong> was easily the top prospect in attendance. Ranked No. 29 in the nation by On3, the Toronto, Canada native has the potential to be a five-star player by the time it\u2019s all said and done. He\u2019s also expected to play defensive tackle at the next level, which is one of Penn State\u2019s most important positional needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came out with my dad and my personal trainer and mentor, Oral Sybblis,\u201d Umeh said. \u201cThey were both blown away. The facilities are insane. The stadium is insane. My dad has been on two official visits now, so he kind of knows what it\u2019s like, but he was blown away by the quality of the people there. They\u2019re really good people, really humble. It\u2019s a great family out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his recruitment, Umeh has repeatedly made it clear that academics will be a massive part in his decision. With official visits to Wisconsin and Duke so far, as well as a trip to Stanford coming next weekend, Penn State made its case for what it can do for him off the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about academics a lot. If I wanted to do computer science at Penn State, it wouldn\u2019t be an issue. We figured that stuff out,\u201d Umeh said. \u201cI do still need to look at a few things. They do have a really good computer engineering program at Penn State, too. Their computer science program kind of piggybacks off that, if that makes sense. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I still need to talk to some computer science people there. I want to look into that a bit more, but the academics are solid. Between that and the quality of football you\u2019re getting, there\u2019s no better balance in Power Five football.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Penn State defensive line coach Deion Barnes<\/a><\/strong> has been as consistent as anyone so far in recruiting Umeh. That relationship has been strong since Umeh\u2019s first visit in April. <\/p>\n

However, learning more about why Barnes wants to coach at this level left a strong impression. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Barnes had a great story,\u201d Umeh said. \u201cHe was telling me that, when he was in college, he was a great college player, but he wasn\u2019t consistent. He would make great plays but didn\u2019t always give his best effort on other plays. Looking back, he feels like that hurt him in his career and it\u2019s a big reason why he wants to coach now, especially at Penn State. He wants to make sure his guys don\u2019t make those same mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach James Franklin<\/a><\/strong> was also a mainstay throughout the visit. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great the whole visit. Even the last time I was there, he\u2019s always the same exact person. He\u2019s got incredible energy and is a player\u2019s coach. The biggest thing was that him and my dad really get along very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umeh was hosted by fellow Canadian, Malik Meiga<\/a><\/strong>. He also said he connected well with another defensive tackle in attendance, four-star prospect T.A. Cunningham<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next, Umeh has an official visit set to Stanford this upcoming weekend. He\u2019ll likely make a decision a week or two later.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of my top five, Penn State, Stanford and Duke are probably the big three,\u201d he said. \u201cI need to get out to Stanford again and take that visit next week, but I did fall in love with Penn State when I visited that first time. I really wanted to get my parents around their coaches and my dad was loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The post Penn State sets the bar high with DL Benedict Umeh<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penn State hosted an impressive list of talent this past weekend, but defensive line prospect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}