Friday Recruitin' - PSU Weekly Update 3/18

Friday Recruitin'

Does the bracket challenge have you down? Picked Louisville to go all the way? Well cheer up, as Penn State football begins tomorrow! Spring practice will take place for the next month, 15 practices across 30 days, culminating with the annual Blue/White Game on April 16.

Here are your Friday Recruitin' updates, the weekly roundup of all things Penn State football recruiting, mixed with some interesting, fun, and otherwise off-topic news items to get you through the weekend. Stay up to date with the 2012 Offers page from Linebacker-U.com!

UPDATE: Rivals reports that Penn State has offered NJ (Ramsey/Don Bosco Prep) DE Darius Hamilton. Teammate Elijah Shumate already holds a Penn State offer. Hamilton has an impressive sheet, with offers from most of the major northeast schools have offered, in addition to Florida and USC.

2012 Recruiting News  - Offers, Visits, and Other Information
(Being the first Friday Recruitin', there is a lot to cover; future updates likely won't be as extensive)

• Penn State begins its first important hosting weekend ($) of the 2012 recruiting season, with three big (literally AND figuratively) visitors.  Penn State does not have an official Junior Day like other schools have, but next weekend (March 25-27) is setting up to be a huge weekend for recruiting, as well. Stay tuned for any commitment news.
• Michigan also has a big weekend planned, hosting a good number of highly rated prospects. Four of the invitees (Reeves, Williams, Ross, and Richardson) hold Penn State offers.
• The latest offers are out, and the most recent offer went to a familiar name to Penn State fans.  Blake's brother, Brad Bars, was a last minute addition to the Class of 2010, and will be fighting to crack the defensive two-deep this fall.
• PA (Fairless Hills/Pennsbury) OL J.J. Denman has a top five, and it includes Penn State. Be wary of any top five this early in the process, but any top five that contains Penn State is always good.
• TomVH with mGoBlog nailed a couple of great interviews in the past couple of weeks. First, he interviewed MA (West Roxbury/Catholic Memorial) LB Camren Williams, whose top five also includes Penn State. Williams is considered a "package deal" by some analysts, along with teammate DB Armani Reeves. Both have offers from Penn State, and landing both would be another great pull from the northeast (see Redd, Silas).
• Second, Tom interviewed PA (Harrisburg/Bishop McDevitt) LB Noah Spence's father, who is handling the younger Spence's recruitment, allowing Noah to take his time and enjoy the recruiting process. Noah (through his father) intends to visit Penn State and other local schools this spring, while expanding his search over the summer. Spence is the kind of talent that needs to stay in-state.
• PA (Erie/McDowell) RB/ATH Greg Garmon named a top three ($). Garmon had previously stated that he was waiting for an offer from his "dream school - the 'U' [University of Miami]", an offer that has not yet arrived. He has a Penn State offer, and is friends with 2011 PSU commit Shyquawn Pulliam.
• PA (Boyertown/Boyertown) OL Chris "Mose Schrute" Muller got a verbal offer from Penn State about a month ago, and has added one from Pitt ($ - info in header). He has also named a current leader ($).
• PA (Plymouth/Wyoming Valley West) WR Eugene Lewis is set to visit PSU ($ - info in title), but first he had to face 2011 PSU commit Shawn Oakman on the hardwood. Oakman's Penn Wood squad bested Lewis and company, 87-60, in the PIAA state playoffs play-in game. 
• MD (Baltimore/Boys Latin) OL Greg Pyke is the 8th ranked lacrosse player in the class of 2012, but wants to concentrate on football after high school. He has a Penn State offer (along with Maryland, Virginia, and Rutgers, to name a few), but has his sights set on a certain southern school.
• MD (Owings Mills/McDonogh) DL Roman Braglio committed to Maryland on March 12. Not sure if it was just bluster, but he supposedly had interest from Penn State. That's not unlikely, even without a verbal offer from PSU, as Larry Johnson, Sr. is already hitting the Maryland/DC area hard this year.
• Scout.com released their Scout Ohio 100 this week ($). Penn State has extended verbal offers to five Ohio players, each of whom appear on the list. It would be nice to see PSU make a bigger push in Ohio, given in-state power Ohio State's limited scholarships; unfortunately, many of the recruits at the top of the list are already committed elsewhere.

Friday Fun Facts - Additional News, Information, and Articles From The Week That Was

• 2011 Penn State commit PK Sam Ficken (Valparaiso, IN) was honored by his home state by being named one of six scholar-athlete finalists for the Linda Rohrman scholarship. As a Penn State fan, I never get tired of reading stories like these.
• 2011 Penn State basketball commit Pat Ackerman (Rutland, MA) is watching the NCAA tournament closely, Andrew Dzurita writes. Ackerman and fellow 2011 commit Peter Alexis will add some much needed height to Penn State's hoops team; each player stands a massive 6'11".
• In Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's new film "Things Fall Apart" the rapper/actor/mogul plays a Big Ten college football player named Deon Barnes. Do not confuse the character with 2011 PSU commit Deion Barnes, who is a defensive end while Jackson's character is a running back at the University of Michigan.
• 2008 PSU commit Mike Mauti is set to take the field as starting middle linebacker in the fall, NewOrleans.com's Rene Nadeau reports. Mauti comes from a healthy lineage of Nittany Lions, and will almost certainly be a difference maker for the next two years. 
• PA (Lancaster/Warwick) RB Deron Thompson accepted a preferred walk-on role at Penn State, and should be the last member of the Class of 2011. He was first-team all-division in his senior year, including being named the league's Outstanding Back. 
• Concerned whether Nebraska would fit in the Big Ten? Take a look at this article by SBN blog Corn Nation and then make up your mind. If there's one thing all Big Ten schools can agree on, it's statistics (and book lernin'!). 
• In Class of 2013 (!) news, Penn State is jumping into the mix pretty heavily for Indiana's top prospect, DE Elijah Daniel from Avon HS in Avon, IN. Daniel holds three Big Ten scholarship offers already. 
• Finally, everyone's favorite all-time leading rusher speaks to reporters after Pro Day.

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