The NEXT Wave of Penn State Wide Receiver Targets Emerges

[Music] welcome to BWI live I'm Thomas Frank Carr and I promise you Today's Show came about through natural circumstances and Ryan welcome back from vacation this is what I mean there's one topic that Pense fans want to talk about more than anything else and it's receivers it's the current receiver on the team it's Marcus Hagin and whether he's not on the hot whether or not he's on the hot seat and of course receiver recruiting um so we've talked a lot about this but there's actually a lot of news that involves receivers this week so that's why we're talking about it I'm not trying to shoehorn this in genuinely Ryan has a lot of information for us on that particular topic so Ryan welcome back from vacation how have you been I am trying to catch up to speed but that means it was a good vacation right uh moving a little little slow this morning but I cannot complain family had a great time and uh it's football season man so I appreciate you guys holding it down that first week of uh preseason ball and I didn't expect all those commitments to come while I was gone so thank you all for holding it down so I could check out for a couple days but uh we we already addressed the fact that whenever you go on vacation uh penig gets receiver commits and when I go on vacation they get receiver misses so I'm not allowed to go on vacation is what we decided last week okay good know yeah yeah it's uh it's one of those fun situations we have uh but we'll see what happens um in the next couple of weeks in terms of recruiting I said to Fitz I think it was on Tuesday we're in Drama season where there's a whole lot of things going on something that you have talked about of this second half of this 2025 class timeline is going to be a lot of things going on from a perspective of decommitments class the guys making decisions uh after the decision they've already made so there's a lot of smoke about that to start and our first topic today is something that Steve Wilfong did I believe last night so can uh you fill us in on what's going on with pencey football um and that particular story y wide receiver cam Smith no I'm kidding linebacker cam Smith but um yeah linebacker out of St Joe's Prep uh if if you guys have been following uh Penn State recruiting last year you would know that uh getting a foot in the door or really I shouldn't say over the past year I should say over the last couple years getting a foot in the door at St Joseph's prep has always been a popular topic um linebacker cam Smith he originally from Salem New Jersey transferred over to St Joseph prep last year and back in February we thought there was a very good chance that he'd end up in that class well right when he's getting ready to kind of make a move Alex Tash commits DJ mlar was already committed at at the time and Pence they kind of tap the breakes not because they don't really love him but it was so early in the class that they didn't know and Tom Allen just had gotten there so they were they were kind of still doing different evals of different players and you know how many linebackers they need this year all types of little things kind of ended up um I don't want to say forcing pensate to tap the brakes but they they they did for you know a variety of reasons so of course cam Smith goes on to commit to Duke he's been committed since February and you know now I don't know the last couple weeks really I would actually say till the mid June really kind of when McClary decommitted is really when we should Circle which was what the end of June mid June somewhere in that ballpark uh Penn State starts to Circle back on cam and you know he comes up uh July 27th for the the Lash bash and you know we were able to speak with him after that and he really made it clear at the time you know that that you know that relationship with Penn State never truly ended but has really picked up I think over the last well we'll say seven or so weeks so here we are uh St Joseph's prep is in Camp uh he wants to kind of figure this all out and get it over with and you know now our our top guys of course the Wilfong and and Chad Simmons believe a flip is coming soon or potentially coming soon we should say so whether that's today tomorrow time will tell I think we've been kind of watching for this for the last couple of days so I would not be shocked if it comes today um but I also was trying to keep an eye out yesterday too uh driving back for the beachs trying to keep an eye on when this will come so it's it's been a couple days here just waiting see kind of mode but you know all the feedback we're getting is that he's he's serious about Penn State and I think cam Smith always really wanted to be at Penn State if you just kind of look at his early Recruitment and the visits he was taking and the consistency and and you know he spoke about Penn State staff like there was a lot of things there uh that made sense and of course he ends up committing to Manny Diaz right the the the former defensive coordinator uh who now of course is at Duke so there was a lot of ties a lot of reasons why he always really was high on Penn State and uh now here we are uh with with our guys predicting him to to make the move so time will tell let's keep an eye on it here over the next 24 48 hours and um you know I think it's going to come but uh like I said I've been looking at that for the last two days yeah and of course uh if you want this information in more detail you want some of the reporting behind the reporting that you get here subscribe to bluewhiteillustrated.com two months for $1 with code psu1 that's two months for $1 with code psu1 to get in on the action at blue white illustrate. comom and I'm going to say this with as much emphasis as I can sign up now do it now with code psu1 I can't promise that that deal is going to be around forever so if you want to try us out by the way that gets you into October when it comes to pens football not just with the recruiting efforts but also with all the detailed analysis and things that we do with uh pensei football including our practice notes notes which are going to be going up tonight pen State opens practice tonight so we'll have all of that coming for you and of course subscribe here to the blue white Illustrated YouTube channel always a great time to subscribe to something that is totally free and you get all this information from Ryan from Fitz from Nate from Greg we have a a good time here on the show so uh with that particular conversation about cam Smith the way you phrase it I find is interesting like the relationship never ended but it picked back up was there a mending of fenses that had to happen in your under in your understanding or how did that situation go when he commits to Manny Diaz and and then they have this kind of as you described it kind of tapping the break situation I I wouldn't excuse me mending offenses is kind of hard to say right because I mean sources don't open up about that players don't really open up about that I'm sure to some degree there has to be right when you want to or my understanding he wanted to commit to Penn State but Tash jumps on board like this all just kind of snowballed in like a 3 four days span um back in February but again you know this was a player who I think really wanted to be here so and Penn State Penn State knew that throughout U so really when it started becoming clear mlar is flirting with Ruckers I think that that's when uh you know things got put back into motion more and I do think that the relationship always kind of kept going to some degree because again I do feel like cam Smith wants to be here so um yeah I think that's kind of where they're at right now and and and time will tell if he if he finally makes that move but I do think it's uh certainly realistic Steph chat are the best in the business right they're not putting in pcks if they don't feel like it's it's likely yeah yeah and we'll again continue to monitor that at blue white Illustrated tocom always a great place to go find information like that and if you want information about how to I don't want to sound too dramatic here but change your life forever check out Andy Ludi at my perfectris Donnet he's a long time uh supporter here of the Thursday recruiting show appreciate him and all his efforts to support the recruiting journey in general enal for all of these prospects he supports a lot of recruiting shows in the on3 network we're just one of them but if you want to know more about how you can change your life uh from a real day-to-day process perspective uh going into owning a franchise is not for everyone in fact that's part of what Andy does at my perfect franchise. net is tell you hey this is good for you or this isn't good for you he's not there just in an assembly line of putting people in businesses taking a cut and leaving he's going to tell you here here's how you succeed here are the guide posts here are the landmarks here are the things you need to know because he's done this for over a decade or almost a decade contact him at 404973 991 or Andy aty perfectfringe and talk to him about that we get a call about every six months to talk about these things and here's here's the thing it's it's to get us more things to talk about here Ryan when we're telling you about my perfect franchise but he is like to business what I am to football and there's a certain level of like I just don't understand what he's talking about when we're talking about businesses so you need to talk to him about those businesses at my perran doet Ryan receivers big topic for the NIT Lions recruiting 2026 already has some uh great prospects 2025 they uh just got Kobe Howard recently but I want to start here with Jerome miles Utah Prospect at wide receiver he's a player that has emerged here late in the process that a lot of teams are interested in so tell me about Jerome miles and his connection with Penn State yeah miles so miles was talking to Penn State back in the spring and he kind of rushed I don't want to say rushed a commitment uh he did take a visit to Old Miss and and committed pretty quickly uh though and and just I think it was mid June or so has has since backed out of that so really his decommitment happened around the same time as Lex Cyrus and uton and some of those other guys going elsewhere and Penn State immediately got in to the mix um they didn't offer until I don't know about three weeks ago I want to say right around July 20th I want to say is is when they actually offered but from what my understanding was U behind that was really they were trying to get a better feel for him on how inous he would be in visiting um and then that's kind kind of why it dragged out a couple weeks of communication behind the scenes but not necessary an offer that that fans and everybody would would point to but that has now uh absolutely uh come and and I think Penn State is in the position to probably get him for an official visit this season at least as of right now now with that said uh he put out a top 10 yesterday the schools are excellent Auburn Georgia LSU Miami Michigan Ohio State Texas A&M Utah and USC I mean outside of Utah all of those schools are incredibly aggressive from an nil perspective and uh obviously a handful of those schools really recruit wide receivers very well uh very strongly so I'll be curious to see how things fluctuate a bit um but you know he has told on three that uh LSU and Penn State or or at least two of the schools U that he has circled to take visits to this season and you know that's all you can really do right now with Penn State uh is try and get him on campus as soon as possible of course right now is a dead period so that's not possible at the moment but it will be here in September and October and I think they're trying to still kind of work out uh when they can make that visit work uh he's already taken a handful of official visits but again you remember there was a rule change that prospects can take as many ovs as they want uh so that won't be any kind of uh issue for Penn State moving forward and I do think it's it's it's realistic it's just really kind of more going to come down to his schedule with him being all the way out in Utah as well as uh you know Penn State trying to coordinate the best game that they can they can get him on campus for so a lot of lot of really good schools in the mix um but man this is a a really good athlete freaky numbers he was part of Charles's uh freak list not that long ago run like a 45 had a 429 shuttle and a and a you know broad jump well over uh 9 ft so that was really uh that's positive obviously he's he's he's he may be the best freaky athlete kind of player still kind of out there or at least at the wide receiver position he seems like a guy at that receiver position is not I'm not saying like the best of the rest makes it sound like he's a consolation prize but this is guy who clearly emerged as a top talent late in the process so he's going to be in that same category Ryan right of you mentioned all the schools that are involved they're all schools that that are serious about receiver recruiting you're serious serious about nil and so it seems like this is one of those situations where he's going to demand a lot of attention I do want to take one issue with you though of saying that trip from Utah I've done that plenty of times um Chicago's not that bad you know just a quick layover in Chicago it's like 20 minutes 30 minutes sometimes and then you're on except probably do lay there's a little different you're not you're not playing high school games every Friday and have all those other that's and that's what I meant by that more so obviously distance matters right when when you're trying to fly a guy across the country uh but it really comes down to his schedule and what works and you know how to get him on the campus the best week you can and then oh by the way you got all these you got these eight nine other schools uh trying to do the exact same thing and get it into their best schedule so yeah I'm torn here I I'll take the player word that he's definitely going to visit but I think a lot of other schools have since a merge that are going to make that tough go ahead yeah I was just going to say what's your for a pence fan hopo meter where would you put that on you know what what do you think the better question give me yeah give me I can I feel like I can accurately answer that in the beginning of September just because that's when like right now everybody's so focused like even the players they so focused on preseason right now like I don't think J is out there really trying really hard to lock in all these visits right now because he he's got some school's got two a days either way you know this time of the year um players are so focused on that and then of course Penn State staff is so focused on you know everything they have going on so I do feel like we get to maybe a little bit towards the end of the month there's a better I can more accurately answer that again to me it just come like the player says he's going to visit but then he's also added some really quality schools since then too and you know that that always shuffled things up but I Penn State's gonna they're not gonna lay down easy and and you know just say okay yeah go to hell State instead of us like that's they're gonna work hard on it yeah uh Rob Cheryl in the chat says Utah now player in nil they hired Scott PEI to run their nil operations I don't know if that you know I I'm not saying that uh I just don't have any facts to say Rob yeah I don't know how strong their collectives are or anything like that I just know I do know the other schools there mentioned are incredibly strong I don't follow Utah recruiting all that much but uh I know Auburn recruiting is anybody does yeah well I mean a lot it's like that way with a lot of the West Coast Schools honestly um you know like Oregon's got a good following but you'd be surprised like as big as a USC and Washington and some of those other Schools are they don't have nearly the at least like the The Message Board commitment that you know you see for a lot of these big time Big big 10 schools SEC schools it's it's like that for a lot of the West Coast Schools I actually so I my inlaws always try to talk football with me I'm like yeah so how's Utah recruiting doing and they're like I don't know ask me on Signing Day that's we find out I was like there's a lot of State fans who are like that too though to be fair yeah but like there's like there like you said there's not really a place that they go and get a lot of this recruiting information from which is why Ryan Snider is so valuable like just I just want to just stop and say that like the the job you do and the job Fitz does uh to get all this information not every university has a dedicated staff of people to go and get that information so just wanted to publicly appreciate the job you do speaking of Kobe Howard what do you know about that I know you talked to Charles power where do you want to start in the conversation about Kobe Howard because I know you have your thoughts and of course uh what you said what you learned from Charles so how did you take in this stuff I think it's a fine pickup for Penn State um you know he's not so they really wanted like a burner right like a Lex Cyrus kind of slot guy that felt like that was when you add in lyric Samuel obviously you have Jeff exor who I I have always looked at exner as like a really solid possession guy who can rack up some big numbers but you know he's not going to be that home run threat and I think that they still kind of would love to add a top slot player um you know like Alex Cyrus or Romero Ean we'll figure we'll see where things go uh Kobe Howard to me is is more of that kind of possession guy uh doesn't really have the explosive numbers that I that I look at for Jeff exner but like he's incredibly consistent he's been incredibly consistent for two plus years now he had 1,600 allpurpose yards last year you know now he's moved over to Shaman amadana by the way which you know he's he's going to have a big step up in competition I think this was uh was he at Western last year um I believe that's the school he was at last year but uh anyway so we'll learn a lot about Kobe Howard here this fall uh but the fact that he's at a school like shamada now you know which you know those prominent schools down there I'm not going to say they recruit but you know they're kind of recruit uh the fact that they won a guy like him on their team I think speaks very highly of of you know what people down there see from him for Penn State they always really liked the the relationship and and what they see on film it was always to me or at least for my understanding was was really trying to lock down athletic numbers and you know all the credit to Kobe man he he came back up you know took an official visit in June came back up July 27th and en camped when not everybody would do that in the position he is I mean he could have yeah he likely could have ended up at Old Miss that was I was kind of torn on whether Old Miss was pushing hard like Old Miss and Penn State felt like they were in the same boat right like they really like the player but they just they needed to learn a little bit more Penn State was able to get him on campus for camp and I think that's what really got it over the line yeah and I I just want like the I'm trying to coin the term fast enough because we do focus on speed and we do focus on these testing metrics he falls in the zone of yeah this is a good receiver from those metrics but as you mentioned if you're looking specifically for a type of receiver in this class and I always said like you don't want to have too homogeneous of a class of guys that all kind of do the same thing you want to have some of those Dynamic qualities is he the most dynamic that pushes this group over the top no but does he lower the floor I also think that that's not true that he's a guy who fits into this class but maybe doesn't have a difference making Potential from an athletic standpoint so I just the the the framing of the conversation is always interesting right where if you're not first you're last and that's not true like you know the the idea that Kobe Howard is is a bad athlete because he's not great is not true um but I guess it's just interesting given this class of 25 it's only in the light of what they missed on that you kind of feel that way and that's kind of the interesting dynamic in this particular recruiting and the class as a whole given what happened in June with that is do you think that's a fair kind of way to paint that with Howard sure sure I mean we we talk about what they missed on right well it feels like they missed on something really heavy because we talked about those guys so much right and and sometimes I'll point the the finger at myself and just meet it as a as an example example of like sometimes at certain positions especially wide receiver we overthink it a little bit and I'm part of that problem I I'll raise my hand to that like like wide receiver is a position where you can rank 108th in the country like Kobe Howard does right by on three right now as at the position and he may he may turn out to be really damn good player because it is such a wide net at wide receiver now like when you're missing out on Elite offensive lineman Elite defensive line in you know obviously Elite quarterbacks like those are the positions where I feel like personally fans should put more emphasis and or or or care about a little bit more than wide receiver and I understand right now wide receiver is a is a is a position that Penn State needs to improve on but it's also one of those positions that are just so incredibly deep nationally I mean legitimately there's going to be a guy who ranks lower than Kobe Howard right now in our rankings and is going to go on to be a top 10 you know kind of wide receiver in col football in a handful of years from now just and we see it every year it's such a deep position uh it makes it really hard to really rate guys I there's bunch of different ways to win right so I I've heard this description of if you're an offensive lineman who is great in pass protection but you're not a great run blocker you're just 50% of a good offensive lineman if you're a great receiver at uh beating press and that is a unique skill for you and you can get open against Zone and make some plays down the field you're valuable but it like there are certain positions you have to be complete and receiver is not necessarily one of them I guess the part I would say is like you do need a couple of complete receivers to go up into win in any situation but that's the kind of the conversation about this class of they've got a leex Cyrus and a Jeff exer I'm sorry they have a uh LC samel lyric Samuel they they've merged in my head for some reason they have a lyric Samuel who has the potential to be that and they have a Jeff exer who's physically able to do those things so it's not like they don't right I think Kobe Howard's going to show that physically he's I mean look I mean he came up and tested very well uh I'm not going to put all the numbers out there to be respectful of the people who share that stuff with us but like there were no questions after he came up and camped that pen state would take him like it dragged out sure I mean he was talking about this going all the way the end of August because he wanted to Comm on ESPN and all that like that was his decision to not commit right away which actually surprised me I thought he was going to commit right away um and that was his decision to take it home you know think about it see see where things go and it really only lasted what an extra week or so until he made that move but um this was a player who absolutely could have committed right on the spot after he tested for them and you know at the end of the day you got to trust their evaluations uh you're not going to hit on all these guys but you know if if they're able to to get the numbers they want to see and they they feel out the player and his family and everything I mean how many examples have there been over the years where Penn State's really strong in that category sure there were some misses under Taylor Stubblefield they're fixing that right now they're at least they're doing their best and you know Kobe Howard could go on to be better than lric Samuel wouldn't shock me just because of what the position is and how much of a dice rle it is uh really is at this position so often um but Penn State feels good about where they're at and like I said I'll Circle back to o line dline QB like those are the spots where I feel like fan should really you know if you're missing out on a bunch of those top guys that's to me always been a little bit more important um you know that than receiver just because of how deep it is so let's keep talking about receiver Lavar Keys also committed last week I wanted to get your thoughts on him really Shifty player uh that's what stands out I haven't watched Lavar so really my first experience with Lavar was at the Under Armour camp in May I mean I knew who he was but I didn't really watch him all that much up close he didn't help a Penn State off right I mean there's Ben offered 300 guys in this last class so there's only just so many guys you can really focus on and watch and all that stuff but uh comes up the Penn State and just absolutely crushes it um I really thought his workout was incredibly strong 510 165 no doubt he's got to get bigger U but this is a slot guy that I think pen State can do a lot with he ran incredibly well you know Under Armour I think he ran like a 445 electronically tyed 445 guys like that's that's that's really good um and that's the kind of stuff you want to see uh he can really leap to strong hands for a player his size too I mean you usually see those guys like the lyrics Samuel types massive bigger hands you know just that they're they're better at that he's not small so that's the thing you you look at his frame and like he is short but he does he has good length for his position he's got good hand size so I I think those those are the metrics you look for if a guy lacks that length from an obvious visual perspective he does have those traits where maybe he isn't just a slot only but he's also a guy you would Peg as a really good slot Prospect for sure and two years to go of high school Let's do let's remember you know we're talking about Kobe Howard he's got one year left Lavar has got two so there's no reason that he can't add you know some really good weight over the next two years and and come up to Penn State maybe being 511 185 and all of a sudden well you know depending on how he puts on that weight and how he looks I mean and of course if he can keep his speed which I don't think that's going to be a problem with the VAR Keys like speed wise really that that is without a doubt his his biggest strength and just incredibly Shifty too um you know you don't really see it on this on this fly route here but you know some of his uh you know Slants and stuff like that over the middle um he's able to get open pretty quickly and and really separate as well which is what you want to see so I think it's a fine early early take for Penn State him and jir Rogers I mean my God the speed that those two bring uh to start your class off with those two I think is really strong uh you look at rankings and stuff like that like don't don't overthink it with 2026 guys right now I mean we have keys is like a mid-range three star uh he's going to really show this year at to Matha because he's going to get some really strong matchups uh playing against the gonzagasports of somebody who maybe is is off the radar they're not going up against teams that you're watching the film each week to start off with and and this is what Fitz and I talked about with him and and being at dtha do you think that there's an importance to reestablish that relationship I know we talked about some of the Philly schools but namaa has produced some good football players over the years and uh you know it's been a minute since they got somebody from there do you think that's helpful or do you think that's just a coincidence I don't think there's ever been an issue with the MAA I mean like good Council St John's uh you know St Francis St Joe's like there are a handful of schools where it's like this doesn't add up like they should be getting a couple guys here and there I don't really think that's ever been too much yeah they this some guys at the math over the years but I don't think that's anything behind the scenes other than just individual players making individual decisions that's all that really is so uh the Matha Penn State relationship will always be pretty strong Bill McGregor has great relationships with everybody on their staff and you know they got a bunch of really quality assistant coaches who are very involved in you know in you know the the recruiting world as well so uh they'll be just fine there but I really like I do really like lavares like he's a guy who really grew on me I stood out to me at Under Armour um but you know there's so much else 20125 wise going on that day that I can't sit here and pretend I watched him incredibly closely the clips I did watch and and you know the the different moves he was able to make grab my eyes uh but he didn't hold an offer at the time so I'm just focusing on so many other guys uh but coming up the white out camp last or two Saturdays ago would be now um man that was really it was such a smaller Camp too so you're really able to watch guys much more closely and uh I was really impressed with his like over the-middle kind of routes like the way he's able to get out of his breaks and stuff he's got to get better don't get me wrong I mean there's a lot of things he can still improve on as a route Runner but the the ingredients are there to be a really good player and that's why for Penn State it's it's easy to take a guy like this early on and you know see how he matures over the next year or so one thing you did mention both of those guys under 510 at or under 510 so maybe the next ingredient in this class is somebody with a little more size especially see as it seems penate has tried to Trend more that way with some classically sized receivers let me clarify J miles is a 63 you know he's the 2025 guy we open up with uh he is more that that size you know similar to Lyric Samuel so um they're certainly one that want to get some more guys with size and that'll that'll emerge with time including the next one we're going to talk about here which is Jer quaden Guilford I know you had a chance to speak Quay perfect that's what he goes by yeah uh tell us tell us about him and thank you for starting with that because you already begin to tell us a little bit about him going by Quay so tell us about Quay and and his relationship with pen Satan what he brings to the table Yeah another guy who camped really strong uh at that at that final camp on July 27th and you know it was interesting we didn't have a ton of information on him just from on Three's perspective as far as interviews and and you know we knew a little bit about his production as a season and stuff like that but um as far as like testing wise there wasn't a whole lot out there except we did notice excuse me that he picked up an offer from Ohio State after camping at Ohio State in June right so of course uh you know their staff's been incredibly strong at at uh you know scouting and finding top receiver targets so that that piak my interest right away and you know then he comes up to Penn State and and is able to put up some really good numbers again um I thought he was one of those guys that really kind of stood out uh stretching the field and again this is the camp setting right so I don't want to overthink it too much um but he was able to go up against some quality defensive backs in that camp setting and uh you know I was impressed with just his ability to go up get the ball make plays all those kind of things so um time will tell where this all goes he he's just now really starting to pick up offers Ohio State uh Miami I think is the other one so it'll it'll we'll see where things go with time but uh he's just a a a smidge under 62 um he's basically 6'2 um 170ish is where we have him right now and another player with uh two more years to go too so he can easily add an inch and be up in that 200 plus range and again if he can keep his speed uh which you know at Penn State I believe he ran it was under 46 I think it was I think it was mid 45 somewhere in that ballpark uh which is what he's since since coming to this Camp we've since learned that you know he's done that a couple places um you know he's he's certainly a guy that I think will continue to rise up the rankings I right now he's another one of those guys that you know 03 has like a mid three star player but again like this this wide receiver I don't know how Charles does it with wide receiver scouting man because it is not easy to do with so many many players uh spread across the country like if you're right now um I think what was this talk we had about Lex Cyrus a while ago I forget where Lex is in the position rankings now um but basically he was saying like man where Lex is ranking as a wide receiver is like being a top 10 player at so many other positions so just kind of as perspective on like you know how deep wide receiver is I'm pulling up Lex's profile real quick he is where's he at right now um 26 as far as like the industry ranking goes and to Charles like he's like dude if you're a top 30 wide receiver like at so many other positions that is that might as well be top 10 well three times most schools run three receiver sets so your top 10 becomes a top 30 if you're in the top 30 you're among like the best starting three receivers for for the top 30 schools in the country I think my math works out top 10 schools in the country anyway uh I'm going to try to do math here live again one of the things I noticed I don't want to put this up here again about um that's not what I wanted here we go anyway we'll go through this way jqu and Guilford qu Guilford the thing I really like about him watching him and just really off the cuff watching the film for the first time this morning 62 but the way he gets off the line he's got great starts like he's a guy who explodes out of the line of scrimmage and has a lot of flexibility in his body for somebody who's taller and that 40 time so one of the things I find interesting is like guys who are big but aren't muscled to the the level that they will be eventually those guys are moving around literally more bone they're lit they are larger people so the explosiveness can come later on once they physically develop Antonio branch is a guy that I think of in the same way who's like 62 170 you watch the way he moves and it's very poppy but it's not that level of explosiveness that you are thinking when he starts to move but that's just the under like when you develop physically and you put on that weight to move your body around better that's the that's the growth perspective of a guy like this who I think if Ohio State's offering him and you got of got those ear markers on on film this is a guy who could explode as you mentioned uh from an athletic perspective and and the way he moves on film some of those traits I think are are are a great sign for that um any other thoughts on Guilford or do you want to move on to our final topic for today no that's that's pretty much it I mean the one thing I will say before before moving on like there was a question earlier um Brad left it you know of the four receiver misses you know who do you think is maybe realistic as a flip I mean what I would say is auton is just incredibly quiet like he is it would not Shock me at all if some random day in November you know this random flip happens with with a Matthew a in the world just because like I there again there is really nobody out there for our company or 247 everybody that I have relationships with it you know the 247 Rivals whever it may be uh that feels like they have a great understanding for a and so that just makes him a total Wild Card who knows what will happen you know I would lean towards Lex Cyrus still being that guy uh just because as you know you get further down the road and you got to put pen to paper uh you know some guys start to think about things a little bit more you know do I definitely want to go down south I can stay closer to home be here so I I would I would still lean towards Lex and I know also like there's there's there are some other guy like Taz Williams going to Baylor right like that was a from what I understand an nil infusion that just kind of made it too good for him and his family to to pass up from what I understand like that wasn't the case with Lex Cyrus did did did South Carolina offer more from what I understand yes was it substantially more than Penn State I don't believe so so let's see where things go there um down the road and you know Penn State is going to definitely keep recruiting Lex Cyrus they do not want to let talented players from Harrisburg uh get out of the state um and and you know especially to go down south against South Carolina like they they want to be always it' be one thing if he's going against a Georgia or Auburn and he's getting Stupid Money nil wise but like that was one that like they they were right there and I wouldn't still be I wouldn't be shocked at all if they were able to Circle back on that so don't really see it with Taz I mean who else are we missing he was even four there's there's there's more like eight guys I feel like that we could talk about but um either way I mean Lex would be my pick I I if I can't think of somebody who would be above Le Quincy Quincy Porter might have been the other one heio state like he's going to Ohio state that that ain't happening I don't I don't I just everything in Ohio State's been able to do uh add an nil and all that stuff like there's just there's multiple things stacked against Penn State there I don't think there's multiple things stacked against Penn State with auton I just don't know much about utton and I won't pretend that I do uh Lex I do know a decent amount about and that's another one that you could Circle that and it wouldn't shock me if if there was a flip but you know as of right now Pen's going to keep recruiting Jerome miles and try to find other guys for that receiver position who you know maybe we're not even talking about right now yeah and that's kind of the last question I have is going ask you the same the same thing I asked you about uh miles but generally for the receiver position what's your optimism meter for Penn State being able to rally on the second half of this you know you say like we're watching all these things these things yeah it's just so hard to say like I look at the vast majority like okay Cam Smith right we think he's going to flip the Penn State if you would have asked me this question on July 15th if you think you know pen is going to flip a linebacker I'd been like probably not you know cuz I I didn't cam wasn't really opening up about his interest or his contact with Penn State like there was nothing out there uh that was pointing in that direction and Penn from Penn State's perspective from a source perspective and people we talk to um it's not it's not something you want to always promote when you're trying to flip a guy because you don't want that other school to know that right I'm sure to some degree Manny and Diaz and his staff knew that they were talking to cam so maybe Cam's not the best example of that but there are a lot of other examples where um those guys emerge maybe like a week or two before before you know something maybe potentially happens and that's everybody tries to keep it on the low because again I mean when you're trying to poach a guy the last thing you want is me going on YouTube saying hey they're trying to poach this guy and then uh all these other schools rally behind that wasn't there a player that that happened last year there was a surprise like oh tyer Denmark yeah tyer Denmark a couple uh last cycle we had the same conversation suddenly he pops up on campus and suddenly he commits and like it never happens suddenly yeah I mean with taer is a little bit different just because one it was Oregon way out there they had recruited really well at wide receivers so like there were a couple things where it felt like I'm not going to say he I'm saying they would have still taken him from what I understand but it was easier for them to accept that because of who they were also still involved in other positions in need uh you know it's no secret that tyer had to get his grades up as well which he was able to do but that's why he got on campus pretty much later than everybody else like so there were a couple things there that made that transition that switch easier um for a guy like Lex or auton none these guys there's no information out there that would would make me think that um you know there's something in Penn State's favor as far as uh academically or whatever it may be all right so the last thing that we have here on the rundown but of course if you got any questions throw them in the chat Ryan is uh always monitoring the chat yeah I see I see Elias C Cen there we can we can hit on that real quick just because I mean I think I think Elias um look I think elas R go ahead just let me set it up for the podcast audience quickly John Carter in the chat says how about lias KO from Harrisburg uh he's great I know that you are very familiar with Harrisburg and their team and the teams in that area so you obviously are very familiar with Elias Koke what's your what's your thought of the situation I think if Elias K can prove that he's improving his speed he's absolutely a wide receiver to the next level he's absolutely a division one player at the next level I think Penn State was going to pursue him the conversations I've always had is just is he absolutely a wide receiver at the next level and everything he's shown on the field stands out but when you get to that next level you got to you got to be able to prove you know that that you know your speed your burst all those little things are on a different level and just I don't think allias has really done too many camps and different things that have proven that so this is a massive season for him I I know pen state would love to get him on campus to camp and all those things um and I don't believe I mean he's camped before but I don't believe he's tested let me clarify that that's interesting yeah a lot of guys do that I mean yeah I mean I don't know it's it's like James Franklin always gives his speech before camps right about stressing why it's important to camp and even if you don't put up the numbers you like now you know exactly where you stand and you can improve on that if you show us you're improving on that well and in some ways that moves you up our board a little bit higher because we think that oh hey there's still a lot of growth with this player so it goes both Thomas right yeah brazell Thomas is a perfect example of that where he was a guy where there was like man we like what we see here in different ways um but man if he could just get his 40 down another two10 or you know show us that broad jump that he showed uh back in June well boom now now things change so much so I think Elias cook is he can absolutely play wide receiver at the next level and some schools will probably take him as a wide receiver um but I think for Penn State's perspective that's really what they would love to see they'd love to see a little bit more um you know outright speed or or show a little bit more from a burst perspective and and look pen State's a heavy heavy heavy analytical program I mean Andy Frank kind of runs you know the the the the I don't want to say he basically runs the the the entire recruiting program but he's always been a big numbers guy and that's something that Penn State is very heavy on he's a Princeton grb man like the guy is the guy's on a different level from from my perspective when it comes to intelligence so trust what he trust what he does and I think that's had a big impact on you know so many players like a Lavar keys for example um you know being a being a take right away over maybe someone like Elias Koke who I think they want to see a little bit more from um but this junior season is going to be massive for him man like it wouldn't shock me at all if in November you know he's putting up these massive numbers and and you know maybe maybe some information rolls out there that uh you know he is improving and uh you know we're talking a totally different ball game than what we're talking right now yep so we'll be watching that of course Ryan's got a front seat to that and he will be on everyone's radar with both Messiah mickens and Kevin Brown on his team so everyone's can be watching I'm trying to go out the Harris qu next week actually um we got I we're at that time of the year where summer camp is over but School hasn't started yet right so it's it's quitting my wife's schedule with she works from home Su days doesn't always work from home and then trying to figure out what works for Harrisburg side it's like the official visit conversation we're having earlier right um so I'm trying to I'm trying to get out to one of their practices there's just too many talented guys out there and what it's only five miles away from me I got to get out there one of these days just got to also find a way to make sure my find somebody in the find somebody in the crowd to babysit your kids everyone knows you in Harrisburg everyone loves you you're a superstar so well they're starting to get to know my kids more too and they're like oh well you know I have my own kids I don't need another tornado going through my house for 3 hours but no we'll figure it out um I mean I'm definitely going to get out there at some point in the next week or two I'd love to get there next Monday Tuesday WN if I can but we'll figure out our schedule here soon all I know is my favorite thing to do is play under the bleachers as a kid so that'll be fun like it just like a giant play pen full of rocks and sharp objects it'll be totally F I've done that before when he's smaller it's a little easier which I know sounds maybe stupid but um when they're six-year-olds it's a little different I don't want them to get well they move at four too but it's a a little easier to can keep them either hold them or whatever the heck it may be but anyway next subject let's get on yeah Nick Abrams mcdna we've got another MCD offer I uh was super impressed with some of the metrics we got here for a sophomore so I know this is somebody who you wrote about and been on your radar so tell us about Nick Abrams yeah Penn State has done this consistently with MCD right I mean uh let's go back to Brandon finny uh let's go back to them offering Jeff exor before he emerged um deny was a little bit of a different situation he we Deni size and all that stuff when he was young it was pretty clear he was going to be elite player but my point with my point with that is just we know Kenny Sanders is ties to MCD we know team uh soly their their head coach you he played under James Franklin uh at Maryland back in the day like the the ties are always incredibly strong and that's why Penn State's had so much success there and because of those ties and because of how you know how how closely they watch this program um the feedback I've gotten is that they do believe Nick Abrams could be that next guy to really emerge I mean Penn State's the first school to offer him right now we have him at uh is he is he just he's not he's just six foot T he's just over six feet yeah just over six so if he's got to certainly keep growing we have him like maybe basically 6' and a half 205 like there certainly needs to put on some weight but he's another 2026 guy who can absolutely come out and show that here uh this season and in next season so test is really strong and you know again it comes back to that trust in and that whole entire McDon program you know when they're nudging Penn State and saying hey guys you know we think this is somebody you got to be serious about they're going to take that seriously and I think Nick Abrams is is really kind of emerging as that guy there's some special qualities here cuz you mentioned 6 foot but he is big for a sophomore there's no way around the fact that you look at him and again I'm just going to harp on this like the length you can see on film that's un like that's odd for somebody who's six feet tall so when you look at the composite of his size and his growth potential plus his speed that he's got right now this is a Penn State linebacker it doesn't matter if it's mcdna like there's a there's some I do think that there's some parallels here with a guy like cam Smith but obviously being a sophomore the growth potential development that we're talking about here you're like if they're kind of in the same place that says something about Nick Abs from a development standpoint that could make him kind of one the next one of those MCD guys that is not only a good fit for Penn State but also we could be talking about on a larger scale in the Brandon finny discussion of somebody maybe who isn't a top 10 player it's hard to be a top top 100 player line or a top 25 player linebacker like a Deni and a Sutton but somebody who can be in that conversation if this is a top 100 player based on his physical skills which are already in that area talk to us in November like November we will know we will have that answer by like this is one of those offers right now where it's like all right we got all these boxes checked right you got 10 of them six seven eight of them are checked the the the the last two are the big two though and it's like do you take that big Next Step that everybody around you thinks you're going to take and then also you know growth and all those things physically that you got to see because if you say the size he is right now I think that' make it a little bit tougher but pen state a software or Rising Jr that they expect to add add size and grow and um you know from a reach perspective and hand perspective like those those things that Penn State looks at for growth potential uh all those numbers check out so let's see with Nick awesome kid by the way um was really maybe one of the my favorite kids I got to really talk to and get to know after that July 27th Camp because like incredibly classy individual which I like it's just we could just record a minute clip of me talking about McDon kids and just play it over and over and over over again because it's all the same I mean they're all they fit Penn State so incredibly well so um Nick's one of those guys you know last year I think he had about 36 tackles but playing behind quite a few upper classman as well right so I don't want to look at numbers and fans will think like oh why didn't you have double that like this is a guy who should really break out onto the scene um this year and this is his year to show the world and if he's able to do it the way Penn State thinks he is uh I have no doubt that uh that one offer he has right now will turn into a dozen pretty quickly and I I do hope that he uh is a serious Contender I'm not saying I'm not rooting for him to commit to Penn State all I'm saying is McD's film is on YouTube like I can find his high school games so that makes my job so much easier so you know that's that's the part I always Ro for is hey does this commit have film I've been looking for Antonio Branch uh Booker T Washington highlights you know for full game film I you know it's it's obviously out there but for somebody who doesn't have the Inner Circle access who's trying to find these full game footage it is like I have been to every corner of the internet and I just can't find it uh but that's that's always uh for bluewhiteillustrated.com and for our Sunday film sessions which we're doing once a week now heading into the football season Breaking Down film things like that what's coming up from you at bluee illustrator. comom this week Ryan well let's keep an eye on cam Smith right uh that's that's kind of the big thing here uh over the next 48 hours it feels like maybe today maybe tomorrow um you know again I would have said the same thing on Tuesday too though so let's see where things go here keeping an eye on him closely and again it's the Deb period right now so a lot of uh a lot of focus will shift to preseason you I'm certainly going to try and get out to some practice here like I said earlier in the week and uh you know also circling back on you know so much happened while I was gone last week so trying to catch up with different coaches or uh catch up with Charles power do some uh player evals stuff like that so we got a couple weeks here until we start building visitor list and especially with the the first game being away uh you know by the end of August we'll we'll start getting into that go ahead okay perfect I was just going to ask you about that of like the the first games away and then Bowling Green Ken State and then like really the first home game of that might draw some juices September 28th at Illinois good bad and different in terms of how the schedule is stacked uh a lot of talk that Illinois game could be at night I think Brett McMurphy put that out there so whenever you can have a night game in early September or late September so weather's usually decent like I think that will certainly attract players obviously Penn State should be uh a good bit better than Illinois this year but hey Illinois is given him some some challenges in years's past so yep I don't know what are we we're 48 days away from that or 50 days away from that so time will tell uh let's see if it actually does end up being a night game as well but but even like Bowling Green and Kent State you know because of the Gap that you see um you know with that whole August Dead period and stuff like I'm sure there will be a handful of guys up there just usually those games aren't usually the uh you know 30 plus deep scholarship players that uh you know fans love to see and that was kind of my question uh you just kind of jogged my memory about the the schedule generally and like it from from do you with the August Dead period and then the schedule being what it it is that kind of twomon Gap is that is that anyone anything anything that people think about in terms of like getting guys on campus and top prospects getting uh to see the team cuz yeah October 5th UCLA like we're in to October at that point before you're getting some of your top prospects interested in good games coming to campus mhm yeah absolutely I mean Penn State would love to to get guys up but they're also always wary of like okay guys can only travel so much so many guys play on Saturdays like okay if we're picking our spots here yeah we're we're trying to wait like right now if they're working on guys which the recruiting staff is working on guys a little bit um you know but again I I like I mentioned earlier in the show so many of these players just started practice last week like they're kind of just putting recruiting to the side for a little bit which is what they should be doing um you know that they'll they'll kind of sort that out here in the coming weeks but they've also talked to enough top 2026 2027 guys who I mean I think I had one the other day say you know he's definitely going to be at the white out and stuff like that so time will tell but uh I can see a decent amount of 2026 2027 Talent between the two games I'm not going to say there's going to be 10 plus scholarship guys and all that and you know we'll see where things go but they'll certainly get their commits up for those games stuff like that uh if you want more information it's a something we've started over at blue white illustrator. comom that I've enjoyed and might happen around that blue white game uh is our premium podcast we are trying to do something new over at bluewhiteillustrated.com which is for our subscribers have the conversation behind this conversation Ryan and Fitz do a great job of giving you the information without giving you all the things and there are certain parts of the analysis that do have to kind of be tiptoed around we can do that a little bit less with our premium podcast the first one came up before Ryan went on vacation it was incredibly well received over at blue white illustrate. so check that out and make sure you subscribe for the next iteration of that because we're going to be doing that throughout the season doesn't have to be just recruiting we're going to be talking about all the different things on that particular platform but just so you know there is more here to the BWI live podcast and show when you want to get more of that detailed information especially on recruiting so Ryan thank you for all your hard work welcome back uh I'm relieved that you're back so we can uh have these conversations uh and you're not at the beach with your family how selfish of you man I mean I will be here for a month I think I think maybe Bowling Green week I have a something coming up that Thursday but my point is it's football season so uh get used to me if you don't like me fails we'll be back with whatever breaking news may happen over the next couple of days and of course practice tonight I'm drawing this out we'll talk to you I [Music]