Penn State football flips a key 2025 target away from Virginia Tech... Massive recruiting win

a massive recruiting win for Penn State and Marcus Haggins as they just flipped this player away from Virginia Tech you are locked on nitty Lions your daily podcast on the Penn State nitty Lions part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day that player that Penn State flipped away from Virginia Tech is Matthew auton somebody that they have been recruiting for quite some time and really wanted they got him to commit to Penn State's class of 2025 this is locked on Nittany Lions I'm your host Zach SEO and thanks so much for making us your first listen and watch every single day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube Brian Smith is back as this is a bonus segment to talk about a Penn State recruiting win this is a massive win he's the recruiting expert for the lockon podcast Network and Matthew uton who is a fourstar athlete will project as a wide receiver for Penn State but ran going back to our original conversations we talked about how it was a massive loss Once Upon a Time two months ago to this point when he committed to Virginia Tech somebody that Penn State had prioritized and kind of questioning okay what's going on with wide receiver recruiting they're all these dominoes are falling away from Penn State but now you get Kobe Howard in the fold and now you get an electrifying player and Matthew auton this is huge for not only Marcus Hagins but Penn State recruiting and wide receiver recruiting in general this is what you call getting a guy that can change a game I was just watching his film again I remember talking to you about him a long time ago and I'm like this kid should be ranked higher he's moved up in the rankings but this is a kid that comes from the 757 he's from an area that always has speed always has very versatile athletes and he's running away from them on the grid iron he's got some decent size too he's put together for a young man his age I don't think there's any doubt he can play pretty early at Penn State I would play him at receiver but he could play running back or safety he could do a lot of different things I'm curious to see the different ways that Franklin and his his staff decide to go with this because not many guys have his physical tools all around from a speed siiz perspective he he is truly an athlete when I look at that fourstar ranking next to the atth that go that's right next to his name he you mean that and and I mean that too as he can play running back he's going to be most likely a wide receiver at Penn State and that's why this conversation is about wide receiver recruiting but like you said the talent is there for him to play a position on defense to maybe even be a running back he's built he's he's really Built Well at 6 foot 200 plus pounds but he moves electrifying is the word to describe and because of that speed some of his best highlights are in the return game himself as a kick returner as a punt returner where he can just take the football and make one cut and go and the speed it is there for somebody at that size so pen State Penn State prioritized him we know this for a fact that Penn State had him very high up on their big board and they end up getting this commitment to go along with je Jeff exer to go along with L Samuel to go along with Kobe Howard so it it's been an unorthodox way of getting there rather than just kind of having it go boom boom boom you know one after another it was kind of a long Trail to get all the way back to now Penn State has four wide receiver commits that they're very content with in the class of 2025 so those conversations where we said hey if they get four that this is a really good cycle for them and and then criticize them for it when it didn't happen but all's well that ends well right it's coming back around to where Penn State has accomplished its goals and then some at wide receiver if you can get one more guy it'd be great but I think this this player kind of I don't want to say disqualifies needing another one but it certainly would limit it because he's an explosive athlete that can take over games now it's up to him and the staff obviously to figure out the position but again I think it'll be receiver I think you do too where if he warns his crap he can play Early there's just not enough guys like that that have that kind of speed so maybe Penn State uses that scholarship on something else we'll see but uh I think they can be picky if they go with another receiver in this class it's got to be a really good player do you like him as potentially a slot receiver or a boundary receiver better I feel like speed anywhere works but what what would you say your preferences well to start this is a two-part answer you put him where it's least likely that he's going to get a lot of contact at the line of scrimmage his technique of the line's going to be the most important thing to work on that means boundaries the hardest you're going against more physical guys I think that'll be a little later slot makes the most sense to start out but I don't know their depth chart for 25 if he's going to be buried there then you got to look at it from different perspectives he's strong enough to play outside but right now technically he'd probably get mugged against some of the elite teams it's just way different playing up on the line and off uh to give an example Ryan Williams the kid that just scored the two touchdowns for Bama last week the Freshman allamerican he even told me last year he goes if you get hands on me I'm in trouble but if I play off you can't do that nobody's gonna run with me and he's right he averaged like 60 some yards a catch last week that's what this kid can be like but he's got to learn the technique to get off the screen image if he does that in a year or so you could see a player that could be really really good for Penn State it's just just technical I think that's an excellent point that he has a lot of raw potential talent that the technique is going to take some time so he would be a candidate if everything works out for him to enroll early so that he can start to fine-tune those things because then again if he does enroll early then maybe that you know that's a pathway to playing a lot sooner that's everything uh these coaches want these kids in Spring practice if they can especially a kid like this and you can't blame them it's just reps Penn State has a lot of receivers um now it's just which ones kind of step forward and they're pushing the pile more with this 2025 receiver corpse I think it's going to be a pretty good group after all I know you and I were both a little weary there for a while um to say the least they had some misses but it's improved quite a bit you get Kobe you get this young men got speed you got deep threats I think Penn State's going to be in a pretty good spot now so the chips fall where they may after they go through practice and they're not finished if you can believe that Brian they're not finished so like you said that a fourth receiver kind of checks all of the necessary boxes if they were still get able to get a fifth receiver I mean that would be everything and then some for Penn State they're still going after the likes of Lex Cyrus Taz Williams right it's just it it's not going to they they say they look at it this way it's not going to be well we have four receivers so we might as well stop talking to all of our other priority wide receiver targets no you you did what was necessary to move this class forward I mean this has this class as it stands has 24 total commits we've seen you know select players decommit or flip here and there but now they're starting to come back around in in favor and that's what we said Brian even though we were pretty critical of Penn State and the wide receiver recruiting back in again July early August and saying okay they're they're they're doing the bare minimum here it's not ideal but okay fine but now Penn State is in a position where we said hey this could be a top 10 class if they bat a thousand well as it stands right now they're batting a thousand well that's the whole point if sometimes it takes a little longer that's unfortunate but you still get to where you need to go Penn State has till the 4th of December to get all this taken care of that's national Signing Day I mean you never know who's going to step up and how it's going to go but like I'm looking at Harrison Wallace the third stats he had 117 yards this week they provve they can they can move the ball around and do some things now they didn't throw it as much as a lot of receivers would probably like but West Virginia tried to take away deep shots and whatnot and they ran the ball a little bit and they won by 20 so I doubt Mr Franklin cares much they're gonna have to continue to do that to attract somebody else but at least they're trending in that right direction on the field you and I talked about that need to show it I think Harrison Wallace might be their best recing to it between now and national Signing Day seeing is believing and that was something that I'm glad that you brought up is that now under the direction of Andy codal Nikki Marcus hains is in his second full season of of coaching the wide receivers and being an integral part of the p right he's in the passing game plan his job isn't just to recruit wide receivers and then Coach them he has a say in the offensive game plan particularly the passing as well so for Penn State recruiting wide receivers is going to be an uphill battle because everything up until week one against West Virginia was all negative well I mean I'm sure they got hammered because if I was recruiting against Penn State I'd have hammered them why would you go there they can't throw the ball for anything there's really nothing they could say to combat it when they played legitimate defenses they were awful but now they you know West Virginia may not be the you know 85 Bears but they're they're still a division one and FBS program so that's a good start that's the only thing you can do so hey this is what we've done so far now you build on it and they need a 300 yard game out of hour they do they need a three and soon but they also need to do it against a team they're not up by 50 to get those yard you know they can't just rub it in some team they should beat the first Big 10 team they play especially like a road game or something where ESPN's there or something that'll be when we find out if Penn State could really throw the football because they'll be forced into it to a certain degree and that's when recruits are going to take notice if they do it'll be easier to flip Taz with somebody else Lex whatever if they're like oh okay they just threw for 280 and two scores against the quality team you know maybe 310 something like that that's what they need to finalize in my opinion but they're on the right track that's all you can ask for now the class of 2025 is in really good shape it could it could get even better with the likes of a Tai Jackson still out there intending to visit for Penn State's white out he's that Florida native linebacker that's honestly one of the best that the best linebacker in the class of 2025 Penn State is in the mix Penn State's also strongly in the mix for Mali Goodman who hasn't exactly made his commitment yet but it's down to Penn State Auburn and USC and Intel that I've gathered is just it's looking favorable for Penn State Never Say Never in terms of because Auburn and USC are certainly recruiting powerhouses and power force schools is you know as you've mentioned aren't going to make it easy but Penn State is is in a good spot for where they stand with those kinds of players yeah I'm curious to see what happens with them they need to get more of the local kids again do a little better in Jersey and Pa he would certainly help that that uh style of recruiting that they're used to where you're from get back on track and Goodman just for those who aren't familiar we've talked about him at length with these recruiting episodes but he is a fourstar offensive lineman versal could play tackle could play guard out of the state of New Jersey he is on commitment watch and Penn State is in good standing with Goodman we're in good standing with we're in great standing with Brian Smith who is the host of locked on seminal he's also the rec recruting expert for the locked on podcast Network all of Brian's work and his other platforms will be linked down in the description Brian thanks so much for catching up with me we're outside of recruiting season but Penn State clearly is not finished so thank you for the time to recap all of it absolutely looking forward to seeing you again