Penn State Football gets a New Commitment and Curtis Jacobs Joins the Show

[Music] welcome to the BWI live recruiting show I'm Thomas Frank Carr we have a speci guest to start things out today um if you follow the show you probably saw on Tuesday uh former pen State linebacker Curtis Jacobs was in the chat he had some opinions about some things we were talking about on air and so here he is to talk about those things uh we're we're super excited to have Curtis with us Curtis welcome to the show I should say welcome back to the show always great to have you on yeah I'm I'm super excited to be back it's always great to be on this show man I I I love the things you guys talk about um I love just watching and being able to give my two cents it's amazing uh we we're going to get into a lot of different stuff I want to ask you about Andrew Raper which was the what we were talking about on Tuesday I want to ask you about your draft journey and maybe some of the other Pense players that you're looking for this year but first we do have to get to Today's Show sponsor right out the gate that is my perfect franchise if you're ready to leave the corporate Rat Race For The American Dream check out my perfect franchise especially if you have business experience or you experience in an industry where you have years years and years and years of knowledge that you can finally put to work for yourself check out my perfect franchise Andy Ludi is a franchise consultant with extensive experience placing people like you with the perfect franchise to manage it's not just getting you in the door it's getting you in the right door that's going to lead to great success whether things are booming or there's a downturn in the economy the best way to protect your investment is to be in the right business and Andy has personal experience putting people in those places and he manages his own businesses so he knows the ups and downs of the corporate life and um running a business so check him out his services are 100% free Andy at my perfectfringe talking off air there was a graphic put out by on Three's national team that had the Penn State uh that had tight ends ranked for the returning 2024 season Penn State was not on that list so what what what goes through your mind when you see stuff like that um it's just in my opinion it's honestly disrespectful um I I know what I've seen from those guys um from that room top down I mean I know Theo being gone that's definitely tough um that's an elite leader um an elite player at that position uh I feel like he's going to move on and have tremendous success but I think that room is still very talented um it's it's a room that I kind of look at very similar to uh the linebacker room as in there's super talented guys um like Tyler Warren a guy that honestly is probably tight end one off the board next year um and then you just keep going down the list you got khil dingin a proven guy you have Raper stepping up you have the Freshman coming in um and Jerry so just seeing that room uh seeing what coach Tai has been able to do it it it kind of made me a little mad to see that graphic honestly so um I I just I wanted to give my two cents um I'm really excited for those guys I think they're gonna have a big year you mentioned Rapier specifically uh and I think you said he's a future All-American what what what do you see in him what did you see from him that made you feel that way that you were so high on his his potential and his ability well you just you see those raw traits um kind of traits that I saw in Tyler Warren as well um not as great with the ball his hands but you see the attacking the ball at the catching point you see the the elite routes that honestly there's receivers out here that can't run routes like that um and then you just see how he's developing and continue to get bigger and continue to be more physical in the Run game it's just I've seen the development um and I've seen how he learns how he's just been a pro in this process so from what I've seen and even uh this spring tape I still go back and watch the film um see what I'm seeing from guys see what I like so I I just think that's a guy that's definitely stepping into a breakout role um and I'm expecting him to do really good that's cool you're still plugged in you're still paying attention so who who are some of the guys that you think outside the tight end room who who are some of the other players that caught your eye either you know in your final year or what you've been seeing recently well there's guys like you see what Jamal Lions has been able to do um I was really excited for uh Tony roas and Keon Wy um two guys that I've been able to work with obviously Keon has a little setback right now but I'm sure just being able to keep pushing he'll be he'll be back stronger than ever um you got J Lions I think he's a future first round guy uh ke Wheatley um it's just it's a bunch of guys especially on the defense just that are going to step into bigger roles and I'm really excited for him one of the things that we've talked about I think on this show and kind of the expectation is the defense is going to be good this this fall because as you mentioned bringing it back so much talent but there is that transition between coordinators and I know it's been it's a big thing that James Franklin's talked about and Tom Allen's talked about making things easier to understand in the translation to be easier for guys but how much is there having uh yourself gone through a coordinator change how much extra mental work do you have to put in to keep the same level of play you had before within the structure of a new defense yeah I I really think it starts with the mentality um one thing that you look at from our defenses um going back from coach Pride to coach Diaz the mentality never changed um we're always going to attack uh we're always going to have that mentality that we're the best on the field and we have to produce day in and day out um I've had conversations with uh Devon about this a bunch of times he's if you didn't know he's my roommate um just with the coach coaching change being gone coach Diaz's philosophy and attacking mentality is always going to be there so I think it starts with that um obviously there's a little learning curve when um a new coordinator comes in but that's that's just ball um you I'm going through that right now learning a new playbook um so it's just about being able to buy into to what the coach is coaching um accepting the coaching points and then being able to play fast so let's talk about that uh I think you just came through rookie mini camp with the Kansas City Chiefs what was that process like for you and how have you felt like you've been integrating with your your new team um it's definitely surreal um you step into the locker room you see uh Pat Mahomes Locker you see Travis Travis Kel's Locker um guys that have been superstars in this league for a while um granted I haven't been able to talk to those guys yet with the rookie mini can't just being the rookies and stuff but it it's it comes to me fast um the coaches really dump the Playbook on you uh you got to really get in learn ask the questions um and I feel like i' I've done a good job of that to start um I'm just excited for what's to come it's it's definitely an amazing system I love what coach spags has going on um just really allowing us to match get in our zones and just play ball play Fast um I feel like he he had told me just as long as you're getting better and developing that that's how people make it in this league and it's just been great picking up those nuggets um and being able to develop what was that moment like when you stepped in the locker room for the first time for something that I imagine you've been dreaming of your whole life how did that feel for you uh it's it's surreal um you getting fitted for your helmet looking at the logo on the side um it's it's it's a surreal feeling uh and uh coach de told me like you never really know where you're going to go um so it it was interesting like seeing Kansas Missouri for the first time talking to people finding out there's tornadoes and stuff down there like it's it's wild um it's a wild experience but I'm I'm definitely grateful for it so you mentioned Steve Spagnola who is uh the Kansas City defensive coordinator probably one of the top five I I always ever is always like a a loaded word but he is he has defined I think a generation of defensive coordinators in the NFL over the last 15 20 years um how how have you felt like you fit into the defense and how do you um have there been conversations about what they're expecting of you from position or or anything like that yeah um I just I feel like my athleticism is always going to give me a chance um especially with the new rules they have going on with kickoff um that I feel like that's that's my way in um just being able to be an elite special teams guy that's what Penn State really teaches you just um developing all those little aspects um so when my opportunity does come on defense just being able to maximize it um and also being in ass system where there there aren't many linebackers um they have lost the linebacker so just being able to come in and compete early um I'm excited to meet my vets uh I think I meet them next week um just learn from them see what they know um but it from what I've been it's been really great the coaches have been really helpful um they there's no dumb questions like I'm I'm asking a million questions I probably had like 20 pages of notes from this weekend so it's that's the good stuff it's definitely a lot but it's it's just great to be able to be around coaches and really just get back to playing ball you know this process is more geared towards speed training and getting ready for the 40 yard dash but it's just great to be out there playing ball again yeah and it it's something that I know you love is is getting into the the Weeds on the details and understanding the defense and I guess the question is how much more complicated or how similar is uh an NFL defensive playbook to what you experienced at Penn State uh it's it's a lot more different um there's definitely a lot more communication um between guys I feel like a lot of the guys that have been in the league five 10 years they they have that communication down packed um they know what to talk about it can even just be a look and they're already on the same page but just me as a guy stepping in the door I'm I have to know everything I have to figure out the signals figure out the little Communications that we have with each other um I feel like that's been a part of development for me um but just really just getting getting the Playbook it's it's my first week doing it so I know I'll be able to develop and get better from here when you're um looking at kind of the things where you fit into the defense or I guess where are you working on that you see okay this is what they like to do here I want to improve at X so that I know that I'll be you know a good fit here I think you're a good fit just generally because the defense from what I've seen historically similar to what you did at Penn State in terms of like overall structure but uh there's a lot more adaptability it seems like in NFL defenses so is there anything that you're picking up on okay I'm going to get better at this to make sure that I give myself the best chance yeah right now it's just my eyes um a lot of this um Camp OTA stuff is more passing stuff um it's not really geared towards the Run game so just being able to improve in coverage um I feel like that is a main factor of one of my strengths um but I can definitely continue to get better um as this summer goes on yeah I I know um I never know with with question like this but you seem like you're you've got a good perspective on everything what was the draft process like for you um it's it's definitely nerve-wracking um if you don't have the right people talking to you telling you what it's going to be like but I had a bunch of guys that I was able to talk to as resources um being able to reach out to guys like Micah uh jaquin brisker Jessie um even a guy like Ellis Brooks all all guys that have been through the process had different stories different experiences of what it was like for them um and being able to lean on those guys and then you you have the things you don't really know about like uh training I didn't know training was like that intense like at Penn State we do we do our thing we do our practices but when you're training for the draft it's like you train in the morning uh you have your your off time that's where you study film um have your interviews do that stuff and then you have another uh slot in the afternoon where you're training so I didn't know it was that intense that fast paac um and then really drilling trying to get better um and then you have the combine uh the combine being what you look at as a kid like oh this is this is amazing like I can't wait to be on that stage be on that thing um but you know like you don't know that it's geared to mentally stress you out that whole week so the guys that perform on the day of they're top tier athletes because they take care of their body they're able to do all these things even though they're having meetings with coaches from like 8 to 1 in the morning you know yeah all day yeah I I don't think people realize that the combine starts before the onfield stuff where you're going through meetings and interviews like insane it was like you you got guys that are in the hospital for four hours on a time getting their MRIs and stuff you have um guys that have six or seven interviews uh in formal interviews in front of coaches and then after that you still have to do your uh routine and get get to a hotel room with your trainer doing stuff so it it's definitely a grind um but I'm I'm grateful for the experience like like I said not many people get to do that uh Stephen here in the chat want to make sure that everyone gets their voice heard he says thank you Kurtis for playing so hard for Good Old State remember uh fans in PSU Nation will always love you thank you so much Stephen thank thank you for being here thank you for love you guys man um the draft day experience what what did you do where were you um I people love to know like these stories of what that process was like for you so what was your draft day like and your draft weekend yeah it was it was definitely nerve-wracking um I I had been pretty much coming in that week with the impression that um I was looking at a third to fourth round grade um I felt like I had a really good off season um obviously it didn't shake up like that but I was just happy that I was around family um had everyone around me supporting me um and then being able to get that call um from coach just telling me the situation that I could walk into um obviously it's not what you want to hear uh you want to hear uh we're drafting you but yeah you you get you have to quickly shift your mind like all right I need to make it it's no no time to really sulk about all this didn't happen um I just really started thinking about other guys that have been in that situation I even I even had a cousin he used to go to UVA he went UND he went undrafted to the Carolina Panthers so he guys like him calling me guys like PJ calling me um guys that have been through that situation um so I didn't really have a chance to really get mad or get sad about it um it was just time to go you know what I mean um when did they reach out to you how how does that work for guys who are going to be cuz it seemed like you were priority udfa where you were you were snapped up pretty quickly by the chief so how's that timeline work of the seventh round and then the close of that and then I'm assuming your agent is talking to people throughout then how did that work for you in terms of that process yeah my my agent was getting a bunch of calls um but I I had just gotten a couple calls um I believe I got a call from me personally got a call from the Chiefs and the 49ers um those were pretty much my two top situations so just perennial Super Bowl contenders no big deal yeah yeah U those were the two teams that really reached out to me um both said neither of them took a linebacker um and they were really interested in me uh and I talked to my agent and we felt that Kansas City was the best option might have had something to do with the taxes too [Laughter] that's fantastic that's that's uh thinking on multiple levels there for sure yeah they definitely they definitely drill that into and the I feel like the NFL paa does a great job throughout the process with uh seminars at the East West Shrine bow seminars at the combine just really informing us on what we're really getting into um and how to be responsible with your money when you get into it well Curtis I don't want to keep you too much longer I appreciate the time you given us we've got to do this again we're going to make sure we get you on um in the future so we can get your thoughts on everything from the NFL to uh Pence football in the fall uh the I I'm I'm not going to bring it up I'm just going to say that I think you're in an incredible situation I think you've got a great opportunity here I just just don't don't beat the bills for me like just don't just the one thing just one thing for me I I ask that's it you got to uh you got to talk to them about you know they they gave us a dog right in uh what do you mean in the first round we got a um it was a receiver they picked up he he's really he's like yeah yeah oh as as a fan like I'm I'm neurotic and terrified of all of these things in all the way those will work out but uh you know for sure when they play I'll be rooting for you so thank you so much for coming on the show I always appreciate you man I appreciate that I'll definitely be back all right penate linebacker Curtis Jacobs with us here on the BWI live show this is our recruiting show so we need to get into the recruiting information and there was some big stuff [Music] yesterday bringing on our experts on the BWI live recruiting show Ryan Snider and Sean Fitz with us guys thank you uh for uh giving us some time to talk to Curtis now we've got to get into the the news of the day so Fitz how you doing and uh tell us what's going on with Penn Day football well first off that was great uh having Kurt he's one of the the great personalities that's come through here so it's awesome to see that and I agree with the the chat here that he deserved to be drafted uh but he's in a pretty darn good spot so pretty happy for that I also enjoyed his uh his thing about the uh the taxes there at the end if you watched you saw on Instagram I think it was over the weekend Jer Brown went to buy a cyber truck and it was one of the funniest Instagram videos I've ever seen because he got to the end his financial adviser was like nope don't do that and it's a good little insight into uh you know what these young NFL players uh deal with because uh yeah he was he was hookline in Sinker and then his his financial guy said nah I don't I don't think that's the best but we're here to talk about recruiting pen St picked up a commitment uh on Wednesday evening from Matt Henderson uh from from Virginia tight end another tight end um and he's uh he's a really intriguing Prospect and if you looked this morning on on three he is a four-star Prospect uh 90 overall rated or not or 90 overall rating uh from on three uh this is a guy like fits the mold for what Penn State has looked for in a tight end in the last several Cycles um one of those guys that you know plays High School wide receivers going to have to learn how to transition but you look at Luke Reynolds you look in this cycle at Andrew olish you look at some of the guys that they've put into the draft recently and uh Matt Henderson fits that bill probably G to talk about that uh the interesting part of the the back end of that evaluation in a little bit but uh Penn State on the board with Matt Henderson uh on Wednesday evening uh another offensive pickup for the NIT lies Ryan I know you've done uh some some work on this uh this was a fairly quick recruiting process where he was offered just a couple weeks ago and now now he he's a commit so what's going on here in terms of why such a fast developing recruitment story well first off T Frank how's my audio is it good you're yes yes you're all good usually we try to square that away before we join but and I usually screw it up so that's why I bring it up but uh yeah just offer on what was it April 26ish I believe so just I believe just under two weeks ago uh and his workout was a couple days before that and the feedback right after that workout was was you know Penn State is all in on him and the the big thing is look he's he's been a wide receiver the last uh year or two and they really wanted to make sure hey look we know you're athletic we know you can catch the ball we know you have everything we want to see from that perspective can you block and so the feedback we got was when he came up in January know that was a big discussion with them and he's really been working on that ever since uh giving them an opportunity to just kind of show uh you know how he's improving from a technique perspective and different ways and so how goes of course back down there two weeks ago it's the spring evaluation period contact period whatever you want to call it these days and he gets an opportunity to really kind of see him up close and see how he's he's progressing from that perspective and and all the feedback right away was you know that he's really kind of exceeded where they thought he would be from that perspective but if you know at least more I've learned about Matt like this shouldn't be a surprise this is a you a guy who's 4.6 GPA I don't even know how that's possible I assume he's taking honor you know next level added together our GPA and I think they got that so I don't know I think maybe good back of the day buddy um we might be a little short anyway just kidding I made honorable once actually never mind well let's move on from that but just a really good student vice president of class like this is a guy who you know everything off the field is excellent this is also a player who you know his his dad played at Richmond back in the day his mom was a basketball player Richmond back in the day so very athletic family so I think it's just another very good example of Penn State outs scouting other schools or or really understanding the landscape of tight end especially I mean tight end me how often are they doing this and I wrote this last night like how many offers did Andrew oish have before it was like four five power four off offers Penn State offers and within the month he's got a 12 he's got 12 you know quality schools same with Lincoln cure I mean Lincoln cure you know the guy we've talking about so long is one of the best tight ends in the country he had four offers when Penn State offered fast forward a month later he's got 12 new ones after that so it's just another example I think of Tai how doing a good job and the recruiting staff I want to make sure the recruiting staff is mentioned there too because they they get the ball rolling a lot of that stuff of just kind of understanding what they want at tight end what they're looking for and going out and and being aggressive with those guys so this is another great example of that really and fourstar rating already at on three you know and Charles gave him a 90 you know which is the lowest fourstar wouldn't be shocked at all if he goes to all 22 puts up some great numbers and and he's moving up Fitz when it comes to the tight end position I don't want to because Ryan just gave us a great background on who he is as a player and I don't want to diminish all those things but it just it does seem like with a position that a lot of teams don't play in high school it's about height weight speed it's about what is your physical tangible ability and I think is Penn State just better at identifying guys who are going to translate all of those traits to the next level or is there something deeper here that that um isn't just the physical freak ability yeah the the Homer hat says yes but also the data backs that up it's really remarkable and I just sent you a a tweet thread uh from Cody Belair from on three talking about evaluating tight ends and it's very interesting in because you take a look at the draft of course that's how we measure ourselves in terms of ratings and things like that but he had a friend uh in Personnel hit him up and say good luck ranking tight ends none of these dudes played tight end in high school and half of them are former Walk-Ons that's like pretty accurate you look at what's out there Theo Johnson and Brock Bowers kind of the outliers in in this uh and jatavian Sanders as well um in this class um but it comes from all over you had guys that uh were you know Kate sto was a DN Ben sinot was a six sport athlete that walked on at Kansas State uh I mean there's there's so many guys that just don't make any sense but you throw the data out there Penn State's recruiting has found these guys has developed these guys and he put these guys in the draft I mean until you know Theo went a little bit later Penn State had a run of second round picks uh that's that's outstanding um so yes I think uh Penn State is a is kind of a curv Setter when it comes to tight and they recruit as well as anybody in the country and you look at that room and there's good players in that room I mean I I don't know that Jerry cross is going to play much at Penn State he's a good player like that that's the standard in the room it's you know we kind of put that one up on a pedestal along with a couple other positions at Penn State and and there's reason for it because the data backs it up so yes they have been better at finding these guys as Ryan said when they find These Guys these guys blow up Matt Henderson was not quite there Michigan state was the the the big uh Contender right there um but they they they found these types of players that are not sometimes the flat I mean Brenton strange was not I think he may have been a low four star but he was not a bigname prospect a flashy guy you know you look at uh some of the uh you know Andrew Rapier was Penn State or Michigan which is great um but you know like Ohio State wasn't coming for that Alabama you know all that kind of stuff and Luke Reynolds was also a three star when he committed a guy who just blew up during the recruiting process because of the early identifiers right right and you're not you're certainly not going to hit them all I mean you can't hit any you you know you can't do that in any position but Penn State in terms of what they've done as as tight end recruiters and tight end evaluators and and things like that from Bowen uh that that fault line from 2018 where we're talking about Jonathan Holland as the the starting tight end and then all of a sudden Pat frth comes in since then I don't want to say cruise control but Penn State's been like on a on an absolute tear at that position so um that that that certainly helps they did it last year with Luke Reynolds and Luke Reynolds added Alabama in Georgia you never publicized them but after you know after after he committed to Penn State so like you know other schools were taking notice here uh Oles is interesting because it's like one of those ones that's like yes um there's a national profile in that recruitment now um but this is this is an instate kid that plays a position that Penn State has recruited probably better than any other position so that one make that one still makes a lot of sense to me I said it last week on the show um Penn State or actually might have been earlier this week Penn State's going to take two tight ends and we're not really including Brady O'Hara in there so still going to Go full boore after OES we'll see what happens uh with some of those other guys and those other official visits they have set up but it's a good spot to be in if you're Tai how right now Ryan go for it yeah I want to add like one other thing too I'd say is that the region overall I wouldn't say is deep at producing tight ends but over the last four or five years it has been consistently producing like one or two top tight ends regularly and Pen's done a great job with that I mean Joey I mean the thing about Joey schlafer I mean he was he was he ended up being a four star obviously a PA kid of course you have raple who's from New York you know ended up playing at New England schools you have Luke Luke Reynolds like it has consistently produced like top at least like one or two top 10 tight ends and Penn State's done a great job at identifying them early and staying on them so it's a it's a it's it's worked out from the perspective of you know there is usually one or two really good guys at that position in the area and Penn State does a great job in the region go ahead Sean and and they've established themselves as a school that produces them and like this is this is where you want to go if you're a tight end and you look at there's a handful of schools out there of course Brock Bowers just came out of Georgia Georgia's done a good job before him Michigan's done a wonderful job Iowa has done a wonderful job there's there's a certain Pantheon of schools that are out there recruiting tight ends and Penn State is is in that mix and they've done a good job of selling that because you know Lincoln cure is out there but they've also they had some national interest from from some other guys in the last couple of Cycles it just so happens to boil down and as Ryan mentioned there's a couple top top guys in this in this region that's really worked out for Penn State I me even diens ended up being a top 10 tight end by the time it was said all said and done yeah H how does uh the the class Dynamic let's zoom out now let's look at the class Dynamic with Matt Henderson committing you mentioned two tight ends Brady O'Hara as kind of an athlete on offense are we getting into an area where the numbers are building up to where we understand where the pain points might be from a commitment uh numbers perspective like have have the gates narrowed enough that you guys have a better view of these things or is it still wide open Ryan I still think at 13 13 commitments it's it's more wide open than not but that's when that's why June's going to be so interesting right because all they got to do is pluck off four or five guys in June especially if a couple of them are on offense and then and then it becomes much more tricky now don't be wrong like as Sean I'm sure you're gonna point out they have nine offensive guys like yeah on offense it is probably a little easier to to pinpoint overall but when you still have that wiggle room you know and then they have some top guys out there we've seen before where they they maybe take a scholarship that we thought would be on defense and then they they'll use it on that offensive side so there's there's enough wiggle room I think that you can still point to those top offensive tackles and and those top wide receivers that they want but yeah offense is filling up pretty quick Fitz what what are your thoughts on the situation same you got nine and four like the most of most of the action the rest of the way out is going to be on defense that doesn't mean they won't you know add more on offense obviously receiver a big sticking point there um offensive line tackle specifically a big sticking point there and then probably one more tight end and then it's a little bit more open on the defensive side of the ball Ryan and I were talking yesterday defensive line it good luck good luck projecting that one right now by the way Ryan's got his projected class by by the summer on the site right now so for offense defense I need give me give me like five days for that one guys I'm still chipping away defense that's hard uh I just the one last thing and I think that this is such an on brand commitment from Matt Henderson in this class that first off I I'm not going to say came out of nowhere cuz Ryan was talking about this he was trying to tell you uh about Matt Henderson a couple weeks ago and if you missed that it's because you didn't subscribe to bluewhiteillustrated.com you should do that subscribe for two months and get it for a dollar because you are here on the YouTube channel supporting what we do here code psu1 two months for a dollar and you get access to our recruiting information The Insider perspective from these guys cuz we can't get to everything here on the show not just because it's uh it's a a short format where we're only on here for an hour but also because like the premium content that's what that's what we're giving you on the site so go check it out for a dollar and you'll get great access to all these things but my point is here that um this is a class of of guys that maybe are hard to classify and I think Penn State is banking on his underrated prospects you go just Brady O'Hara as an offensive lineman or as a tight end where does he fit where does that projection happen Keandre Barker has not played uh football in a while super talented player uh ta Hayes I think is another guy who they're banking on as an underrated player that they have a better idea of than maybe some of the other places lric Samuel Beckham kitza the list goes on and on as you see here on the offensive side especially that this feels like a class that isn't going to be flashy by the end but is going to have a lot of what Penn State I guess believes are guys that have tremendous upside in this particular cycle just wait for L Samuel he's going to shoot up in the industry rating just give it time a good weekend yeah yeah so uh the last thing I got here on the show for you guys today and we can open up to questions here in the chat we can talk about what you guys have uh in mind is we are at the end of the spring semester graduation has happened we are now onto the early summer uh session for pen football and that means new freshman arriving on campus so Fitz um you do you want to give us an overview of what's going on with the nney Lions and what you see from uh the latest editions from the class of 2024 yeah with that spring semester window uh closing and graduation happening there's a there first summer session is already starting um at Penn State next week um so they're going to get four guys on campus both Central Catholic guys uh cayb Brewer and Malachi Williams who is my intriguing guy for this class um a lot to like there um but these guys are going to come in uh remains to be seen how quickly they get dropped into the fire in terms of workouts and things like that but it's an extra six weeks or so then the other guys there's Five Guys remaining um in terms of uh of of enrollment that supposed to happen in June um but gives you gives you a little bit of a of a leg up there pen had eight guys come in this time last year didn't really do a ton in terms of getting them to the field faster I think seven of them uh with the exception of King Mack um was uh you know all of them had red shirts except King Mack and of course he's gone now so um it's sometimes can work sometimes it can't I'm interested to see the the how how quickly Malachi Williams can take to that strength program to that nutrition program he's about 220 pounds right now which I'm not worried about his weight at all but it's you know something to to watch when he walks in there he's gonna be the gonna be the thin guy there um Peter Gonzalez of course people are going to look at receiver and say who can who can help it Receiver right away don't know that that's the one that you want to lean on um but uh he's uh he's certainly taken on all comers before and he's done a really good job uh Ryan what do you think of um just the the state of this particular class and getting uh these guys on campus yeah it's always good to get them on for as soon as you can right I mean they they would have loved to have had those guys here for early enroll Le um you know I know I don't know the situation well Caleb Brewer wed to wrestle you know he was originally going to be an early enroll Le decided to wrestle and then I know with Central Catholic uh they're not allowed to enroll early so it's I think all those all three of those guys probably would have been here I'm not sure on on malach situation but um you know I'll go back to Gonzalez just because of I'll never forget his his Camp performance and and how how much he stood out and so many so many drills that you know we thought he was be decent at but then just kind of exceeded everything you know ran what he run like a it was it was silly like a 42 shuttle and had that crazy bra jump which was you know 32 feet or something like that bigger than anybody else so there's a lot of athleticism there is he a guy who can play right away though I think that's going to be very difficult especially when you're only getting here uh in May so I know Penn State fans want to see a receiver step up I still kind of would lean towards tyer is the one that has the explosive twitchiness that could maybe benefit them earlier but at the same time I wouldn't bet against Peter because I feel like all the intangibles are there to him to learn the Playbook and and find a way maybe not this year but but next year potentially so U that that really stands out to me I mean speca is going to be a quality middle linebacker Prospect another guy who tested better than I think a lot of people p uh expected you know guy who I absolutely could see being a captain down the road you know depending on how his his career goes but without a doubt I mean Williams is the one that pops uh that that kind of really grabs your attention as somebody who you know I'm not going to say he's going to be jam Lions uh we got to see how Jam progresses too but you know he gave it Jam showed us enough last year to to think that he's going to be a special player I don't know if I quite would go that far yet just because look we have way more information on Jal than we do on on Malachi did did he did he test Sean did Williams ever camp at Penn State I don't believe he did camp at Penn State I don't have it front of me but yeah go go talk for a little bit I'll see I can find it but uh and then you know Brewer Brewer is a guy that you know they they identified early as look he's a he's a quality interior offensive lineman with wrestling experience knows how to use leverage you know a guy that from a wide missing program that you know they they've consistently been recruiting pretty hard over the last couple years and very yeah I think they really like his wrestling background too and his understanding of Leverage and all those kind of things like that is one thing that has consistently been brought up to me uh about about that background for him so you know I think I think all four certainly I'm not going to predict that they're going to be on the field anytime soon because that's that's not easy to do even when you are an early and rly um but at the same time you know that're they're quality players that pen State's very happy to to get here and get rolling I got a 443 shuttle for Williams just so okay thank you yeah his short area quickness combined with you know his twitchiness is is something that they really like and that's something that popped when he was at Camp working with Dion is he's like one of those guys that was you know a lot of work to do to play against the Run absolutely um a lot of work to do to get bigger stronger um but I think he kind of like Shaka is gonna fill out and then all of a sudden you know red shirt freshman year sophomore year all of a sudden look like a different person yeah and he's got great length I know that that's one of the things I liked about him even if he isn't 65 or isn't like the prototypical I think sometimes sometimes it just it does get to the point where you're like what's the difference between 63 and 64 uh especially when you've got good levers and you've got the ability to to fill out eventually so a a really great prospect on on Penn State's defensive Edge Board um this from HL Aristotle in the chat I know you're going to love this one fits is there any possibility of Landing a wide receiver from the portal uh because you know we talked about Peter Gonzalez I'm probably as high as anybody on his potential you guys have outlined all of those reasons why but like is he ready this year probably not pennate fans want to feel a little bit better about this situation the portal is still open for players to go to new programs how effective could a guy be uh if they were even to sign somebody here Fitz yeah I mean if you look at what's out there in the portal and the portal is closed now so it's not a situation where you can go in there ain't much I mean you look at some of the guys that that that have gone to bigger programs in the last week I know Texas ANM took a guy from Iowa didn't have a catch last year you know like there's that that is the sort of thing that you're talk you're talking about taking on you're talking about guys that you would have to project to LEAP your entire room essentially that's what you want if you're Penn State to find a number one I'm not seeing it out there um like it's and we said this about like Elijah Badger a couple weeks ago like good player guy that you know see the stone that you throw in the middle I don't think so so like that's kind of what I'm seeing with uh with wide receivers so like the hopes are not high they're going to continue to look I know that they've been you know just sort of putting some feelers out and things like that but I don't think that anybody like jumps to the top of the list and says hey all of a sudden he be he can come in here be a short uh be a be a starter on short notice and uh and go from there I'm not seeing it right now Ryan any thoughts on the portal and what you would think if it's not wide receiver if they have an opportunity to add to a different spot would they and I I guess question two is yeah do they have a position where the player could contribute early uh because we talk about looking at receiver the whole problem with Dante cus last year was he didn't get here until August and that caused a major problem with his integration into the offense and eventually never really went anywhere for a number of reasons but that was also a big thing positions that need to know and can't kind of just go play ball you know I think about chop Robinson like his pass rushing specialist as in 2022 that integrates a little bit better they don't need help at that particular position so is there anything out there Ryan that you think they could address at a position that would be efficient use of their resources at this point I got so many things I can say um so no I don't um so I would say this like couple things one when you're when you're in the transfer portal nowadays and this is how Penn State's at least approaching it is you're going to have to bid I mean the portal is becoming basically free agency I I know that's the easy way to put it but like if put this way if they're going to bring in a wide receiver they're gonna have to pay money for that guy probably overpay actually guaranteed overpay and how does that offset the room potentially so that's why they're going to aim very high at that position because they do not want to deal with any locker room BS as well would you agree with that Sean like I mean that is I feel like that's a big part of it yeah and you've got to understand that like your evaluation needs to be on point you can't bring just a guy in and because that'll you know that's going to be something that splinters the room even further and I know Penn State fans are fine with blowing up the room but like they've kind of done that already so now you need something on the roster for this fall healing starts um no but that that's what you got to that these are the lines that you have to walk and like you look at a couple of positions that that they're targeting in linebacker and safety well they're not bringing in somebody to start at linebacker they're not bringing in somebody to start at safety how do you sell that to a guy that's in the transfer portal the only way that that happens is a guy that you know really well a guy that maybe always wanted to play at Penn State a guy that you know that your coaches know really well that's just out there and I I hate to say it if you're in the portal you're not seeing yourself as filler for the most part if you're if you're looking at Penn State you know if you're looking a Trey pots for example somebody who fits a very specific situation you have to know what you are you have to know the situation you have to be okay with the situation and to be honest with you that that draws down the the the the talent pool quite sub substantially but yeah the spring especially the spring portal like it's for the lack of a better word castoffs yeah you like it's there a lot of guys who want to give it one more shot this spring nah not not going to happen I mean I'm looking at so I'm just looking at our portal right now or the you know some of the top guys left in the portal here's their predictions cal cal Coastal Carolina Tain Colorado State Ohio there's one Washington a liberty a Yukon you know what I'm saying like these are a lot of guys who at Kentucky or Purdue or higher power for schools and now pretty much all the predictions are they're going down a level and that's really what you're seeing with a lot of these players especially in the spring I think if Penn State was seriously going to have somebody out there that could come in I think they would have visited by now too I mean the Portal's been open for now it's closed obviously but don't you think they would have had somebody on campus by now Sean they've had like three four three four weeks that that would have somebody would have popped up I feel like and we haven't heard anything like that yeah probably um I think that you know it's it's one of those things where I you would like to get in before this window like this weekend so it's not a hard stop deadline but like you would like to have a guy that can come in I think the I think Potts came in at this time last year um Alonzo Ford came in at this time last year so it's a soft you know it's a soft Landing that you would want to get those guys in here by now so I mean I haven't seen it um let they those guys visited before though didn't they oh absolutely ail I'm saying like just visiting just getting them on campus to visit I feel like we would have heard some names by now and then those guys were end up enrolling this upcoming weekend just like those Four Freshman are so I mean the fact that we haven't heard anybody even like visiting right tells me that not this is this is your roster for the 2024 season I agree I agree and I and like I said last week on the show won't feel comfortable about that until you know August but uh that's that's kind of where we're at with that because because those guys can you know they they maybe have to finish up their own academic work or something like that there there could be those stragglers that potentially pop up this summer or something like that which is why we would leave the door open for that and not not slam it shut so but but I agree with you for the most part there I'm looking around I ain't seeing much Miami to Charlotte Cy to Marshall Tulsa FIU I'm sorry I'm just keep going down these l i mean they're all guys that are just going down a level sorry yeah well I just was curious like that's that's what I got for today um any final thoughts anything that's interested you that we didn't get on the rundown you want to talk about Fitz yeah there's a a comment in the uh I I I don't know if you talked about it yesterday but Keon wy's injury um and how that changes things for P State um it doesn't really change a ton um they were going to go after a linebacker because of the Wy injury this is something we've been talking about on blue.com for you know over a month now U and it's a really unfortunate situation because this is a guy Not only was he on the ascent in terms of his development but also he was so versatile like we saw him I believe the first day of practice at all three linebacker spots T Frank if if I recall correctly so like that was a guy that I circled coming into spring as a as a key player that may not have been a starter um but would have gotten on the field so changes a little bit of Mike changes a little bit at will you know just kind of changes that that whole dynamic of that room and you know when he went down Penn State started looking at at linebackers not much out there again um but that one that one changes some things um you know Nate said it before that you'll see Abdul Carter play some linebacker roles he's not moving back to linebacker but you'll see him play some of those roles um but it's it's really going to be a Balancing Act without uh without Wy in there yeah I think also changed the ten a little bit what James Frankle was talking about during the Spring where at the beginning he says we like the linebacker depth we have we think it's going to develop and then by the end he says we need to develop some linebacker depth so part I think this was this kind of informed some of those conversations and why tamy Robinson and Kon keys are so important for their progression over the next couple of weeks Ryan um what about you uh I would say that there's not a whole lot from this week uh you know the Henderson thing I wrote a story early week about you know what's going to happen at tight end well kind of all has now come public uh so there's not a ton Penn State locked in an official visit with a with a West Coast kid we'll keep that kind of behind the paywall for now but I would say moving forward you know next week is the all 22 Elite 11 at State College that's next Sunday as well as the Under Armour uh camp in Baltimore that same day uh the point being there with that is that because of those camps you know I think we we might see some guys get on campus next week and you know give us something to maybe talk about next Thursday but we're still kind of in that wait and see you know just get us a June period that commitment last night was was good and and something for for fans to be excited about um but it's still for the most part a slow couple of weeks here yeah who was it here in the CH zman bringing it bringing the heat with just June he wants June to be here as soon as possible um guys I appreciate your time today I think this was an awesome show thank you for uh being flexible with the show rundown and for helping us get Curtis on the show so thank you so much for being here and for uh all the information again check out bluewhiteillustrated.com we mentioned it Ryan mentioned it the stuff that goes on the breaking news we get it to our subscribers there two months for dollar code psu1 I'm Thomas rank car we'll be back with the wrestling show some more information on that program coming up here on the blue white Illustrated YouTube channel with Greg pickle till then we'll talk to you later [Music]