BREAKING: Penn State FLIPS linebacker target in Class of 2025

[Music] pen football fans that have been following recruiting with us at bluewhiteillustrated.com or here on the blue white Illustrated YouTube page we've been doing our committed series for a while now but we're in the section Fitz Sean Fitz Insider for Penn State football recruiting that I think a lot of fans have been waiting for you've been hitting at it the last couple of months it's flip season Penn State gets a commit from the class of 2025 so well welcome to the show and tell Pense fans the good news for recruiting this cycle yeah the early stages of flip season coming off of the last weekend in July so what you're seeing in in 2025 right now is sort of the remnants of stuff moving out from those barbecues and those get togethers and camps and everything like that you're seeing that in 26 as well but mostly in 2025 you're you're dealing with the remnants of the end of July and right now Penn State is doing that they have flipped St Joseph prep linebacker cam Smith from Philadelphia he's actually from across the river in Salem uh New Jersey but uh they they flipped him and added him to the class this is a name that is familiar to a lot of Penn State fans because if you look in the early stages of this class it was it was a guy that was mentioned uh Smith was on the board for a while and then all of a sudden he wasn't and he ended up committing to a familiar name in Manny Diaz down at Duke back in February so um it's been an interesting one to follow especially because you know looking at the early stages of the class you thought he was going to eventually end up in it didn't think it would take this path but now all of a sudden uh Penn State lands him he is a fourstar Prospect by the Onre industry rankings number 264 overall number 26 linebacker number eight in Pennsylvania remember that one in Pennsylvania uh an on three he's slightly below that an 89 three star Prospect so he rides that line between the three star four star um but you you put on the tape he's pretty good player right there the size is is what it is he's a little bit over six foot six foot and a half inch is what we have a little bit over 200 pounds he will grow um but he's a productive player on the best defense in the state on the best football team in the state and pen has not gone to St Joe's Prep in a long long time yeah this is something that I was interested in with this particular storyline of was a part of the class suddenly wasn't commits to Duke uh but Penn State has done really well in in Pittsburgh in the western side of the state we've talked we did almost a whole show segment on that here is a Philadelphia guy so how important do you think that is a part of the conversation and you know this particular school that has a lot of talent the stat that's going to be tossed out about and it's it's worth repeating of course is that Penn State has not signed St Joe's Prep player since John Reed in 2015 that is a long long time ago in eternity when you're talking about recruiting um they were in it for a couple of guys in St Joe's Prep and it's been really interesting to follow because there hasn't been the ton of top level Talent like the Penn State level Talent now you've got Marvin Harrison of course and Kyle McCord went to Ohio State a couple years ago but there was a little bit of a you know a little bit of a downtime where you had guys like Daryl Simmons that went to Virginia Tech and you know just not quite at that level um so that came and went and then by the time it rolled around in the 2025 class you've got Anthony sacka you got Maxwell Roy you got cam Smith you got khil Stewart the offensive lineman um so it all of a sudden jumped not out of nowhere because St Joe's Prep basically wins the State title every year but right it became a situation where you found a higher level Target at St Joe's Prep and Penn State for whatever reason uh you know went with Cam Smith early and then kind of backed away same with khil Stewart he committed to Maryland and flipped to Syracuse Anthony sacker was in and out Maxwell Roy in and out but now they they do land their guy in cam Smith is a guy that I've always liked um you look at him and he's gonna be he's gonna run parallel in terms of Penn State fans with DJ McClary um truth be told s DJ McClary this spring reinforced my idea that I think cam Smith's a better player um you look at the film of course the the danger with looking at the film of a guy on St Joe's Prep is that everybody's pretty good you got Alex hasell who's a 2026 that I love in front of a Maxwell you got saak play you've got you got a lot of talent surrounding him good is this continue you you with the St Francis are stars in the high school field do they translate to the college game some do some don't there's no formula for how this works but uh you look at what he does as a linebacker a bit under siiz but you and I were having the discussion before we went on erir is he a box linebacker is he that Sam that Penn State now used to play um before went that 452 and I don't think there's a pigeon hole here because you look at a guy that does things in space he does coverage he he also plays in traffic he's gonna have to learn to play off of traffic a little bit more um and he'll do that as he gets bigger um but he closes really well he closes under control I mean this is not a guy that just goes full bore into every tackle and you see that on some of his highlights especially when he's tracking down the quarterback uh who is scrambling he does a really nice job breaking down but staying at a decent speed keep up that pursuit to finish the tackle he does really a lot of things well so I think size that size is a bit of a knock here but at the same time a productive guy on a great uh great defense and you know s certainly can help you in state moving forward yeah I think since Alex Tash this is the guy that you'd say this is a pure linebacker and one that reminds you of Penn State linebacker commits in the past somebody who as you mentioned is good in coverage has the athleticism to play linebacker full stop Penn State has always recruited these guys that can play Sam but can develop into a will linebacker and you laid it out perfectly so I don't want to repeat everything you just said but a player who's got the instincts on that level to play in the box and those Box level instincts are super important when you're talking about where he projects you know uh at the next level so despite the size the growth potential is there as well so the measurements that I always talk about in terms of what does his frame look like those are all positives to this is a guy who maybe he's 61 eventually like maybe he grows half an inch maybe he doesn't but he does have the frame to grow into into a box siiz linebacker and some of those things that I think from a Miss tackle perspective the length the reach those are still important for a linebacker and he checks all of those uh measurables off in a big way so once again Penn State looking at I think some of the metrics that matter and if you're not going to get a guy who is all of the things who is 6' three and runs four five and this is a guy who is all the important things for their defense cuz even in this particular scheme under Tom Allen if he stays a long time coverage is really important from those box linebackers he puts a lot of stress on them to be good coverage players because of some of the things that he does in the secondary uh so you mentioned something that I thought was interesting and I just want to come back around to this the the conversation about Manny Diaz and this was a guy who committed to Duke and is there like I don't know if it's the honor among Thieves uh situation in recruiting or if the all you know all's fair and Love and War other cliches I could throw out is it interesting to you that they went after a guy who chose Duke obvious parallels between the two programs and the two defenses yeah I think I think it's interesting to me because you look at the way that they've approached yeah for lack of a better word friendly fire with uh with Brent PRI Virginia Tech you haven't seen them go after a ton of those guys now I think Brent's been there long enough where you kind of grow out of that uh but Manny's in his first year um but yeah there was no uh would you say no honor among Thieves or whatever uh Penn State saw a prospect that they liked um they decided this this was a worthwhile Endeavor and a flippable prospect and they were able to do that regardless of Who the head coach is um it's interesting you know you look at cam cam Smith and the obvious connection there former St Joe's Prep uh head coach Gabe and fonte who was an analyst at Penn State who you know really helped Penn State in terms of getting guys in in the campus and and things like that now is an assistant at Duke and there's certainly connections there so um it's an interesting one to me on that level it's a it's a more of a nerdy Deep dive level than uh you know the the surface thing but I think that that's that's definitely interesting indeed and then you throw the St Joe's Prep layer on top of it you throw the layer of Penn State struggling in State this is a top 10 player in state even though yes again he's he's from across the border in in in New Jersey um but this is uh I think there's there's levels to this when in Penn State's playing off but I think the level that matters here is that cam Smith's a pretty good football player and that's a guy that can fit in you're not just taking a guy to take a guy it's a guy that fit in I don't have uh reliable speed numbers on him but if you put on that tape uh there's there's one clip in particular where a teammate has an interception and cam Smith runs past everybody and eventually you know basically goes down touches the goal line and comes back and blocks for him basically so yeah I I don't have any conver concerns about whether he can run you mentioned the length uh we're talking about 32 inch arms so you're not you're not t- rexing it um as we some of those linebackers um so there's there's a lot to like here um again I think the size is going to knock him a little bit but you know right on that three star four star line is good place to be for cam Smith I he's a really productive player and you know you take that next step in state you take that next step at St Joe's Prep I mentioned hasco wrote up they don't has over the weekend the guy that if you look deeper into he's got an 87 rating from on three right now but I think he's going to be a four-star Prospect and grows into one of the better defensive lineman in the region so be really interested to see what the next step is there but for now uh cam Smith completes his flip Penn State will continue to watch that flip game we're in a dead period now in August um so not a ton that's going to happen but you know you've got some guys that are worth looking into whether that be a new coach situation like this or a coach on the hot seat situation or just a a place you can you know try and pick off a few guys here down the road so uh Penn State I think is going to be happy with this one the linebacker class is interesting to me you've got Tash who is a naval linebacker who's also a really good athlete uh you know he's gotten healthy and tested really well at Penn State at the end of July you got cam Smith who I think is another natural linebacker and then you've got the guy that also reminds you of Penn State linebackers in a different way and LaVar Arrington Jr coming in gives you an opportunity to move desan brnette maybe fulltime to an edge Prospect um so yeah Penn State's continuing to recruit flexibility but also players that fit within that Tom Allen system I love that you mentioned that and how it impacts this 2025 class and some of the ambiguity on the defensive side he he does solve some problems in that situation but also provides flexibility I think for the team moving forward if all those guys want to can play linebacker then you got a bumper crop of linebackers but more than likely you have a lot of guys that can do a little bit of everything and provide that versatility which is really important in the modern game of football and he did tell you right there keep watching keep subscrib to Blue illustrate. comom I'm going to flash this up here because it's not going to last forever two months for a dollar code psu1 we're getting into the pen State football season we're giving you money the best content in college football the best content in Penn State coverage you get at a bluewhiteillustrated.com you could have it for a dollar all the way into October with the code psu1 because we love you guys for supporting us here on the blue white Illustrated YouTube channel go read his stuff we got more we got more recruiting information coming we got a recruiting show on Thursday as well that'll do it to now do it for now for our breaking news commitment story for Sean Fitz I'm to I'm Thomas Frank Carr surprised that I wouldn't be able to get my own name out we'll be back with the next flip commit whatever it might be here on the blue white Illustrated YouTube channel [Music]