Blue White Illustrated

Micah Bowens QB 6-1 185 ★★★ Las Vegas, Nev. Bishop Gorman Curtis Jacobs Ath. 6-2 220 ★★★★ Glen Burnie, Md. McDonogh Josh Moten DB 5-11 165 ★★★★ Fort Washington, Md. National Christian Academy Grant Toutant OL 6-6 305 ★★★ Warren, Mich. De La Salle Derek Wingo LB 6-1 215 ★★★★ Fort Lauderdale, Fla. St. Thomas Aquinas Dont'e Thornton Jr. WR 6-4 180 N/A Baltimore, Md. Mount St. Joseph * As of March 10 C L A S S O F 2 0 2 0 C L A S S O F 2 0 2 1 P E N N S T A T E R E C R U I T S * I knew right away they could help me get to that next level' I N T E R V I E W M I C A H B O W E N S P enn State hasn't pulled a lot of players out of Nevada over the years. The most prominent Nevadan in Nittany Lion football history – maybe the only Nevadan to date – is Massimo Manca of Reno, a kicker on both of PSU's national championship teams in the 1980s. But in another sign of the program's expanded recruiting reach, James Franklin received a verbal commitment in February from Las Vegas prospect Micah Bowens. A three-star quarter- back, Bowens led Bishop Gorman to the Nevada Class 4A championship as a jun- ior in 2018, passing for 2,778 yards while adding 927 yards on the ground. Recently, Blue White Illustrated re- cruiting reporter Ryan Snyder talked to Bowens about his decision. BWI What did you know about Penn State before your visit? Obviously, it's a big football school, but did you know much else? BOWENS Honestly, I didn't really know much other than what I've seen on TV over the past few years. I knew they al- ways had a good team and that Coach Franklin and his coaches were a good sta;, but I didn't know much else other than that. BWI What did you expect going into that visit? Did you have any sort of rela- tionship with Ricky Rahne? Did you have any feeling for whether or not they were going to o;er? BOWENS I talked to Coach Rahne probably about three weeks before I vis- ited. At the time, I was planning a visit to West Virginia. The coach who gave me my :rst scholarship o;er [Jahmile Addae] made a move to West Virginia recently, and he wanted me to come out and see the place. So a=er I talked to Coach Rahne and then talked to my dad about it, we said that we might as well go up to Penn State, too, since we were going to be in the area. But other than that, that was pretty much it. I de:- nitely didn't have any expectations going into the visit. Honestly, I never really thought that they were going to o;er me a scholarship my :rst time there. I just knew it was a great place '

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