Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1187122
fortable with making this switch. I just feel like this is the right thing for me to do. BWI You committed to Virginia way back in April. When did you start talking to Penn State again? Did the conversa- tions ever stop? Take me through the past couple of months and your talks with them. CHRIST Going back to when I was on my o.cial visit [to Vir- ginia], I remember Coach Franklin was texting me then, asking me to come to Penn State one more time to give them a chance and not let the Virginia visit take over my outlook on everything. I ended up committing then, so that was when it all stopped. Obviously, I didn't come back to Penn State. ... Every once in a while, they would send a text. I remember them reaching out on my birthday, things like that. But then, at the end of September or in the beginning of October, some- where around there, Coach Franklin reached out again and just asked if any- thing had changed with my status. So that's when we really started talking again. I would FaceTime them regularly and talk to all of their coaches. That was about twice a week. That's when it really picked up again. BWI I know you're friends with a few of Penn State's committed players. Have you been talking to those guys for a while now? Have they been working on you? CHRIST Yeah, those relationships have been pretty cool. I had been in touch with a bunch of those guys before. A bunch of those guys were talking to me a ton before I committed to Virginia. Hon- estly, I felt bad telling them about my commitment to UVA because I really liked all the guys I got to know. I started talking to some of them again over the past couple of weeks, so it's been good to catch up. Nick Dawkins is a good guy. I talk to him some. I've actually worked out with Curtis [Jacobs] some. We've trained together before. I've done one- on-ones with him. He's pretty cool. There are some other guys. Golden [Achumba] was another recruit I talked to a lot. BWI Coach Franklin teased your com- mitment during his radio show recently. It got a lot of fans excited. What did you think when you heard about all of that? CHRIST Honestly, it made me feel even better about what I decided. I know he was really excited about that, and I felt the same way. It was funny reading some of the things on Twitter. I was showing my friends a few things. I'd say to them, "Look, they think they're getting a -ve- star receiver, but they have no idea it's actually me." It was kind of funny read- ing everyone and seeing how much at- tention it got that night. BWI I assume that was a big reason why you ended up announcing earlier than planned, right? From what I was told, the original plan had been to announce at the Indiana game, but then you de- cided to move it up. CHRIST Yeah. When I o.cially an- nounced my decommitment on Twitter, a ton of schools started reaching out. There were even a few others that I guess had learned ahead of time. I know Notre Dame was reaching out. There were some other schools. But once I publicly decommitted, we decided to just announce everything that night. I didn't want it to drag on. BWI Did you talk to any other schools VIRGINIA STANDOUT Christ shined for Do- minion High this past season. He visited Penn State on the weekend of the Indi- ana game. Photo by Ryan Snyder