Blue White Illustrated

| Penn State continues to roll J ames Franklin and Penn State are showing no signs of slowing down on the recruiting trail. Since March 16, Franklin has convinced four prospects, three of whom have been given four-star status by Rivals.com, to verbally commit to the Nittany Lions. As a re- sult, Rivals' early team rankings had Penn State rated second in the entire country, ahead of Ala- bama and behind only Texas A&M, as of this writing. Wide receiver Juwan Johnson of Glassboro, N.J., was the 5rst to make the call. He is the highest-ranked prospect to commit to Penn State since Franklin took over the program in January. The 130th-ranked player in the nation, according to Rivals, Johnson made it no secret that he was leaning toward Penn State following its coaching change. But the timing of his commitment came as a surprise to some, especially considering some of his addi- tional high-level suitors. Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and South Carolina were just four of the 15 programs that extended verbal o6ers, but the 6- foot-4, 205-pound four-star prospect de- cided not to take a visit to those schools a7er spending a day at University Park. "I just felt like I should be there," said Johnson, who is currently the second- ranked prospect in New Jersey in the Class of 2015. "I felt the chemistry and it was like I was a part of their family from the moment I walked in. "There's nowhere better I could be than Penn State." Johnson noted that the opportunity to play with one of the nation's top up-and- coming quarterbacks "had a major impact" on his decision. "I got to talk to [Christian Hackenberg] when I was up there, and I could tell he's the kind of guy I want to play with because he's going to be able to get me the ball," Johnson said. "But even a7er Christian is gone, guys like [Michael] O'Connor are going to be there and the sta6 is going to get other great quarterbacks, too, so I know I'm always going to have a great quarterback to play with. That really helped me realize that this is my best option." Glassboro's o6ense is run-oriented, which has kept Johnson's stats modest the past few years. But he succeeded in making a name for himself on the camp circuit. At the New Jersey Rivals/Under Armour camp last April, he was one of a select few underclassmen to earn top- performer honors. According to Rivals' Mid-Atlantic recruiting analyst, Adam Friedman, Johnson has "all the tools to be a dominant target on the outside. He is already pretty strong, but he has a big frame to add even more strength. If he can stay fast and shi7y, [he] could be un- stoppable." With 11 verbally committed recruits, PSU has the nation's second-ranked class FOLLOW RECRUITING ONLINE Visit bwi.rivals.com for updated news on PSU's scholarship offers and commitments. F O O T B A L L R E C R U I T I N G PENN STATE CLASS OF 2015 COMMITMENTS* NAME POS HT WT HOME SCHOOL Josh Barajas LB 6-3 212 Merrillville, Ind. Andrean Saquon Barkley RB 5-11 190 Whitehall, Pa. Whitehall Ryan Bates OG 6-5 285 Warminster, Pa. Archbishop Wood Ryan Buchholz DE 6-6 230 Malvern, Pa. Greater Valley Kamonte Carter DE 6-4 230 Gaithersburg, Md. Gaithersburg Jake Cooper LB 6-2 226 Warminster, Pa. Archbishop Wood Steven Gonzalez OG 6-4 321 Union City, N.J. Union City Juwan Johnson WR 6-4 205 Glassboro, N.J. Glassboro Jarvis Miller DB 6-2 185 West Suffield, Conn. Suffield Brandon Polk WR 5-9 150 Ashburn, Va. Briar Woods Andre Robinson RB 5-10 210 Harrisburg, Pa. Bishop McDevitt * As of March 30 JOHNSON

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