Blue White Illustrated

November 2015

Penn State Sports Magazine

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Jones of Germantown Academy in Fort Washington. Parsons is the 9rst player since LaVar Arrington to make Pennsylvania's 9rst- team Class AAAA All-State team as a freshman. Last fall, he totaled 121 tack- les, 27 tackles for loss and 19 sacks. Penn State, North Carolina State and Temple have all extended o:ers. Jones, too, is coming o: a dazzling freshman season. He 9nished with 1,010 yards and nine touchdowns last fall and entered the 2015 season as the top player in the Inter-AC League in suburban Philadelphia. Germantown Academy head coach Matt Dence has said he be- lieves Jones could emerge as the top prospect in southeastern Pennsylvania for the Class of 2018. Franklin and his sta: have already ex- tended verbal o:ers to four of the nine players I've highlighted in Pennsylva- nia's Class of 2018. In addition to Par- sons, Penn State has made o:ers to tight end Zach Kuntz of Camp Hill, quarter- back Phil Jurkovec of Gibsonia Pine- Richland and wide receiver Saquon An- derson-Butts of Harrisburg. All of those players have begun to receive signi9cant attention, and Penn State will have plenty of competition for their signa- tures. Kuntz has received o:ers from Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Jurkovec has an o:er from Pitt, and Anderson-Butts has o:ers from Rutgers and Temple. One other prospect to keep in mind from the Class of 2018 is Mamud Dioubate of Philadelphia Prep Carter. He's the younger brother of Karamo Dioubate, a verbally committed prospect in Penn State's 2016 recruiting class. Prep Carter head coach David Hand has said he believes Dioubate is de9nitely a Division I prospect. ■ We're very happy with him and all the coaches at Penn State. "The only other coach that I know he's consistently speaking with is Mark Stat- en at Michigan State. He really likes both of those coaches and is comfortable with both schools, so not much has changed there. I think he's really high on both schools. He's probably speaking with some other coaches, too. It's tough to know exactly who since I'm not down there, but I know both Michigan State and Penn State are still very high on his list." With Hainsey now residing in the heart of SEC country, there was some specula- tion among fans that he would become infatuated with some of the top Southern schools, but he had yet to visit any of them as of mid-October. His father said there is a chance he'll join his teammates on a visit or two later in the year, but he hasn't made any 9rm plans yet. "I know some of the coaches and play- ers were thinking about going to one of the Florida schools or another school that's kind of close," Hainsey said. "So, he could end up seeing a school or two at some point this season, but he doesn't have anything in the works. These past few months have been all about football and academics." Hainsey is looking to see what he would need to do to potentially enroll early at the school of his choice. It's not de9nite, but he is working with his advi- sors at IMG to get his credits in line for a December 2016 gradua- tion. "If he has to, he'll probably take a class or two in the summer to make sure he's on pace," Hainsey said. "If not, he'll basically just have to train for six months down there or come back home, so I know he really wants to get everything set up so that he can enroll early. He really wants to do everything he can to put himself in a position where he could potentially play early." IMG Academy was 6-0 as of this writ- ing and was ranked in the top 10 in the nation by most respected high school polls. Its season will end in early No- vember, so Hainsey is expected to return home for Thanksgiving. He'll then be home for about three weeks in Decem- ber for Christmas break, which is likely when he'll make his next visit to Penn State. "I'm sure we'll make it out to Penn State and probably Michigan State around Thanksgiving or while he's home for his Christmas break," Ron Hainsey said. "He may be able to make a game when he comes home for Thanksgiving. I have to see how those schedules line up, but I'm sure we'll be back at Penn State for a bowl practice or something like that in December. I'm sure he's going to want to visit then while he's home." Hainsey is ranked 215th overall in the nation by Rivals.com and is the 25th- ranked o:ensive tackle. ON THE MOVE Hainsey at- tended Gateway High in Monroeville, Pa., before en- rolling at IMG Academy in Florida prior to his junior season. Photo courtesy of Rivals.com

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