Blue White Illustrated

W hen Ricky Slade announced his verbal commitment to Penn State in early February, the four-star running back from C.D. Hylton High in Woodbridge, Va., became the highest- rated o3ensive prospect in the Nittany Lions' Class of 2018 – a class that would soon rank as one of the best in the coun- try according to Rivals.com. Blue White Illustrated's Tim Owen re- cently caught up with Slade to talk about his decision to choose PSU over Florida, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. Here, edited for length and clarity, is what he had to say: BWI You made a lot of visits to a lot of places, but there was that last visit to Penn State for a junior day. Then you went home and made the decision. Can you take me through that visit and what went into the commitment? SLADE The visit itself was good. I just went up there and talked to the coaches once more. I wanted to commit at the visit, but I was waiting for my mom to give me the OK a4er she saw the school. I went home and I thought about it for a couple days and then I decided. That was her 2rst time up there. She just wanted to balance it academically more and make sure the academic side was good. Once she did that, she was OK. BWI Going back to the beginning of your recruitment, what were some of the 2rst things you noticed about Penn State that appealed to you? SLADE Just the way they recruited me. They never let it up, especially since the running backs coach was also my re- cruiting coordinator. I just kept building that relationship with him. He was my only recruiting coordinator who was also the running backs coach, so it was just building that rela- tionship with him and it just went o3 from there. BWI How important was it that Charles Hu3, your position coach, was your recruiter? SLADE That made a big di3erence for me. Almost every weekend, every other weekend [he's] talking to me, and know- ing he's my running backs coach and knowing that I'm going to be working with him and that relationship is already built, it's going to be an easy transition. BWI What about the other coaches? Who else did you get to know? SLADE All the coaches up there, I have the same relationship with them as I do with Coach Hu3. It was not just Coach Hu3 who recruited me; the whole sta3 recruited me, even on the defensive side. Coach [Brent] Pry was there with Coach Hu3 when he [visited C.D. Hylton this past winter]. BWI You were able to see a lot of di3er- ent schools before making a decision. Can you take me through your recruitment – the places you visited and the other schools that were under consideration? SLADE My 2rst-ever visit was up at Ohio State. You see a lot of things at a lot of di3erent colleges. They all have good facilities. They have a good weight room. When I went up to Penn State, of course they have top facilities and all that, but it was just di3erent up there. You could just feel that it was di3erent. On the other visits, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the coaches, especially the head coach or my position coach. The other schools that were interested in me were UNC, Vir- ginia Tech and Florida. Other than that, nobody else was really in it. BWI Signing day is still months away, and a lot of these coaches might still try to recruit you. What would you tell them? SLADE I would tell them my recruit- ment is closed and I'm not interested. BWI Are you planning any trips to Penn State in the near future? SLADE I'm in a group chat with all of the commits, the '18 commits. We're all going to go up there for the spring game. I N T E R V I E W R I C K Y S L A D E It was just different up there. You could just feel that it was different' ' 2018 RECRUIT Slade will solid- ify the Nittany Lions' backfield when he arrives on campus next year. Photo courtesy of Ri- vals.com

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