Blue White Illustrated

Decommitments are a fact of life at game's top level T his year's Blue-White Game couldn't have gone much better for Penn State fans. Sure, the weather wasn't the best early in the day and the game wasn't nearly as compelling as that shootout we wit- nessed in Pasadena, but everyone le: Beaver Stadium with a better feel for just how bright the future is in Happy Valley. Add in the two commitments that James Franklin and his sta9 received from four-star o9ensive linemen Nana Asiedu and Antwan Reed and, all in all, fans were feeling pretty good as they headed down to College Avenue that Saturday evening. What they didn't know at the time was that 8ve-star defensive end Micah Par- sons of Harrisburg had an announce- ment in the works for 10:30 the following evening. Many fans didn't learn until the following morning, while getting ready for work, that Parsons was no longer a member of this year's re- cruiting class. "I just think I may have committed a little too early," Parsons told Rivals.com the night of his announce- ment. "I'm going to take the full expe- rience to make sure I make the right decision." The fact that Parsons backed out of his commitment shouldn't have been a major surprise. Throughout the previ- ous year, he went out of his way to visit schools such as Georgia and Southern California. In addition, he not only vis- ited Ohio State about a half-dozen times, but he even announced on Twit- back on it as one of the best classes to ever come through." Asiedu, who stands 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, is ranked No. 170 overall in the nation by Rivals.com. He's the 15th- ranked o9ensive tackle and the fourth- ranked prospect in Virginia for the Class of 2018. Reed, too, is a member of the Ri- vals250, coming in at No. 210 overall. Earning more than a dozen o9ers, he visited Virginia Tech and Nebraska ear- lier this spring, and he also held o9ers from Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State and Tennessee, among others. Like Asiedu, Reed said that his relationship with the coaching sta9 had a big impact on his decision. "One thing I really liked is that I talked to all of their coaches," he said. "It wasn't like I was talking to one coach all the time. Between Coach Franklin, Coach [Matt] Limegrover and all their coaches [on o9ense], I talked to basically all of them at one point or an- other. "I really liked how they all reached out to me to make sure we built that con- nection. They're a young group of coaches, too. I feel like it's easier to re- late to them. It was a great 8t for me." Dating back to his sophomore year, Reed took three visits to Penn State, the 8rst of which came in April 2016 to watch a spring practice. He then re- turned in February for a personal day with the coaching sta9. Because of that, he never saw the at- mosphere in and around Beaver Sta- dium until the day he committed. "I've been there before for regular visits, so [the Blue-White Game] was my first time seeing all the fans inside and outside the stadium," Reed said. "They were amazing. They're so pas- sionate about their team. It was just a spring game, yet the parking lots were filled. I had a ton of fans coming up to me to wish me a good day and say good luck. It was a completely differ- ent experience. That only helped me confirm that this was the right deci- sion." At 6-5, 334 pounds, Reed is expected to play o9ensive tackle, but he could potentially move to guard if needed. He's the 21st-ranked tackle in the na- tion and the third-ranked prospect in Michigan for his class. Unfortunately for Penn State, Asiedu and Reed weren't the only players to make news that weekend. The Nittany Lions suffered another setback the day after the spring game when five-star defensive end Micah Parsons an- nounced that he, too, would be open- ing up his recruitment. The nation's fifth-ranked overall prospect, Parsons had committed to the Nittany Lions in February 2016, but he never stopped visiting other programs, most notably Georgia, Ohio State and USC. The Buckeyes are believed to be the team to beat now, but Parsons is still consider- ing the Nittany Lions. He's expected to return to University Park this summer for the Lasch Bash barbecue. Just when it looked as though the sta9 was done adding to its commitment list for a while, Penn State's class grew once again when o9ensive tackle Bryce E9ner of Aurora, Ill., verbally commit- ted in early May Unlike Reed and Asiedu, E9ner, who stands 6-5, 270 pounds, only recently came into the picture, as he took his 8rst visit to University Park March 21-22. A:er spending a couple of days on cam- pus, he went home without an o9er, al- though he didn't have to wait long, as the sta9 extended one the following day. That grabbed the attention of many schools, as Duke, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Purdue and Syracuse all of- fered the three-star prospect within a matter of weeks. He held 15 o9ers before verbally committing to Penn State on May 6. "I've just been thinking about it more and more," E9ner said. "I felt like every- thing kind of slowed for me recently and I really started looking at all of my op- tions. The more I looked at everything, I just thought to myself, what am I doing? I always knew Penn State was the school. It was always the obvious choice for me, and I was comfortable with it. So why not go for it?" ■

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