Blue White Illustrated

J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 Marquis Wilson of Windsor, Conn. The additions have boosted Penn State's nine-player contingent to 12th place in the Rivals.com team rankings for the Class of 2019. The Lions were in sec- ond place among Big Ten teams, with only Michigan ahead of them in seventh place. Here, listed in the order of their com- mitments, are the prospects who have recently announced plans to sign with the Lions: JaQUAN BRISKERA safety who is origi- nally from Monroeville, Pa., Brisker joined the Nittany Lions' class on May 17. The Lackawanna College standout had paid his first visit to campus the previous weekend along with teammate Anthony Whigan, and Lackawanna offensive co- ordinator Josh Pardini said the two en- joyed their time. Brisker "really loved everything about it," Pardini said. "He's known Coach [Terry] Smith for years now, and I think he did a great job rekindling that rela- tionship with JaQuan. He also had a good day with Coach [Brent] Pry and Coach [James] Franklin." AAer emerging this past season as a freshman at Lackawanna, Brisker earned 14 verbal scholarship offers. Among the more notable schools that showed inter- est were Alabama, Maryland, Missis- sippi, Mississippi State, Pitt, Utah and West Virginia. The 6-foot-2, 200- pounder had been planning to take an of- ficial visit to Tuscaloosa in September but has since canceled that trip. Brisker finished the 2017 season with 54 tackles (30 solo, 24 assisted) and four interceptions, two of which he took back for touchdowns. Pardini said Lack- awanna rarely plays freshmen, but the coaches knew very early in the season that Brisker had to see the field. "It's very hard to start as a freshman for us," Pardini said. "Brisker was our backup safety weeks one and two, strictly for the fact that he was a fresh- man and we had some older guys that just knew the defense and knew our sys- tem better. "But when it came to ability, it was so noticeable in training camp, so we were always looking for ways to get him on the field. We thought about outside line- backer at one point, but once we went into the second game, which we won pretty handily, we were able get him a lot of time. He ended up taking his first in- terception 100 yards for a score. On top of that, the starting free safety got in- jured earlier in that game. From that point forward, it was basically his job, and he hasn't looked back since. From then on, everyone on the defense, young or old, knew who the best player was in our unit. Whenever we needed a play or needed a stop, he was the guy" Before heading to Lackawanna, Brisker attended Gateway High School, where Smith was once the head coach. Smith leA the school to start his college coach- ing career before Brisker's freshman sea- son, but the two were acquainted. "In fourth or fiAh grade, I was actually the water boy for the high school team," Brisker said. "So I've known Coach Smith for a real long time. Our relation- ship is real good. We're tight." Brisker finished his first year at Lack- awanna with a 3.2 GPA, but he's still ex- pected to complete two more semesters at the junior college, as it will be difficult to amass the credits he needs by the end of the fall term. That means it's unlikely he will enroll at Penn State in January. DEVYN FORD Penn State picked up its biggest commitment of the 2019 recruit- ing cycle when Ford, a five-star running back from Stafford, Va., officially joined the Lions' class on May 18. The nation's top-ranked running back prospect, the 5-11, 195-pound Ford had taken six visits to Happy Valley, includ- ing an official visit in April for the Blue- White Game. He spoke highly of that experience aAerward when interviewed at the Rivals/Adidas 3 Stripe Camp in New Jersey. "What I like about Penn State is just the fans," Ford said. "They have 110K up there. Up there at the spring game, it was amazing the atmosphere there. They only had 71,000 there and it still felt like a real game, to be honest. "They have really good alumni. I see CLASS OF 2019 NAME POS HT WT RATING HOME SCHOOL Hakeem Beamon DE 6-3 255 ★★★★ Chesterfield, Va. Lloyd C. Bird JaQuan Brisker DB 6-2 200 ★★★ Monroeville, Pa. Lackawanna College Keaton Ellis CB 6-0 160 ★★★ State College, Pa. State College Area Devyn Ford RB 5-11 195 ★★★★★ Stafford, Va. North Stafford Taquan Roberson QB 6-0 198 ★★★ Wayne, N.J. DePaul Catholic Tyler Rudolph DB 6-1 205 ★★★★ Oakdale, Conn. St. Thomas More Brandon Smith LB 6-3 218 ★★★★ Mineral, Va. Louisa County Caedan Wallace OL 6-4 330 ★★★★ Princeton, N.J. Hun School Marquis Wilson DB 6-0 175 ★★★★ Windsor, Conn. Windsor * As of June 7 P E N N S T A T E R E C R U I T S * C L A S S O F 2 0 1 9

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