6 months before signing day, 3 ex-Penn State commits still looking

An eagerness to commit before playing a down of football as a high school senior may have caused three four-star Penn State recruits to de-commit this month.

OT Grant Toutant will start his Official Visit to Ohio State this weekend

• 6’7” 320lbs

• former Penn State Commit pic.twitter.com/suhqSePidf

— Buckeye Edits (@BuckeyeEdits15) June 17, 2019

And one – 310-pound offensive tackle Grant Toutant of Warren, Mich. — reopened his recruitment and flipped to Ohio State.

Another – 294-pound offensive tackle Aaryn Parks of National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Md. – is scheduled to visit Pitt this weekend, according to Rivals.com.

A third – Josh Moten, also of National Christian Academy – is the 22^nd-ranked cornerback in the nation, says Rivals.

With schools and recruits taking advantage of the spring visitation period, it’s a tendency across the nationthat Penn State coach James Franklin, who has warned prospects about saying yes to early, doesn’t like. But he understands it’s part of the current landscape.

“Now everyone is going on official visits and getting love all over the country,” and they want to be able to do those things. It’s changed,” Franklin told the Centre Daily Times. “There are going to be ups and downs (in recruiting), there’s going to be different storylines that pop up. But like always, we’re going to stay positive, work through it and continue to develop the players we have and recruit to create as much competition on the roster as we possibly can.”

With six months remaining before the December signing period, all commitments — and de-commitments, for that matter – are non-binding.

Penn State’s 2020 recruiting class is 29th in the nation (sixth in the Big Ten), according to Rivals. Penn State’s 2019 class was 11th. There are nine players in the current class and Rivals ranks six of them four-stars.

With eight three-stars (and ninth unidentified at the moment), Pitt is 51^st and 11^th in the ACC.

None of the 17 known players who have given Penn State and Pitt verbal pledges play in the WPIAL, but Parks will join two local guys on his visit to Pitt this weekend, according to Rivals.

They are:

• Westinghouse defensive end Dayon Hayes, who is the second-ranked WPIAL or City League player (behind Mars’ Michael Carmody, already committed to Notre Dame). He is third in Pennsylvania.

• Josh Rawlings, a tight end from Woodland Hills and the No. 13 overall prospect in Pennsylvania.