Recruiting Ups and Downs

I originally was going to title this post Royer Continues Recruiting Roll at Penn State, and while it is true that Penn State is on quite the roll this season with highly prized verbals, it also came to light today that highly touted Darrell Givens (class of 2009) will not be joining Penn State this fall due to academic reasons.

Here's the profile on Royer. Yippee!

And here's Donnie Collin's report on Givens . . .

This is quite a blow to Penn State's secondary down the road. Givens was a four-star prospect according to Rivals.com, and there were plenty of people -- myself included -- who thought he would play immediately. Among the 2009 recruits, only West Scranton's Eric Shrive had a higher rating. And the secondary, the way it shapes up, was going to need a big-time player to step in. At 6-foot, 170 pounds with great speed, Givens was that guy, by all accounts.

Of course, this isn't about Givens' ability to play at Penn State. According to BWI, it's an academic issue.

Apparently Givens would rather play elsewhere with lower standards, such as Miami, Florida, Rutgers, North Carolina, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Nebraska or South Carolina. (This is his list of alternatives per the above article and I cannot confirm or deny whether he would qualify at those places. . . .but I am not surprised by that list at all.)

Hopefully this opens another scholarship for a shutdown corner in this class, if there are any left out there.