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.

It's Alive!

According to Mike Gross of Lancaster Online, Dakota Royer has created a monster--a recruiting beast that is alive and well.

With a lot of hard work and his own highlight DVD, Manheim Central's Dakota Royer has turned himself into one of the nation's top football recruits. He'll announce his college choice next month.

He's 6-3, 215 pounds of muscle, runs a 4.640 and has a 37-inch vertical leap, or a four-foot vertical leap straight out of a swimming pool (more on that later).

"I'm meant to be on the defensive side," Royer said.

He could be a linebacker or an end in college, or a combination of both, a hybrid who does some linebacker things and some pass-rushing end things. Think Penn State's Aaron Maybin.

Royer has well over 20 Division I-A college offers . . . Royer has already narrowed his college choices to one of five schools (Penn State, Pitt, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Oregon), and says he'll announce the winner next month.

Penn State — "I've been there a bunch of times. It's close to home. It's familiar."

Pitt — "It's pretty cool that the Steelers are right there. Their weight room is right across the hallway from [Pitt's]."

Notre Dame — "It's the best, nicest campus I've ever seen."

Michigan State — "It's almost like its own city. Everybody's got their motor scooters or bikes. It's really a nice place."

Oregon — "When you watch them play, it looks like it would be awesome to play there. Every player has a plasma-screen TV in his locker." Royer likes that Oregon amounts to a product-testing facility for Nike.

Plasma screens in the locker? Are you kidding me? Who sits and watches TV in front of a locker??? How can Penn State compete with that crap? And why didn't he mention the picturesque bus trip through Pittsburgh to get to the rent-a-stadium?

Here's the YouTube video of the swimming pool stunt.