4-star wide receiver Rodney Gallagher locks in official visits
Uniontown (Pa.) Laurel Highlands wide receiver Rodney Gallagher has established himself as one of the country’s top pass-catchers in the 2023 class. Programs from across the country have extended offers to the 5-foot-10, 165-pounder, but a select few have been at the top of his list.
On Sunday, Gallagher announced which schools will be receiving official visits from him, with four of his five available trips locked in for June. He’ll trip to West Virginia (June 3-5), Notre Dame (June 10-12), Oklahoma State (June 13-15) and Penn State (June 17-19) over the course of two and a half weeks.
Rodney Gallagher recently named his top schools
The four-star prospect included those four his top eight schools list last week, along with Pitt, Oregon, Texas and Virginia Tech.
Gallagher detailed the other contenders for him to Blue and Gold’s Mike Singer last weekend:
Notre Dame: “It’s a beautiful school. Honestly, just seeing the tradition there — I thought that was great to see. Notre Dame is just all-around a great culture. I think going there can definitely help you in the long run. The campus and everything there is just great.”
Penn State: “Penn State has been recruiting me since my freshman year. They’ve been on me and consider me a top prospect for them. They’re considered a good option for me.”
Pitt: “That’s my hometown school and my sister goes there. Also, I think the culture they have is really good.”
West Virginia: “I’m very close with [head coach] Neal Brown. He’s a really good guy. I’ve built a special relationship with him.”
Virginia Tech: “Their staff has a lot of great guys. They hit me up constantly and have made me a priority for them. They’re always sending me edits and building a strong relationship. I’m going up there on [May 17] to see the campus and see what’s special there.”
Oregon: “I’ve built a great relationship with Coach [Junior] Adams. You can tell he really believes in me. To offer a guy from PA all the way from Oregon honestly means something to me.”
Oklahoma State: “I’ve built a special relationship with Coach [Mike] Gundy and he has ties to my hometown. He’s just a great guy and their staff has been showing me a lot of love. I’m excited to take [an official visit] there.”
Texas: “Coach [Brennan] Marion, when he was at Pitt, I built a special relationship with him. He has a great relationship with my dad also. Just having him going to a school like Texas, and then me being the first kid he offered, that means something to me.”
Penn State leading in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine
As it stands today, the Nittany Lions have a big lead over the rest of the pack in Rodney Gallagher’s recruitment, according to the On3 RPM. It gives Penn State an 84.3 percent chance of securing his commitment, with West Virginia, Pitt and Notre Dame trailing behind.
RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.