Penn State Mailbag: 2023 quarterback prospects, can't miss players and who's the next Lackawanna player to monitor?

Penn State football finished off its Class of 2022 with a strong pickup this past week in offensive lineman Vega Ioane from Washington. The Nittany Lions also held firm at No. 7 overall in the On3 Consensus Team Rankings, confirming that the 2022 class will be one of the best at Penn State in recent decades.

Now, the February dead period has arrived. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any recruiting, however. That never stops. All the dead period does is assure that players won’t be able to visit University Park until March.

Whether that results in any commitments in February remains to be seen. The vast majority of Penn State’s top targets want to take additional spring visits, but the staff is in good shape with enough players that a decision from someone wouldn’t completely surprise.

As for today’s mailbag, we’ll touch on a few players who I feel have to be members of Penn State’s Class of 2023 when it’s all said and done. We’ll also discuss the latest at the quarterback position and player from Lackawanna College that Penn State fans may want to keep an eye on in the months ahead.

Top 5 remaining targets that Penn State CANNOT miss on? – Poncho570

When I think of can’t miss players, I think of someone who they can also realistically land. If you pull up Penn State’s offers list, you’ll find a bunch of elite prospects who they’d love to have, but to me, this is more so about players they should land.

The guys that come to mind are DT Jason Moore, OL Evan Link, LB Ta’Mere Robinson, WR Rodney Gallagher and LB Tony Rojas. I think most of you probably would pick a similar list, with maybe one or two additions or subtractions.

You’ll notice that all of those guys are from Penn State’s normal recruiting territory. That’s always big to me when classifying someone as “can’t miss.”

Out of that group, I do feel like Penn State leads with Gallagher, Robinson and Rojas. Link I’ve felt that way for awhile, too, but I also want to get a better feel for how his Stanford visit went. Out of those five, Moore will be the one they have to fight the hardest for, but they can realistically land him, too.

Notre Dame will be a serious player with Moore, but it’s a great sign that he came back up to State College last week. He and his family were already headed to Philadelphia to watch his brother, who plays basketball at Villanova. State College is not what I would consider on the way to Philadelphia, so that’s a positive sign.

But he also needs to take more visits, too. Aside from Penn State and Notre Dame, Maryland is the only other school he’s seen, so this spring will be big for Moore. LSU, Michigan and Ohio State are all going to have a say in this recruitment before it’s over.

Penn State has had recruits at Lackawana just about yearly. Any good possibilities in 2023? – psykim

The name I’m monitoring currently is wide receiver Colbie Young. Listed at 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, Young totaled nine touchdowns and 472 yards on just 24 receptions during his first season at Lackawanna.

The Binghamton, N.Y., native earned offers Football Bowl Championship programs like Albany, New Hampshire and Maine coming out of high school, but ended up at Lackawanna instead.

He doesn’t hold any offers currently following his freshman season, but I know Penn State has interest. I was told that Colorado, Old Dominion, Syracuse, Temple and Virginia Tech have also shown early interest.

I linked his film below.

How much is the Stokes offer a recognition that, with Allar and Pribula on campus, landing another top QB in 2023 will be difficult? – Lanz

How do the QBs rank after Moore and Rashada since they will be both difficult to grab? – BigDPSU

I do believe that Penn State offering Marcus Stokes and JJ Kohl recently is a recognition that they’re not trending currently with the two guys they’ve been pursuing: QB Dante Moore and Jaden Rashada.

Moore has been and will always be Penn State’s top quarterback target in this class. That won’t change even if he commits somewhere in the months ahead, but I think Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame are all ahead Penn State currently. Georgia recently offered, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a trip to Athens in the spring.

I also continue to hear that Penn State’s relationship with Rashada has faded since he visited for the White Out game in September. Not saying things can’t change with either down the road. There’s a long way to go until December 2022, but I don’t feel confident in either of them ending up at Penn State. Also, quarterback isn’t a position where you just throw out offers for fun. The fact that they also offered On3 Consensus five-star Nico Iamaleava in January tells me they need to find some other candidates.

Link: QB Marcus Stokes opens up about Penn State and a wild month on the recruiting trail

I would agree that only a handful of schools right now are consistently landing elite quarterbacks consecutively. Penn State just hasn’t been one of those programs and it’ll take success on the field for that to change.

As for the second question, I’m not seeing a whole lot of interest from the other players they’ve offered either. Penn State is trying to build a relationship with Iamaleava, but until he visits (if he even does) it’s hard for me to think he’ll be a serious option. Dylan Lonergan hasn’t visited since he was a freshman. Christopher Vizzina, a four-star from Alabama, is expected to stay down south, and I don’t get the impression PSU is pursuing Bo Edmundson that hard.

So, as of the beginning of February, it feels like Kohl and Stokes are the next guys up. If any of those other prospects I mentioned visit in the spring, that could change things. It’s still early in the cycle, but quarterbacks also tend to commit earlier, too.