Committany Nation is back, keeping up to date on all of our favorite high schoolers.
Welcome back to Committany Nation. After a brief break in this wonderfully named series, I have returned to serve you all of the tasty recruiting updates that you crave (I might be watching Chopped as I write this). But let's not waste time before we start the updates...
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One of Penn State's top remaining targets, and their top remaining offensive line target has made official his plans to visit Beaver Stadium.
#PSU v. #OSU on the 25th will be my day !!! #107kStrong
— Matthew Burr€ll Jr! (@HeaftyLefty) September 3, 2014
Yes, Matthew Burrell will be visiting for a legendary Beaver Stadium Whiteout, for what will likely be the biggest game on Penn State's schedule. The Penn State pessimist will point out that the game is against Ohio State, and will therefore be the second time he will take in a Buckeye game (he will visits Columbus this upcoming weekend). Fear not though, loyal Nittany Lion supporters, you can bet that Burrell will be in State College for one reason and one reason alone. Sure, Urban Meyer may be patrolling the opposite sideline, roughly 60 yards away, but Burrell will be there to take in the Penn State atmosphere. With the number of current commits and other high targets, it should be quite an experience for all involved.
As the month turned over from August to September, open season on the 2016 recruits officially began. Once midnight on August 31st hit, coaches all across the country were officially free to mail letters to, email, or contact in any other way any recruit in the 2016 class that they would like. This doesn't mean that these recruits were not in contact with the coaches previously, as they were free to message the coaches themselves. There is a huge list of names of recruits who were contacted by the staff. Some of those names that should be familiar to readers here are QB Brandon McIlwain, QB Jake Zembiec, OL Michael Menet, CB Damar Hamlin, TE Nasier Upshur, OL JP Uriquidez, and RB Kareem Walker. I'll try to get in contact with some of them and give you more updates on their statuses soon.
As promised in the mentioned in the subtitle of this article, I was able to speak with many of the current 2015 commits (most of whom were able to watch Penn State take on UCF) to get their thoughts on the game.
LB Jake Cooper: "I thought it was a tremendous win for Coach Frankling and staff. I was impressed with how PSU looked, it was the first game of the season and we out of it with a W! Very exciting game as well! I thought [the linebackers] were playing well! Aggressive and smart! Played run well. Coach Pry is doing an awesome job coaching them."
OL Steven Gonzalez: "I thought it was very nerve wracking but it was a great way to start he James Franklin era at PSU!"
QB Brandon Wimbush: "I thought it was an awesome experience for the guys who've been restricted for bowl games for the past couple of years! Great for them to come back with the win. Start off the season right and I'm sure they'll keep building from here."
WR Juwan Johnson: "I thought the game was a great jump in the program. A great victory over a very competitive team in UCF. Beside them being in Ireland, it was a great first win for Franklin.
DE Ryan Buccholz: "Well I had practice [Saturday] morning but I was able to make it back in time for the whole second half. I was doing a lot of screaming at the tv and jumping up and down and calling my parents giving them the play by play while they were away. But overall I think the team as a whole played really well and made some very big plays. Especially some of the long ball catches that set up some touchdowns. It was a big win for everyone involved with PSU."
RB Andre Robinson: "It was cool that they got to do that, especially with them not being able to play in a bowl game. I thought it was a great game, they played hard the whole game and Ficken made a clutch kick."
S Jarvis Miller: "I thought it was a great game overall by us. We played with a lot of heart and glad we came out with the win."
There were also a few stats of note from a couple of these recruits from their opening day games for their senior seasons of high school football. For Andre Robinson of Bishop McDevitt High School, it was a record-breaking day. Robinson and McDevitt laid waste to Jordan Hill's alma mater, Steeltown-Highspire, to the tune of 56-0. In the process of doing so, Robinson officially overtook McDevitt alum and current Philadelphia Eagle LeSean McCoy on the all-time touchdown list for Bishop. I spoke with Andre about it a bit, he told me that he is aiming to break the record in a few weeks, and add enough on to it to make sure it is unbreakable. He currently stands at 75 touchdowns, and has a goal of 110. He also wanted to make to note that he owes it all to his offensive line, so throw some props their way as well.
Robinson wasn't the only one with a big day. Ryan Buchholz of Great Valley High School helped lead his team to a 54-0 opening day victory. Ryan only played the first half due to the blowout, but still managed to rack up 4 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Quite a day, indeed.
Finally, you may have seen me tweeting on the brand new Black Shoe Diaries Recruiting twitter account about the Archbishop Wood-DeMatha Catholic showdown this weekend. In other words, 2015 commits Jake Cooper and Ryan Bates were pitted up against 2016 commit Shane Simmons. Archbishop walked away from this one with a 34-13 victory. Defensive stats are not yet available from the game, but Cooper was able to grab one pass for a 19 yard gain, and Simmons picked up a blocked kick in the effort.
That's all for today. But before you go, please go and follow @BSDRecruiting on twitter. Myself, Cari, and Matt will be tweeting all things Penn State recruiting related from that account, so it can be your one stop for everything you need to know about our future Penn Staters. See you in the twittersphere.