It’s been an eventful last few days for New Jersey offensive lineman Jasire Peterson.
The 4-star junior from Union City, New Jersey announced on Friday that he was de-committing from Rutgers in order to open back up his recruitment. The hometown school was Peterson’s first D-1 offer and he recently decided that he wants to be sure about his decision and open things up to allow other schools to recruit him.
— JaSiré Peterson (@JasirePeterson) January 14, 2022
Peterson becoming a free agent seemed to catch the attention of other teams as he immediately picked up an offer from Syracuse. That was followed by Peterson making his visit to Penn State in order to attend their Junior Day on Saturday.
After returning home to New Jersey, Peterson spoke with Nittany Sports Now to talk about his first visit to State College and the feedback that he received from the Nittany Lions coaching staff.
“The Penn State coaches started hitting me up a little before my decision with Rutgers. They then invited me up to Junior Day, so I decided to go,” said Peterson. “While there, they showed me the campus, the facilities, the weight room and the stadium. What stood out to me was the stadium, it was so beautiful but also videos they showed to all the recruits about the Penn State football culture. I really liked how they showed up what they’re about. The video shows how close the players are to each other and how much the players count on one another and how they play for one another.”
2023 OL and top 10 NJ recruit Jasire Peterson on his Junior Day visit to #PennState
👤 | https://t.co/QXoGjUfJwk pic.twitter.com/NScOL5SFhQ
— Penn State Nittany Lions | Nittany Nation (@PennStateRivals) January 15, 2022
“I didn’t talk with him for a long time, but I was able to talk with their offensive line coach (Phil Trautwein),” Peterson said. “He told me that he can’t wait for me to get back down there for another visit, since this was my first time. He told me to keep doing what I’m doing and that the coaching staff really thought highly of me.”
At this stage of his recruitment, Peterson doesn’t have an offer from Penn State but a lot of that could be due to the fact that he immediately committed to Rutgers, which didn’t allow programs, like Penn State, proper time to recruit him. Now that he’s open to all schools, it wouldn’t be surprised if Penn State extends an offer in the near future.
“Penn State hasn’t brought up an offer to me yet but I think it’s just a matter of time,” said Peterson. “I think that I’m a type of player that they’re looking for because I’m an aggressive, pretty solid offensive lineman. I really think that an offer is inevitable. An offer from Penn State would really mean a lot to me because they’re a great program and send a lot of people to the NFL. That offer would be really big to me.”
“One of the things that me and my family talked about after I came to the decision about Rutgers was realization of how many schools could start recruiting me if I opened things up,” Peterson said. “I kind of had a feeling that all this would happen and I’m excited for the future.”
