From the time he took over at Penn State, one of James Franklin’s primary goals has been attracting Pennsylvania’s top high school football talents to Happy Valley.
From Harrisburg (Micah Parsons) to Pittsburgh (Miles Sanders) to Nazareth (Jahan Dotson) to Whitehall Township (Saquon Barkley), some of the best Penn State players of the Franklin era have come from the Keystone State.
Scranton Prep High School’s London Montgomery doesn’t know where he wants to play college football yet, but as of last Sunday, Penn State is an option. Montgomery, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound running back from the class of 2023—is a three-star recruit in 247Sports’s composite rankings after picking up 2,356 yards and 36 touchdowns on the ground in an excellent junior season.
Along with Penn State, Montgomery has offers from Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Rutgers. In total, 18 Division-I schools have extended offers to him, and that number should only go up before his high school career ends.
247Sports has Montgomery as the No. 12 overall player in Pennsylvania and the No. 2 running back from his class. Nittany Sports Now caught up with Montgomery and asked him about his recruitment and other topics in this Q&A.
NSN: So you’re from Scranton, that’s not too far from State College. So growing up, did you go to games or follow the team? What are your memories of Penn State football growing up?
London Montgomery: My grandma actually liked Penn State, so I was a big Penn State fan. I didn’t go to any games or anything, but I used to watch as a little kid. I always dreamed of getting an offer from Penn State, so it was definitely a blessing.
NSN: Did you have any favorite Penn State players that you remember watching?
LM: I liked Saquon (Barkley). He was my favorite player. Saquon, KJ Hamler, Jahan Dotson’s a new one. Just a bunch of players that came out of there.
NSN: What’s it like balancing your recruitment, talking to coaches, going on visits, thinking about where you’re going to go to college, and along with that, just playing sports and everything else you do in high school?
LM: It gets kind of wild sometimes, but I’m able to manage it. I usually handle my schoolwork first. That’s first a foremost, and I’m, of course, texting coaches in and out of the day through school. Then I go to sports, and then once I get home, I handle all my recruiting business.
NSN: I know high school players get tweets from random (college football) fans saying, ‘oh, come to our college.’ Has that ever happened to you?
LM: It happens all the time. I’ll get tweets from fan pages. I’ll post an offer, and they’ll say ‘no, you don’t want to go there.’ These things happen all the time, so I’m used to it.
NSN: What are some things you think you do well running the ball?
LM: I’m definitely agile. I can make cuts without losing speed. I think I have a really high balance for myself.
NSN: What are some improvements you think you’ve made from the time you started playing in high school until now?
LM: I’m definitely way more confident than I was, but I was confident (starting out). I’m breaking more tackles. I’ve definitely gotten faster… My decision-making is very much better. My vision has gotten way better.
NSN: What excites you the most about being in your current position and having all these DI offers at your age?
LM: I’ve been blessed with it. You know, growing up in Scranton, I’ve seen many DI athletes, DI potential, and then they go and mess it up. I definitely want to make it out of here and do something.
