Dee Crayton, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound linebacker from Denmark High School in Alpharetta, Georgia, has narrowed his list of schools down to eight, and of those eight, Penn State is in the top five.
Florida State, Jackson State and Ole Miss are all outside contenders but the favorites for Crayton are Auburn, Clemson, Missouri, Penn State and UCF. Crayton is a four-star recruit.
Along with naming top five, Crayton has also set official visit dates for each school. He’s visiting Clemson June 3-5, Auburn June 10, Missouri June 18 and Penn State June 24. In an article for Rivals, Crayton said he “pretty sure” his visit to UCF will be in late July.
In the same article, Crayton his first unofficial visit to Penn State exceeded his expectations.
“Man, when I went to Penn State, we weren’t expecting as much as they provided up there with their facilities, he said. “The amount of love coach (James) Franklin and coach (Manny) Diaz showed was great.
Crayton went on to say that Penn State runs the same defense as his high school runs, and that Penn State’s track record of player development impresses him.
Crayton is a linebacker, and Penn State is known far and wide as “Linebacker U,” with legendary college football players such as Jack Ham, LaVar Arrington, Dan Conner, Paul Posluszny, Shane Conlan and, most recently, Micah Parsons all well-known to football fans.
”That will be an easy transition to play early,” he said. “That would be a good transition. We talked about the defense, it is a 4-3 defense, and how they get their players into the league, especially on defense. That is the ultimate goal. I like to see how teams develop players to the next level.”
Penn State offered Crayton last September. Currently, Penn State doesn’t have any linebackers committed to its 2023 class.
