Prior to making his first trip to State College this weekend for Penn State junior day, Peyton Lewis told Nittany Sports Now that he was excited about where his recruitment was headed.
The junior running back from Salem High School in Salem, Virginia was seeing his recruitment heating up with recent offers from Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College and West Virginia and was excited to see whether Penn State would be joining this list.
Lewis (6-foot-1, 190-pounds) found out today that the answer was yes, as he received the news from head coach James Franklin and running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider.
“Today means a lot to me,” said Lewis. “I know that the stars and beyond are the limit and I’m definitely reaching for it. I know that from here, it’s only going up with my recruitment and I’m excited for what my future holds.
“After I took my football pictures, Coach Walker the assistant running backs coach and Coach Seider called me up to Coach Franklin’s office. I was in there with Coach Seider, Coach Walker, Coach Poindexter, Coach Franklin and my mom and my dad. Basically, he was making sure that if I had any questions not to hesitate to ask and wanted to make it crystal clear that he was offering me. I was pretty excited about that. Coach Franklin seemed really excited about me.”
When he was asked to come to Coach Franklin’s office, I asked Lewis what was going through his mind? Did he think it was just an exit interview or that he was receiving the news that he was hoping for?
“When I first arrived the running back coaches both sat down at the table with me and my parents and we all eat, and we talked, and they informed me that before the end of the day that I was going to talk with Coach Franklin privately. Since I been through this recruiting process alittle bit, I kind of knew what that meant but I just stayed humble and waited it out. So, when they called me up and closed the door and everybody was in there, I already knew what time it was.”
Getting the offer from Penn State was obviously the highlight of Lewis’ weekend but he also left Happy Valley with a few other things that stood out to him about the Penn State program.
“Two or three of my biggest takeaways were Beaver Stadium. It holds 107,000 people, which is 100,000 more people than I play in front of on our Friday Night lights. Also, Coach Seider and Coach Walker were both family first, friendly, funny guys that I really connected with instantly. They made the visit so much more fun. Also, White Out Games. When there’s a game and they have White Out, it’s the craziest game, especially having the 4th largest stadium in the nation. I’m just so excited to come out next season for a White Out Game.”
It was hard to tell that Lewis really, really enjoyed his experience this weekend. My final question to him was “Is Penn State going to be a hard opportunity to pass up?”
“Penn State is definitely going to be a hard place to pass up,” said Lewis. “I love the culture, I love the tradition, the football program, the coaches, everything. It would be very hard for me to pick another school, so they’re definitely in my Top Five, or my Top Two.”
