Penn State appears to be in the driver’s seat for one of America’s top-rated Class of 2024 DL.
A projection placed by On3Sports’ Ryan Snyder Tuesday morning has Umeh, a four-star from Connecticut’s Avon Old Farms High School, committing to Penn State.
Penn State insider @RyanSnyderOn3 has logged an expert prediction for the Nittany Lions to land elite DL Benedict Umeh, the No. 29 prospect in the On300 rankings🦁
Intel (On3+): https://t.co/fB9Z6HmEnZ pic.twitter.com/Cqjt7Dfr1f
— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) June 20, 2023
The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder took his official visit to Penn State this past weekend.
Umeh also took OVs to Wisconsin (June 2-4), Duke (June 9-11) and has one to Stanford scheduled for this coming weekend (June 23-25). Penn State offered Umeh this past January. Along with the school’s he has an will be taking OVs to, Umeh has offers from schools such as Auburn, Boston College, Colorado, Florida, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Pitt, Rutgers, SMU, South Carolina, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Penn State coach James Franklin has long stressed the importance of the defense being strong up front.
Perhaps the most famous example took place after the team’s 41-17 loss at Michigan last October.
“Everybody thinks they’re Aaron Donald,” Franklin said in his postgame press conference. “And they’re not.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Franklin said, “I really like our d-line room. But there are some guys who would help us and help themselves if they gained a few pounds.”
“Size is a weapon, and I would like to be bigger across both fronts.”
Penn State doesn’t yet have any interior defensive lineman committed to its ‘24 Class. But the class is in a good spot, with 17 commits. 247Sports ranks Penn State’s ‘24 group seventh in the nation, and more commits should be on the way.
