Penn State football’s latest commit was always a PSU fan.
He was born into it. His father grew up in a house where he could see Beaver Stadium.
Young Matt Sieg started watching Penn State at a young age. But he started to have a true appreciation early in the James Franklin era when Saquon Barkley and Trace McSorley led the team to a Big Ten title.
Almost a decade later, Sieg, a four-star safety from Fort Cherry High School in the Pittsburgh area, decided he wants to play for Franklin and Penn State.
The Best in PA, Stay in PA🦁🔵⚪️ #WeAre @coachjfranklin @Coachpoindexter @CoachTerryPSU @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/yz1GHqV9J7
— Matt Sieg 4 ⭐️ ATH (@matt_sieg) November 2, 2024
‘IT WAS ALWAYS REAL’
Matt Sieg
Penn State already had an advantage in Sieg’s recruitment because of his fandom. But it wasn’t as if Sieg didn’t feel he had a choice. When you’re a the top-ranked player in the prestigious WPIAL and a top-three player in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the 2026 class, you’re going to have options.
Sieg had offers from schools such as Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, USC, Vanderbilt, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
But after weighing his options, Sieg decided his boyhood school was the one he wanted.
“I definitely looked around,” Sieg told Nittany Sports Now in an exclusive interview. “I was open to a lot of different schools but went through my recruitment, and me and my family just decided that Penn State was going to be the best fit for me and what I wanted to do.”
‘FAMILY’
The word “family” is a big one for Sieg.
“They always made me feel like a part of their family, and it really just always felt like home,” he said. “So we decided to pull the trigger and we’re happy with our decision.”
So what did Frankin and Penn State’s coaching staff have to do to woo Sieg?
“It wasn’t so much that they had to do anything,” he said. “They were the first team to jump into my recruitment, they were the first team that offered me. How they recruited me never changed. It was always real and it never changed. I think that was what really set them apart from a number of other schools is just how real they kept it, how consistent they were.”
“In any instance I’ve had where they’ve told me something, it’s ended up happening. We’ve kind of developed great relationships with them and feel that we can certainly trust them. So that was big for us.”
‘A LOT LIKE MINKAH’
Photo by Ed Thompson, Steelers Now: Minkah Fitzpatrick
Sieg is Fort Cherry’s quarterback. So the stats you see of his in any articles about FC will probably be on offense. But he’s being recruited to play defense, and the 6-foot, 180-pounder says he plays defense “the same way I play offense.”
“I think I use my speed a lot and I’m not afraid to get physical,” he said. “I like to hit and I play downhill and I feel like I can cover pretty well, too. A ballhawk and can range across the field and make plays.”
Plenty of Penn State fans— especially those from the Pittsburgh area— are Steelers fans, so they’ll like who Sieg said he patterns his game after.
“I like to watch Minkah (Fitzpatrick),” he said. “I think I play a lot like Minkah for the Steelers.”
MESSAGE TO NITTANY NATION
Penn State announced their second-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history with 110,830.
Right now, Sieg is focused on the rest of his senior season, which he hopes will end with a second straight WPIAL title and first state championship.
But make no mistake, he’s hyped about the more distant future, too.
“I’m excited to get to work,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of bright things in the future. So, just get ready for that.”
