In recruiting news, one of Penn State footballโs former Class of 2025 commits has found a new home.
Late Thursday morning, Kiandrea Barker, a three-star RB from Arkansasโ Newport High School, announced that he had committed to Middle Tennessee State.
BREAKING: #MTSU has landed the commitment of 2025 RB Kiandrea Barker!
The Arkansas native racked up 1,407 all-purpose yards and 21 touchdowns in his senior year for Newport High School.
He will early enroll in January. pic.twitter.com/o3CKekUtp1
— Conner Smith (@connersmith04) December 12, 2024
Barker was one of the first players to commit to Penn Stateโs 2025 Class doing so the day of the 2023 Blue-White Game. He stayed committed for almost a year and a half before de-committing this past August.ย
Initially, it was thought that Barker would stay home and commit to an SEC school in Arkansas, where he took an official visit in June. But that didnโt end up taking place.
PLENTY OF COMPETITION
Like most players talented enough to commit to Penn State, Barker was a sought-after commodity.
He had offers from schools such as Arkansas, Auburn, Colorado, Duke, Florida State, Houston, ย Miami, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Pitt, SMU, TCU, UCF, USC and Wisconsin.
WHAT BARKER TOLD NSN
NSN talked with Barker over the summer about his recruitment. This is what he said.
โIโve been a Penn State fan since I was a kid. I grew up watching Saquon Barkley and Miles Sanders and those two players were really big reasons why I committed there. I saw how Coach Seider developed them and if he developed my favorite players and Penn State was my favorite college, it just felt like the right thing to do.โ
โThe recruiting process should be fun for a high school kid because it only comes around once in your life,โ said Barker. โIn one way, you can look at it like I had it easy because I committed early and didnโt really go through the recruiting process, I just know that Penn State was the only place that I wanted to go to. Other colleges couldโve come after me, but honestly, it wouldnโt have meant anything because I wanted to be a Nittany Lion.โ
Penn State signed 27 players to its Class of 2025.
