It was Ohio State, not Penn State, that Brayton Feister grew up rooting for, but now it’s Penn State, not Ohio State, that has the Akron, Ohio, native’s attention in recruiting.
The four-star ATH from Archbishop Hoban High School has 24 offers, but Ohio State isn’t on the list.
This past Saturday, Feister got to watch two schools that have offered him battle it out against each other.
“My White Out experience was pretty phenomenal,” Feister told Nittany Sports Now. “The crowd was insane. The people there were insane. The game was electric. It was a slugfest for days. I had a really good time. It was definitely somewhere I’m going back.”
Feister was particularly impressed with how Penn State fans reacted leading up to Oregon’s third-down plays.
“I mean, dude,” he said, “It got loud (with an emphasis on the word loud). “It got loud. It got so loud, I couldn’t even hear myself talk. It was so loud.”
It was also loud at the Penn State-Ohio State game last year, which Feister also attended.
Interestingly enough, Feister has been to the two highest-attended games in Beaver Stadium history.
Unfortunately for Penn State, the team lost both of those games.
But for Feister, the outcome of Saturday’s game didn’t sway his recruitment, even though Oregon is also in the mix for him.
“You don’t watch as a spectator anymore,” Feister said. “You watch as a player and a coach and a scout. You look at how they warm up, how the coaches coach them during the game, how the team handles adversity, how the coaches handle adversity. Those are the kind of things you tend to look for. When you find a game like that, with teams like that. So I would say that it didn’t influence anything per se. I would say it definitely showed me what those teams are in those big moments and what their team is about.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.As a player, Feister has excelled as a linebacker and a running back.
As a linebacker, he said he patterns himself after San Francisco 49ers star Fred Warner and Hall of Famer Ray Lewis.
As a running back, he strives to be “A mixture of Derrick Henry and Saquon (Barkley).”
Penn State is known for dominance at both running back and linebacker, and that’s not lost on Feister.
“Penn State’s an incredible program,” he said. “They’re a powerhouse school. Over these past 10 years, they’ve been really damn good.”
So, where does Penn State rank on Feister’s recruitment?
He isn’t quite sure yet.
“It’s kind of hard because I haven’t started to narrow any schools down,” he said. “I’m kind of taking everything in still. It’s still pretty early for me. So I would say I’ll start to narrow things down in the spring and hopefully have a commitment by midsummer.”
Feister doesn’t think he’ll be able to make any of Penn State’s three remaining home games, but plans to visit Oregon and USC before the season’s over.
