Penn State football’s former top-rated recruiting Class of 2027 commit opened up about why he de-committed, and gave a candid answer to On3Sports.
Kemon Spell was not only Penn State’s top-rated commit, he was one of the nation’s top-rated commits.
He’s the No. 1 RB in the country from his class and the No. 7 overall player nationally.
A big risk that came with firing James Franklin for Penn State was losing its top commits, of which Spell was the best of the best.
Now, it’s Notre Dame and former Penn State RB coach Ja’Juan Seider that appears to have the inside track on getting Spell.
Steve Wiltfong of Rivals.com predicted Spell would land with ND, and the interview Spell gave about his commitment was to a Notre Dame reporter.
WHAT SPELL SAID
“I was leaning towards (decommitting) anyway regardless, because they started losing and I want to be in a winning program,” Spell told Blue and Gold’s Kyle Kelly this weekend. “When (Franklin) got fired, it made me feel like ‘Okay I have to decommit,’ because him and coach (Ja’Juan) Seider were the two main reasons I went there and now they are both gone.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I want to be in a winning program, to be honest. They can’t win big games and that’s something I want to do…if you can’t do that at Penn State, then coach Franklin got fired and that just put me over the top.”
WHO ELSE IS IN PLAY?
Although Notre Dame is now the favorite, there are other schools in play for Spell.
Ohio State, which will always be able to attract recruits, especially at skill positions, is there.
Georgia, winners of two of this decade’s first five national titles, is in the mix, as is Michigan, which won it all in 2023.
Fran Brown and Syracuse are on Spell’s list, and Josh Heupel’s Tennessee rounds it out.
There is still more than a year left before Spell must make a final decision, and we’ve seen in the past month how quickly things can change.
But for right now, Penn State is out of the picture, and must literally rebuild its entire 2027 recruiting Class, which has zero commits.
