Penn State is No. 1 on the list for a blue-chip defensive tackle.
247Sports first reported Tuesday that Penn State was leading for Brynnen Thompson, a 6-foot-3, 260-pounder from Laurel High School in Delaware.
247Sports’ composite ratings have Thompson as the No. 186 player in the country from the Class of 2028, along with the No. 22 defensive lineman overall and the No. 2 player in Delaware.
Penn State offered Thompson the week before he visited Beaver Stadium for Saturday’s 55-13 win over Buffalo, and he also has offers from schools such as Bill O’Brien’s Boston College, Florida, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas Tech.
So what makes Penn State No. 1?
“I feel like when I went to Penn State,” Thompson told Nittany Sports Now, “I was treated like I’d been there for a long time. Someone that, like, I wasn’t just another recruit. I felt like I was somebody.”
“I didn’t have many questions for Coach (Matt) Campbell, but he was kind of giving me the ins and outs of what his what his qualities and character were, how his character was, and I mean, I loved him.”
Thompson said that Campbell told him and his family what to expect in the recruiting world and people who would “try to hop on the bandwagon.”
“It’s like NIL agents and people trying to get a percentage of cuts and things like that,” he said. “And Coach Campbell’s kind of telling me to read through the lines.”
“He told me not to jump on the first thing and what good agencies do and how the go about percentages when it comes to taking money.”
Thompson has also developed a relationship with Penn State recruiting assistant and former PSU OL Steven Gonzalez.
“Coach Gonzo was the first Penn State personnel to coach and believe in me from start to finish of every game,” Thompson said. “He wasn’t trying to just recruit me, he was trying to better me.”
Thompson is well aware of another defensive lineman from Delaware who had success at Penn State.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Dani Dennis-Sutton played his high school football in Maryland, but came from Millsboro, Delaware, which is less than a half hour from Laurel.
Thompson knows all about DDS.
“He’s a big deal around here in Sussex County,” Thompson said. “Everybody talks about who he is, and he’s a really good player, in my opinion, sure. And now he’s on the Green Bay Packers team.”
Thompson hopes to make it to the NFL himself one day, and although that’s a long way off, being a blue-chip recruit is always a good start.
It’s hard to get noticed in a small town, and Laurel’s population is 4,684.
So how has Thompson managed to do it?
“I kind of just went into every game like it’s like it’s the game of my life,” he said, “you know. Yep, I played my hardest every game. Even with, like, some games we played bigger upstate schools, and there wasn’t really a chance of us winning, I still tried my best to stand out from the rest of us.”
“Not many of us get shot… I kind of love the fact that, like, I come from a small area and still was able to be recruited and noticed by these big colleges and higher people.”
Thompson has the physical tools, as well.
‘I’m explosive,” he said. “I hold my gap. I’m twitchy. I get in there, I’m a hard hitter. I pass rush really well, and not many people get out of my arms once I got ’em.”
Thompson said he wants to make a decision by the spring of 2027, and that Oklahoma and Penn State are “really close.”
