As a local kid, saw him play quite a bit.
Speak for yourself. There are a number of folks (myself included) who still very much hope he's part of this class.
You got me.. I got quite a belly laugh at that. Sorry...too excited to get it right.
Nice to see The Collegian is getting in on the 'Justin Fields won't come to PSU' nonsense....SMH:
COLUMN: Don’t be surprised if Penn State football 5-star commit Justin Fields is poached away by another major program
Penn State football head coach James Franklin talks with defensive coordinator Brent Pry during National Signing Day in the 'war room' at the Lasch Football Building on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017.
Penn State may lose another five-star commit.
Quarterback commit Justin Fields, the top-ranked dual threat quarterback in the Class of 2018, has been garnering serious interest from SEC schools.
The Nittany Lions have already lost one five-star verbal commitment in next year’s class — defensive end Micah Parsons from Harrisburg — and while he still may chose the Nittany Lions, nothing is for certain.
Fields has said time-and-time again that he is a solid Penn State commit, and he recently told Rivals he doesn’t have visits planned elsewhere, which is especially encouraging for the Nittany Lions.
But there are several signs that indicate Fields could be poached away by another major program before National Signing Day.
For one, Penn State is very crowded at the quarterback position.
Trace McSorley will likely be the starter for the next two seasons, and unless Tommy Stevens transfers, which is becoming increasingly unlikely as his remaining eligibility wains, he will have a leg up to start the season after that.
That means it could be until the 2020 season before Penn State has a legitimate open and even race to be the starting quarterback. Even once that comes, highly touted recruits Jake Zembiec and Sean Clifford, who signed in 2016 and 2017 respectively, will be in the mix and have more time on campus than Fields.
That doesn’t mean he couldn’t go out and win the job in 2020 or sooner. He’d just have to beat out players that were high school stars in their own right and will have had more time in college to develop their games.
Whether someone of Fields’ caliber is willing to wait nearly three years to have a clean run at being the starting quarterback is up in the air.
He also hails from the heart of SEC country — Kennesaw, Georgia. While he has been keeping his options open, something every touted recruit should do, how seriously he is considering those other options is difficult to tell.
Fields is the centerpiece of a loaded Penn State class that has 13 verbal commitments and is ranked third in the country by 247Sports. It seems like the perfect fit for a recruit like Fields to come in and have a deep roster to play with and quickly turn into a star.
When you look at some of the programs in the SEC that have been courting Fields — it seems like Florida is in the lead to land him if he were to decommit — their quarterback rooms are empty in comparison.
While there is hope in Gainesville that redshirt freshman Felipe Franks, who has the lead in the quarterback race to start in 2017, will be the Gators’ next great, he may just join a long list of underachieving signal callers.
The quarterback position has been a weak spot for Florida since Tim Tebow’s collegiate career came to an end in 2009. The list goes on and on over nearly the past decade –– John Brantley, Jeff Driskel, Treon Harris, who was particularly awful, just to name a few.
For Fields, a quarterback situation in which he may only have one or two players ahead of him will look a lot more enticing than Penn State’s crowded situation — it is unlikely the history of other quarterbacks underachieving in the Swamp will mean anything to him.
Fields, of course, may be the star that can jump over everyone and leave the others with a younger player ahead of them and be left looking to transfer since they will probably never see the field regularly. But with high school stars like Clifford in the mix that isn’t going to be easy.
He has likely realized the fact that there are a lot less competitive quarterback situations at major programs closer to home that he can find a place in.
Another factor in all of this is, who will Penn State’s offensive coordinator be in 2018? If the Nittany Lions have another explosive season offensively Joe Moorhead will likely attract head coaching interest from Power Five programs and could be moving on. Who his replacement is, what offensive concepts they run and how it suits Fields’ skill-set could be a potential major twist late in the going for not just Fields, but every offensive recruit as signing day nears.
All of those things are unknown at this time, as are his relationships with the staffs at each of these programs. The only thing that is really concrete is that Penn State will have a difficult situation for Fields to find playing time in early in his career if he does enroll at University Park.
How much that truly matters to Fields and what is the biggest factor(s) that will ultimately determine where he signs is impossible to know for sure if you aren’t in his inner circle of friends and family.
Penn State has a very good problem to have from a whole program point of view, but a potentially big one in the recruitment of a single player. It didn’t deter Clifford from signing in 2017, it may or may not deter Fields in 2018 — but only time will tell.
A schools newspaper negatively recruiting its own school?
Nice to see The Collegian is getting in on the 'Justin Fields won't come to PSU' nonsense....SMH:
COLUMN: Don’t be surprised if Penn State football 5-star commit Justin Fields is poached away by another major program
Penn State football head coach James Franklin talks with defensive coordinator Brent Pry during National Signing Day in the 'war room' at the Lasch Football Building on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017.
Penn State may lose another five-star commit.
Quarterback commit Justin Fields, the top-ranked dual threat quarterback in the Class of 2018, has been garnering serious interest from SEC schools.
The Nittany Lions have already lost one five-star verbal commitment in next year’s class — defensive end Micah Parsons from Harrisburg — and while he still may chose the Nittany Lions, nothing is for certain.
Fields has said time-and-time again that he is a solid Penn State commit, and he recently told Rivals he doesn’t have visits planned elsewhere, which is especially encouraging for the Nittany Lions.
But there are several signs that indicate Fields could be poached away by another major program before National Signing Day.
For one, Penn State is very crowded at the quarterback position.
Trace McSorley will likely be the starter for the next two seasons, and unless Tommy Stevens transfers, which is becoming increasingly unlikely as his remaining eligibility wains, he will have a leg up to start the season after that.
That means it could be until the 2020 season before Penn State has a legitimate open and even race to be the starting quarterback. Even once that comes, highly touted recruits Jake Zembiec and Sean Clifford, who signed in 2016 and 2017 respectively, will be in the mix and have more time on campus than Fields.
That doesn’t mean he couldn’t go out and win the job in 2020 or sooner. He’d just have to beat out players that were high school stars in their own right and will have had more time in college to develop their games.
Whether someone of Fields’ caliber is willing to wait nearly three years to have a clean run at being the starting quarterback is up in the air.
He also hails from the heart of SEC country — Kennesaw, Georgia. While he has been keeping his options open, something every touted recruit should do, how seriously he is considering those other options is difficult to tell.
Fields is the centerpiece of a loaded Penn State class that has 13 verbal commitments and is ranked third in the country by 247Sports. It seems like the perfect fit for a recruit like Fields to come in and have a deep roster to play with and quickly turn into a star.
When you look at some of the programs in the SEC that have been courting Fields — it seems like Florida is in the lead to land him if he were to decommit — their quarterback rooms are empty in comparison.
While there is hope in Gainesville that redshirt freshman Felipe Franks, who has the lead in the quarterback race to start in 2017, will be the Gators’ next great, he may just join a long list of underachieving signal callers.
The quarterback position has been a weak spot for Florida since Tim Tebow’s collegiate career came to an end in 2009. The list goes on and on over nearly the past decade –– John Brantley, Jeff Driskel, Treon Harris, who was particularly awful, just to name a few.
For Fields, a quarterback situation in which he may only have one or two players ahead of him will look a lot more enticing than Penn State’s crowded situation — it is unlikely the history of other quarterbacks underachieving in the Swamp will mean anything to him.
Fields, of course, may be the star that can jump over everyone and leave the others with a younger player ahead of them and be left looking to transfer since they will probably never see the field regularly. But with high school stars like Clifford in the mix that isn’t going to be easy.
He has likely realized the fact that there are a lot less competitive quarterback situations at major programs closer to home that he can find a place in.
Another factor in all of this is, who will Penn State’s offensive coordinator be in 2018? If the Nittany Lions have another explosive season offensively Joe Moorhead will likely attract head coaching interest from Power Five programs and could be moving on. Who his replacement is, what offensive concepts they run and how it suits Fields’ skill-set could be a potential major twist late in the going for not just Fields, but every offensive recruit as signing day nears.
All of those things are unknown at this time, as are his relationships with the staffs at each of these programs. The only thing that is really concrete is that Penn State will have a difficult situation for Fields to find playing time in early in his career if he does enroll at University Park.
How much that truly matters to Fields and what is the biggest factor(s) that will ultimately determine where he signs is impossible to know for sure if you aren’t in his inner circle of friends and family.
Penn State has a very good problem to have from a whole program point of view, but a potentially big one in the recruitment of a single player. It didn’t deter Clifford from signing in 2017, it may or may not deter Fields in 2018 — but only time will tell.
