10/16/2023 football Edit

2024 DE Jaylen Harvey chooses Penn State over USC, Maryland

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

Penn State has landed its 25th commitment of the 2024 recruiting class as four-star defensive end Jaylen Harvey has announced his commitment to the Nittany Lions. The 6-foot-2, 243-pound defensive end picked the Nittany Lions over USC and Maryland.

Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Michigan, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia were other notable offers for the four-star prospect.

Harvey is ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals as well as the 222nd-best player nationally, the ninth-best player in the state of Maryland, and a top-20 strong side defensive end in the country.

He is the Nittany Lions' first commitment in the 2024 since July, when four-star defensive tackle T.A. Cunningham announced his decision on July 22.

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For Penn State, the commitment from Harvey is one that the Nittany Lions have worked hard for over a year and a half. The Nittany Lions first offered Harvey back in April of 2022 while the Quince Orchard prospect was visiting Penn State for their annual White Out matchup.

Since being offered, Harvey has been a frequent visitor to Happy Valley, making nearly a dozen visits. Last fall, it appeared that Penn State may pick up a commitment from Harvey, with Happy Valley Insider placing our FutureCasts for Harvey at that point in time. However, a commitment never to fruition, and Harvey's recruitment would continue into the offseason.

This summer, things got a bit more interesting in Harvey's recruitment. The USC Trojans got involved in the Maryland prospect's recruitment and hosted him for an official visit in June. Coming out of that official visit, the Trojans had quite a strong bit of momentum in Harvey's recruitment, with several sources pointing to Lincoln Riley's program as the leader in his recruitment at the time. Harvey would make an additional visit to Los Angeles in late August for USC's season opener against San Jose State.

Despite USC garnering momentum in the recruitment, James Franklin, Deion Barnes, and Penn State's coaching staff as a whole kept on chipping away at Harvey. The Nittany Lions would slowly begin to flip that USC momentum back to their side. Then last month, he returned for his 11th visit to Penn State for the Nittany Lions' White Out win over Iowa. Coming out of that unofficial visit, Penn State was once again the perceived leader and in a strong spot to land Harvey, but it was unclear when the Maryland native would decide to end his recruitment.

That end would finally come on Monday evening, putting an end to a long and whirlwind recruitment for Penn State's coaching staff, recruiting writers, and fans alike.

Harvey is the third player in the 2024 recruiting cycle out of the state of Maryland to commit to Penn State, joining safety Dejuan Lane and defensive end Xavier Gilliam. He is also the Nittany Lions' sixth defensive line commitment joining DT T.A Cunningham, DT Liam Andrews, DE Mylachi Williams, DE DeAndre Cook, and Xavier Gilliam.