DL Conliffe overwhelmed by PSU offer

Three-star defensive lineman Elijah Conliffe had known about Penn State, but not enough to be expecting an immediate scholarship offer.

So when assistant coach Josh Gattis stopped by Hampton (Va.) this week to meet with Conliffe’s head coach, it was to pass along the news that Penn State was offering him a spot in its Class of 2017.

For Conliffe the news was briefly met with surprise.

“I almost cried for a second, but I pulled it together,” Conliffe said. “It was kind of overwhelming, and then the more I think about it, and my mom was telling me that, ‘You really work hard for this and you deserve it.’ "

Conliffe already holds a dozen scholarship offers from schools at different levels of the Division I spectrum. Cincinnati, East Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, N.C. State, Virginia and Wake Forest are some of the larger schools that had previously thrown their hat into the mix. Conliffe also held an offer from Georgia before the Bulldogs’ coaching change, but he has yet to hear if the offer still holds after the transition. Like Penn State, Iowa State also offered Conliffe in a similar unexpected fashion last week.

Two other programs have also increased interest recently.

“At the moment I’m trying to see what Tennessee is going to do, because one of the defensive line coaches said he really likes my tape,” Conliffe said. “He’s the one who will sit down the with other coaches to see if they want to offer me. I’m also supposed to be talking to a Duke coach (this week) and if he wants me to send a highlight tape, I will.”

Conliffe is in no rush to make moves in his recruitment, as he’s only visited a handful of universities thus far in the process. He camped at Alabama last summer and he also made visits to ECU and N.C. State, but he wants to see more campuses before he begins naming any favorites or thinks about narrowing his list of options.

With an offer now in hand, his next stop could be to University Park this month.

“I’ve been talking to my mom and we’re really trying to make it down on the 27th (of February) to visit Penn State,” Conliffe said.

It’ll be Conliffe’s first visit to State College. Although he’s just beginning to cultivate a relationship with the coaching staff, he’s already begun communicating with one the Nittany Lions’ verbal commitments in his recruiting class.

“Just a couple hours ago, I was talking to (QB Sean Clifford),” he said. “He was telling me some good things about it. He was telling me about how the program’s building up and stuff, a little bit about how many people they can seat in their stadium. It’s like 107,000 or something like that. He says, 'Who doesn’t want to play in from of that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that is true.’ "

Rivals.com considers Conliffe the No. 19 strongside defensive end in the Class of 2017 and the No. 18 overall prospect in Virginia’s junior class. As a junior he finished with five sacks, playing both defensive end and defensive tackle.

When it comes to his college career, Conliffe is open to playing any position along the defensive line.

“I can play pretty much everything (on the defensive line),” Conliffe said. “I like playing inside. It really came back to me last year. At first, when I played JV, I started off as a nose guard, and I played pretty well there.”