Friday Mailbag: Where will Kaden Saunders end up in rankings?

Blue White Illustrated's Ryan Snyder recently started a new Friday feature, opening up his Twitter notifications for fans to ask any recruiting question they'd like. Now, even those who don't subscribe to BWI will get the opportunity to ask questions. With official visits underway, there's plenty to discuss. Check out this week's answers below.

For those of you who may have missed it, Kaden Saunders is coming off two standout performances at Under Armour's Future 50 camp and the Rivals Five-Star Challenge. I wasn't at the Future 50, but judging from the texts I received from colleagues that evening, he should've been named MVP. I found myself just as impressed last week when he came down to Atlanta, and he did walk away with MVP honors at the Five-Star Challenge. Going against some of the best defensive backs in the country, Saunders was unstoppable. The only pass he didn't catch during 1-on-1s would've been called pass interference every time, but it was really his explosiveness and route running that caught me by surprise. Don't get me wrong, we already knew those were his strengths, but it's more so how much he's continued to progress and improve, even since just the fall. He caught half of the defensive backs he faced flat-footed. The last time I watched a Penn State prospect run routes that smooth was John Dunmore at the same camp in 2018. Sure, Dunmore didn't work out at Penn State, but there's a reason he was a Rivals100 prospect.

And ultimately, that's where I expect Saunders to end up. I can't remember the last time I saw a player move up 130-plus spots within the Rivals250 to instantly become a five-star player. We see big moves to get players into the Rivals250, but once they're in that select group, the jumps aren't as drastic. Currently at No. 159 overall, I don't think it's a stretch at all to see him move up 60 spots or more to get into that top 100. If he does that, he should end up being one of the top 10 wide receivers in the nation. Saunders absolutely deserves to be in that discussion.

I feel better about Penn State's chances with Drew Shelton today than I did a week ago. We had a pretty extensive talk earlier this week about his official visit to Penn State, and although he did much of the same stuff he did two weeks prior, during his unofficial, the one big difference this time was the time he spent with the current players. Here's some of what he had to say:

"My host was Nick Dawkins, and that's probably the best recruiter and host you could ever have," he said. "He's a great guy, knows everyone and knows exactly what to say about everything. I liked having him a lot, because he would tell me how it really is, whether it was what I wanted to hear or what they wanted him to say. He really told me how stuff was. He made a lot of things make sense in my mind."

That sounds pretty good to me, but there were two other developments that I learned later in our talk that stood out just as much:

1) he's not visiting additional schools in June

2) he's actually coming back to Penn State today to hang out with the rest of the commits

Shelton was originally supposed to take his official visit with the rest of PSU's class this weekend, but he had to move it up because his sister has a volleyball tournament in Orlando. Obviously, he wanted his family to be there.

Since his family was already going south, there was some discussion that he was going to take unofficial visits to Georgia and Florida State this past week. Instead, he scrapped those visits, stayed home, and is now coming back to Penn State to bond with the players he's been joking with in group texts for months now.

Now, with that said, Shelton made it clear that he isn't going to put any timetable out there for a firm decision. If he needs a few weeks, even a month or so, he'll take all the time he needs, which he should. But heading into this final weekend of visits, I think fans should certainly feel better about the situation.

Cristian Driver doesn't speak with the media much, but I've been lucky enough to speak with him twice over the past month. Following his official visit to Penn State, I did a Q&A with him wrapping up his trip, and we hit on a variety of topics, including Wisconsin. Of course, two hours later, he tweeted that the visit was off, but I did confirm with him yesterday that he won't be visiting any other schools this weekend. In fact, he and his family had already planned to be up in the Milwaukee area for a vacation, so even though he won't be visiting Madison, he'll still be making the trip for some family time.

As far as his recruitment goes, there are still a few other schools communicating him. Oklahoma and Texas A&M have been steady throughout the year, although I believe both of those programs like his potential best at safety. In more recent weeks, Michigan State and Mississippi State have been pushing hard to get him on campus, but now that'll have to wait until July, and from what I can tell, it's unlikely he sees either of those schools. But when exactly he plans to commit remains a bit of mystery. Here's what he had to say:

"There are a few schools still talking to me, so I'm still trying to figure out their interest. I don't really have a timeline for anything, but when I know, I'll know."

Driver has been patient throughout this entire process, but I also believe that Penn State should be considered a heavy favorite. A decision in July wouldn't surprise me, but all we can do currently is monitor him and go from there. He seems to be in no rush.

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