Rivals250 DT Kelvin Gilliam Jr. Announces Top 10 Schools

Virginia defensive lineman Kelvin Gilliam Jr. announced his top 10 schools Tuesday.

A Rivals250 prospect from Highland Springs High School outside Richmond, Gilliam included Penn State in that list of schools. The other nine programs were California, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia Tech.

In an interview with Gilliam earlier this month, he spoke highly of his growing relationship with John Scott Jr.

“That relationship has really grown into a strong one for me,” he said. "If I go to Penn State, I know I can go to him and tell him anything that’s on my mind. I know he cares about his guys. I’ve even been talking to his family. His wife was giving me advice on some things. I do feel like I have the strongest relationship with him when it comes to things other than football. I feel like I really know him.”

Of the schools that made his top 10, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas are all in a good position to receive an official visit this season if visits are allowed. The Sooners and Nittany Lions are believed to be the two schools at the top of his list, although he's consistently stressed that additional visits will be important. Penn State is the only one of those four schools he's been able to tour, and even then, he's taken just one visit to the University Park campus.

“Oklahoma is definitely pushing for me right now,” Gilliam said. “They feel like they can do a lot with me and they’re an enormous program. I feel like they showed me a lot during my virtual visit. With me not being able to go down there on campus, they were actually one of the first schools I did that with.”

One thing that Penn State has in its favor, however, are his relationships with not only other Class of 2021 prospects, but also players already on the team.

"I’ve been talking to Rodney [McGraw]," Gilliam said. "He just committed and he’s a defensive guy. I’ve also talked to Landon [Tengwall] and Christian [Veilleux]. There are a couple guys on the team, too. When I went up there, I spent some time with Hakeem [Beamon] and Dvon [Ellies]. I’ve also talked to KeAndre [Lambert-Smith], so I’m talking to a lot of guys from Penn State. Hakeem is someone I talk to a good amount. He’s from Virginia and he plays the same position. I also got to meet him when I was up there, so that’s how we got to know each other and we’ve been talking since then.”

*******

• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den

• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated

• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98

• Like us on Facebook