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Penn State Football Recruiting: Lions Offer Ath. Lonnie White & Others

Malvern Prep Ath. Lonnie White Jr. was one of five Pennsylvania prospects to earn a scholarship offer from Penn State head coach James Franklin and the Nittany Lion coaching staff Wednesday evening.

Listed at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, White could play a variety of positions in college, including quarterback, wide receiver and linebacker. A three-sport athlete, he also excels in basketball and baseball, and is currently committed to play center field at Clemson.

White camped at Penn State last summer and also attended the game against Indiana in November. He would likely play wide receiver if he ended up accepting the staff's scholarship offer.

"It's a big offer for me and my family," White said. "First of all, we love Penn State, but it's also close to home. It's nice to have that opportunity."

He went on to add, "Of course, I'm committed to play baseball still at Clemson, but I've been thinking a lot about football and this Penn State offer makes me think about it even more. It's hard. It's tough."

White said that he's been speaking with wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield, cornerbacks coach Terry Smith and Franklin for the past couple of weeks.

"I think they like me most at wide receiver, but they know I can play all over," White said. "Coach Stubblefield is a nice guy. He seems like a great coach. He sent me a video clip of him training with the guys, which was interesting to see. He seems like he wants to have fun. Coach Franklin is awesome. My family and I love him. He's a great guy and a great coach."

Among the underclassmen that Penn State offered, Class of 2023 wide receiver Rodney Gallagher may be the most intriguing. The Uniontown resident holds two football scholarships currently from Penn State and Pitt, but he's also an elite basketball prospect. Listed at 6-foot, 165 pounds, Gallagher also holds offers from Pitt, Illinois and Rhode Island to play guard on the hardwood.

"Coach Franklin and Coach Smith said they loved my film and they wanted to offer me at wideout," Gallagher said. "Penn State is a great school and they will be a big part in my recruitment. I will be visiting after everything is over."

To get to know all five prospects that Penn State offered, we caught up with Rivals Mid-Atlantic analyst Adam Friedman to get a better feel for each player.

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Malvern Prep Ath. Lonnie White visited Penn State in November to watch the Nittany Lions defeat Indiana
Malvern Prep Ath. Lonnie White visited Penn State in November to watch the Nittany Lions defeat Indiana
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Friedman: Lonnie White has been on a bit of a hot streak lately on the recruiting trail, picking up a few big offers, but Penn State carries the most weight right now with the Clemson baseball commit out of Malvern Prep. He’s a guy that plays all over the field for this team. He does a really good job using his athleticism to his advantage. He has a strong arm, good feet as a quarterback, but he really does a great job ad-libbing and making plays on his own. He has a good feel for the game itself and really distributes the ball well, but he could also play receiver and on the defensive side of the ball. He’s a guy that a lot of teams will figure out where he fits in once he gets on campus because he has a skill set that projects to a number of different positions. That’s why we have him as an athlete right now. As far as his recruitment goes, the Penn State offer is his biggest football offer to date and I expect him to get more offers from other big football programs once the season gets going and more college coaches are able to see him in-person and get a feel for him as a prospect.

Friedman: Keon Wylie is a big-bodied defensive end that could become a really good player once he fills out his frame, but for now, he’s very raw. He gets by mostly on athleticism at this point, but he is still a young player. He has a great get off and does do a pretty good job shooting his hands to disengage with offensive linemen. He really uses his strength to his advantage right now, but there’s still a lot of time to fill out his frame and refine his technique. Like I said, he really uses his athleticism to his advantage at this stage. As far as his recruitment goes, Wylie is also on a hot streak and has been picking up big offers from schools like Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas A&M. Penn State is the most recent offer for him, and a really big offer for him. I would expect them to be a major factor in his recruitment being at Imhotep in Philadelphia. Penn State has a good connection there and lots of history recruiting this school.

Friedman: Abdul Carter out of La Salle is a really interesting prospect who projects mainly as an outside backer. Here’s a guy who just flies around the field and makes a ton of plays. He uses his size to his advantage and is a very physical player. He understands how to engage with receivers and really lay the boom on these guys. He uses his length in the open field to make it difficult for quarterbacks and I would expect him to fill out his frame really well as he gets older. He’s a very good instinctual player. He does a good job reading plays and anticipating plays. He times his blitzes well and doesn’t have any problems disengaging with an offensive lineman. I look at Carter as a player who we’re going to see a lot more development from in the coming years. I think a lot more schools are going to jump on as we get more film. His recruitment has started to take off lately with Nebraska, Maryland, Virginia Tech and West Virginia all offering fairly recently. I expect more schools to jump in with him very soon.

Friedman: Penn State offered two Class of 2023 prospects Wednesday, including cornerback Shawn Battle from Neumann-Gorretti in Philadelphia. He’s someone that we’ve known about for sometime and he plays at a fairly well-known program. There are a few players coming out of this program who are super-talented right now. Battle is 5-11 or so and just under 180 pounds. He plays very hard, very physical. He uses his length to his advantage and does a good job making life tough on quarterbacks. His quick feet and ability to anticipate the pass is pretty special for such a young player like this. I’m excited to learn more about him since we have a few more years left with him. I’m curious to see how he grows and how his technique is refined, but he’s already got some great schools in Texas A&M, Tennessee, Pitt, West Virginia and Rutgers. We can expect him to be one of the bigger recruits on the East Coast in the 2023 class.

Friedman: Rodney Gallagaher, out of the Pittsburgh area, is already a well-known basketball recruit. He’s about 6 feet tall and is pushing 170 pounds. He can really do it all on the offensive side of the ball. At wide receiver, he really looks like a special prospect. I saw him this past fall and he really looks like a guy who’s going to turn out to be a very heavily-recruited prospect. He still has to refine his skills a little bit, but the natural skills are undeniable. He does a great job catching the ball with his hands and he’s a pretty good route runner already. He can make guys miss in the open field. He looks like a long strider on film, but he has quick feet and has no problems running those shorter, more technical routes already. If he does decide to go the football route, I think it’ll come down to how tall he ends up being. As of now though, Penn State is his second offer, but look for many more offers to come, both on the hardwood and the gridiron.

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