Signed: RB Ricky Slade
WHAT HE DID: Hylton’s season came to an end in late November when Slade’s Bulldogs lost to Woodbridge, 28-14, in the Virginia 6A quarterfinals. They finished 9-4. He finished the season with 1,978 yard rushing on 179 carries (11.1 YPC), scoring 30 touchdowns. Slade also had 22 receptions for 283 yards (12.9 YPC) and five touchdowns. He was a four-year starter at one of Virginia’s top high school programs. Hylton went 33-14 with Slade in the backfield.
WHAT HE WON: Once a freshman All-American, according to MaxPreps in 2014, Slade earned an Under-Armour All-American invite as a senior. He was also named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Virginia in 2017 and first-team All-Metro by the Washington Post. Rivals rates him as a four-star prospect and No. 53 overall in the Class of 2018. He’s the second-rated player in Virginia and the No. 2 all-purpose running back in the country.
WHERE HE VISITED: With offers from every major conference, Slade saw Florida, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio State, Tennessee, Virginia and Virginia Tech before committing to Penn State just after signing day a year ago. He took seven unofficial visits to Penn State in 2017 before using his official visit Dec. 8-10.
QUOTABLE: “You see a lot of things at a lot of different colleges. They all have good facilities. They have a good weight room, or whatever. But when I went up to Penn State, of course they have top facilities and all that, but it was just different up there. You could just feel that it was different. On the other visits, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the coaches, especially the head coach or my position coach.”
PHIL’S TAKE: With the type of performances Slade has produced this season, I haven’t seen a better pure running back on film. He presently stands at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds, which is almost the exact same size as former Penn State All-American RB Ki-Jana Carter (5-9, 197) when he enrolled at Penn State. Slade has explosive 4.5 second 40-yard speed and he also catches the football superbly out of the backfield. He has surprising power to break tackles and is an exceptional cut-back runner. His style fits perfectly into Penn State’s read-option offense. With Saquon Barkley entering the 2018 NFL draft, I firmly believe the Slade has the potential to compete with Mark Allen and Journey Brown for the No. 2 running back spot behind Miles Sanders his freshman year. What a series of running back recruits in Barkley, Sanders, and Slade!
