On Tuesday, Penn State lost a commitment in their 2025 recruiting class from three-star running back Kiandrea Barker. The Arkansas native spent 16 months committed to the Nittany Lions before backing off of his decision. But how much does his decommitment sting for the Nittany Lions? Happy Valley Insider publish Richie O'Leary and editor Dylan Callaghan-Croley offer their opinion.
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DYLAN CALLAGHAN-CROLEY TAKE....
I think highly of the player that is Kiandrea Barker, I think with a strong senior season he's going to have a great opportunity to earn a fourth-star once again. That being said, this isn't a major loss for Penn State on the recruiting trail. The Nittany Lions recruit the running back arguably better than anyone else in the country and despite losing a pair of four-star commitments this offseason at the position, they still have two four-star tailbacks committed in Jabree Coleman and Tiqwai Hayes. The Nittany Lions will be just fine without Barker being a part of this recruiting class. Additionally, his decommitment from the program is by no means a surprise and was to a degree, expected for a quite a while.
Sting Factor: 2/10
RICHIE O'LEARY'S TAKE.....
I'm personally a big fan of Kiandrea Barker and his game, but let's be real Penn State has no issues when it comes to running back recruiting. They landed two solid backs in 2024 with Corey Smith and Quinton Martin and have another two in the 2025 class in Tiqwai Hayes and Jabree Coleman, both of whom are ranked higher than Barker. Not to mention they have a Top 125 prospect in 2026 in Messiah Mickens and a projected top RB recruit in 2027 in Kemon Spell, so losing one this cycle doesn't hurt all that much.
On top of it all, despite Barker putting out some solid sophomore film and performing well in camps in 2023, he missed a large majority of the 2023 season due to transfer rules and has moved schools three times this offseason alone, going from Texas to Florida and now to Arkansas. So all in all, Barker could end up being a solid running back at the next level, but he's not at the level of the other two commits and like I mentioned above, Penn State has ZERO issues recruiting the position.
Sting Factor: 1/10
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