The pace of recruiting has accelerated in recent years, a process driven by coaches’ desire to line up verbal commitments and also by new NCAA regulations. But Rasheed Walker resisted that trend. The four-star offensive lineman likes to take his time.

When everyone else signed on the dotted line for the inaugural early signing period in December 2017, Walker sat back and watched the process unfold as he awaited the traditional February signing day. His story became a cautionary tale of sorts, but he has emerged on the other side feeling wiser and fully satisfied with his decision to become a Nittany Lion.

“I would tell a recruit to take his time and don’t let anyone rush him, because at the end of the day you’re making a decision for you, not to impress anybody else," Walker said. “Take as much time as you need, take all your visits and ask all your questions. Don’t commit off the name of the school or the coaches. Have a valid reason.”

A 6-foot-6, 295-pound prospect from Waldorf, Md., Walker had scholarship offers from all over, but Penn State, Virginia Tech and Ohio State were the last schools left standing.

For a brief time, he considered making a decision in December, as he took official visits to University Park and Blacksburg before the early signing period. But time ran out before he could squeeze in a third.

“I didn’t plan on pushing it back that far,” he said. “I didn’t want to rush it. I just wanted to take all my official visits before making my decision. I just wasn’t able to because I was playing in the Army All-American game [in January], so I took my officials and I thought they were going to help, but they really didn’t help. They just made me confused, so I had to do some more evaluating by myself.”

One week prior to visiting PSU, the first twist was thrown into Walker’s recruitment. He had previously considered Maryland, where his point of contact was offensive line coach Tyler Bowen. The two were in steady communication until Bowen took another job in early December. Tom Petre, head coach at North Point High and a phys ed teacher at the school, gave Walker the news before gym class one day. Petre explained that Bowen wasn’t at Maryland anymore. When Walker asked where he had gone, the coach said, “You’ll find out later.”

That evening, Walker was at a barbershop waiting to get his hair cut when an alert from Twitter popped up on his phone. It was a notification that Bowen had changed his profile picture. When Walker called up Bowen’s profile, he saw that the assistant was wearing blue and white. He had joined James Franklin’s staff as tight ends coach.

“It was cool,” Walker said. “It just kept giving Penn State more of an edge. That was when I was still between Penn State, Ohio State and Virginia Tech. I kept getting all these signs. It was kind of scary.”

The son of a Washington, D.C., police officer, Walker has developed a keen awareness of what’s happening around him. Some might call it a BS meter. So while the coaching change might have piqued his interest, Walker stayed the course and continued weighing his options.

Then his recruitment took another turn. With many prospects signing in December, college coaches turned their full attention to the relatively few uncommitted prospects who remained. The talent pool was much smaller, and Walker was one of the biggest fish in it. He felt the heat.

“One specific school, after that first signing day, I feel like they didn’t get the [offensive lineman] that they wanted,” Walker said. “They were recruiting me at a good level but once they didn’t get the person, who I feel like they really wanted, that’s when I felt like they turned it up a notch. The person I knew they really wanted, they tried to make it seem like they weren’t recruiting him like that and made me feel like I was the main person all along. … It was just a whole bunch of BS really, just to fill my head.”

Walker chose not to identify the school. In December, however, Ohio State lost in-state blue-chipper Jackson Carman to Clemson and found itself in need of an offensive lineman.

Penn State, meanwhile, followed the same slow-and-steady course that Walker was following, and the consistency of the Nittany Lions’ effort helped them win out, even though Walker did take an official visit to Columbus in January.

“[PSU was] one of the schools that was recruiting me consistently throughout the whole recruiting process, and I was really familiar with the class I was coming in with,” he said. “I knew I was going to get better by going against people like Micah Parsons and Jayson Oweh every day.”

On Feb. 7, Walker became the one and only player to commit to the Nittany Lions in the late signing period, joining 22 others who had signed previously. He just took his time and found his valid reason.