Weekend Recruiting Review: Change at LB

Penn State extended a scholarship to Rivals250 linebacker Ellis Brooks Sunday afternoon.

The nation’s sixth-ranked inside linebacker, Brooks has been primarily focused on Maryland and Northwestern, although Michigan, LSU and Oregon are all still in the mix. He’s taken official visits to everywhere but Ann Arbor, which is supposed to take place this upcoming weekend. However, we’ve been told that could be shelved in favor of a trip to State College. Penn State is expected to do an in-home visit with Brooks within the next few days.

This comes almost immediately following Dylan Rivers’ decision to back out of his commitment to Penn State and instead join Virginia Tech. Rivers, who officially visited Virginia Tech back in December, has been considering this for months, but didn’t make the move until this weekend, following an official visit to Penn State.

Sources have indicated that James Franklin and his staff feel good about their chances of keeping ahold of WR Mac Hippenhammer. After picking up an offer from Notre Dame one week ago, Hippenhammer decided to take an unofficial visit to South Bend the following day. He still hasn’t confirmed if he’ll take an official visit to Notre Dame next weekend, but Penn State believes they have a good chance at keeping hold of the three-star from Fort Wayne, Ind.

As previously reported, offensive lineman CJ Thorpe has officially decided to not visit Michigan in the final week of January. Following a visit to UCLA last weekend, he was considering a trip Ann Arbor, but has since confirmed that he won’t use another official visit.

“Everything is good on Penn State,” said Thorpe. I'm staying home, not going on anymore officials or anything like that. This weekend was great. Hanging out with all the commits was a lot fun."