How close was Penn State to losing latest commit to Miami?
It turns out Penn State was in need of a little bit of a boost before crossing the finish line in the recruitment of its latest four-star commitment in the Class of 2023, linebacker Ta'Mere Robinson. Robinson committed to Penn State on Friday evening, giving the Nittany Lions another terrific piece of the defensive puzzle in the current recruiting cycle and further solidifying Penn State’s chances of locking down a top-10 recruiting class for a second straight year, the first time that would ever happen for the program. But it was far from a given Robinson would commit to the Nittany Lions as the final stages of the recruiting process were being conducted.
Robinson says he was fully prepared to head to Miami to join Mario Cristobal in his efforts to revitalize the ACC program. Miami’s surge in recruiting since the former Oregon head coach took over (allowing Penn State to eventually land former Miami head coach Manny Diaz as the defensive coordinator) has become a national storyline, and Robinson was close to being a part of that trend with the Hurricanes. But Penn State getting the last official visit on his recruiting tour left the lasting impression James Franklin had hoped for, and it swayed one of the top players in the state back to Happy Valley.
“Going into that visit, I kind of had my mind made up on Miami,” Robinson said to Lions247 following his commitment to Penn State, referring to his June 17 visit to Penn State’s campus. “After leaving that visit, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the place to be.’ Just everything fit together, and everything fit my standards.”
What was it that stood out the most to Robinson on his Penn State visit that was lacking in Miami? In a word, togetherness.
“The Penn State visit, it was a great visit all around. All the recruits, all the players; every other visit I went on, all the players and all the recruits would be separated whenever it was time to go with our player-host,” Robinson explained to Lions247. “At Penn State, we just all hung together and I felt the brotherhood.”
That certainly ties into the image Franklin tries to sell with Penn State’s football program being a family-based environment.
Robinson joins a stacked Class of 2023 lining up to join the Penn State program, or family, in the current recruiting cycle. With the addition of Robinson, Penn State is up to No. 3 in the overall team rankings for the Class of 2023 according to the updated composite rankings from 247Sports. Only Notre Dame and Ohio State sit ahead of Penn State, with Clemson and Texas a hair behind Penn State.
List
Penn State's 2023 football commitment tracker
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