The first player to commit to Penn State’s 2023 recruiting class is no longer committed to Penn State’s 2023 recruiting class.
— Mega Barnwell (@mega_barnwell) January 20, 2021
Mega Barnwell is a 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end who originally committed to the Nittany Lions last June, before he had even taken a snap as a high school sophomore.
Nebraska, Tennessee, USC, Virginia and Virginia Tech are among the other programs that have offered him a scholarship, and let’s face it, he’s going to get a lot more interest in terms of offers.
Bottom line here is, you’re going to get the reminder you always do when you read about commitments on this blog: Nothing is official until signing day, and Mega Barnwell was 23 months away from that. The days of coaches keeping their distance from a good prospect because he verbally committed to another school are long over. These are kids, and Barnwell is a particularly young one. This is a decision that will affect him, and he wants it to be right, and frankly, he should also get to absorb all the offers and the attention and the pomp and circumstance the recruiting process has become, as well.
He may come back to Penn State. He may not. But you can’t miss what you never had, and the reality is, Penn State never had Mega Barnwell. They don’t have any of the verbally committed recruits fans count on until ink is put to paper.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
