Penn State football letdown: Big recruiting misses for James Franklin’s 2025 CFP favorite

• Three top Penn State football recruits, including two from Pennsylvania, committed to other schools this week.
• Offensive lineman Grayson McKeogh and 5-star recruit Joey O’Brien, both from LaSalle College High, committed to Notre Dame.

This dynamic, months-long Penn State football recruiting roll has taken an abrupt turn.

Four of the prime 2026 recruiting targets for coach James Franklin and his Nittany Lion staff — including two from the Philadelphia area — gave their verbal commitments to other schools this week.

High school teammates Joey O’Brien and Grayson McKeogh and Towson, Maryland star Khary Adams, three of the nation’s top prospects, each chose College Football Playoff finalist Notre Dame.

McKeogh, a 6-foot-7 offensive lineman, made his decision known Wednesday. O’Brien, a prestigious 5-star recruit by some national sites, and Adams, one of the nation’s top cornerbacks, went public with their choices Friday.

O’Brien and McKeough both attend LaSalle College High, the alma mater of Abdul Carter, the PSU star defensive end and third pick in April’s NFL Draft.

Even more: The Lions also lost out on premier defensive lineman Luke Wafle from New Jersey. His older brother, Owen Wafle, transferred to Penn State last winter.

Luke Wafle picked USC over Ohio State, Penn State and others on Thursday.

So it’s been the roughest of recruiting weeks for the Lions, whose 2026 class appeared to own a strong path to a top five finish — Franklin’s best at Penn State.

But losing all four of these high-profile recruits, each in Penn State’s regional footprint, forces the Lions to recalibrate during the middle of this cycle. McKeough ultimately chose the Fighting Irish over Penn State and Texas; O’Brien picked them over PSU, Oregon and Clemson. Adams’ other reported finalists were the Lions, Michigan, Oregon and South Carolina.

O’Brien is the highest-rated of them all, in part, because of his elite versatility. He may be just as talented as a receiver on offense (He caught 68 passes for 1,029 yards last fall) and could play on either side of the ball in college, if not both.

“Overall, should be viewed as one of the more unique prospects in the 2026 cycle given the fact that he could fit into a variety of different roles for a College Football Playoff contender,” 247Sports scouting director Andrew Ivins wrote in his O’Brien scouting report.

Penn State’s 20-member class has been ranked so prominently (as high as fifth nationally), in part, because it includes four of the top six Pennsylvania prospects, according to the 247Sports Composite — Harrisburg offensive tackle Kevin Brown and running back Messiah Mickens, Fort Cherry safety Matt Seig and Nazareth quarterback Peyton Falzone.

Of course, Penn State and other schools will continue to recruit O’Brien, McKeough and Wafle for the next several months. High schools prospects in the 2026 cycle cannot make their verbal commitments binding until December.

The Lions’ highest recruiting ranking under Franklin? That was No. 6, most recently in 2022 — a group headlined by quarterback Drew Allar, running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and defensive ends Dani Dennis-Sutton and Carter.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

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