Penn State Football lands a top priority; Georgia, UNC add elite talents

Penn State football added to a loaded recruiting class with a top-50 talent. Plus Georgia and North Carolina made noise with elite running back commitments. 

While most of the college football talk is surrounding the news that Texas and Oklahoma are looking to move to the SEC, there were some key commitments on the recruiting trail Thursday with Penn State football leading the way.

Penn State started the day with the No. 2 recruiting class in the country according to the 247 sports composite rankings but impressively, the Nittany Lions landed their highest-ranked commitment of the class on Thursday in Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Dennis-Sutton is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive lineman who is the top-ranked player in Maryland and also is listed as a five-star prospect according to Rivals. He was a top priority for James Franklin and company and now, he’s the highest-ranked recruit in the nation’s second-ranked class, one that now has 21 commitments total and 12 of the four-star variety.

We’ve talked about this before, but Penn State is putting together an impressive recruiting run and if the Nittany Lions rebound on the field as many expect, it should continue.

Back to Dennis-Sutton, it’s hard to overstate how big a win this was for the Nittany Lions. He visited Georgia and Alabama but chose Penn State. He’s an elite athlete and one that 247 sports projects as a future 2nd or third-round pick in the NFL draft.

North Carolina football adds elite back

The Tar Heels have also been putting together a solid class under Mack Brown and have been particularly successful and landing some high-ranking recruits.

On Thursday, North Carolina football struck again with four-star running back Omarion Hampton, who chose the Tar Heels over Penn State, Auburn, and Florida.

Hampton is the No. 12 running back in the 2022 class and he’s also 144th overall according to the composite rankings. Out of Clayton, North Carolina, it’s also a nice get for Brown, who has proven to still be an elite recruiter.

Georgia lands another gamechanger

Not to be overlooked, Georgia football actually won the highest-ranked commitment on Thursday as the Bulldogs received a pledge from top-50 running back Branson Robinson.

Despite being ranked 46th overall in 2022 according to the composite rankings, Robinson is just the fourth-best prospect in Georgia’s class, which tells you something about how the Bulldogs are recruiting right now.

Still, Alabama and Tennessee were among the finalists, while Clemson, LSU, and others were involved in his recruitment. Georgia has a long history of churning out great running backs and that’s something that definitely appealed to the No. 4 back in 2022.

"“It’s the best situation for me,” Robinson told 247Sports. “I love to compete and I feel like at Georgia, I have a good chance to compete for a starting position and play early and contribute to the team and also impact the team. I just want to be one of the next great running back to come out of a long line of great running backs coming out of Georgia.”"

The Bulldogs have the sixth-ranked class in 2022 according to 247 sports and of the 12 commitments, all of them are at least four-star recruits outside of a punter.

Robinson is the second running back to commit in this class, going along with Jordan Jones, and is also the fourth skill player (QB, RB, WR) ranked in the top 203 to pledge to Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs.

It’s also worth noting that Robinson is rated as a five-star running back according to Rivals and is also the best running back in the country according to that service.