Penn State is transitioning into the official visit portion of its calendar as it needs a strong close to secure one of the best classes of the 2025 cycle.
Because of this, most of the attention will be focused on the main targets still in progress. Jaime Franklin and advice from its technical team, which currently has just 13 commits.
There are a lot of positions that need to be filled in this class, but that doesn’t stop them from putting attention and resources into the 2026 recruiting class.
One player who already stands out is Kendre Harrison.
Or no. The top-ranked tight end in his cycle is a 6-foot-2, 245-pounder from North Carolina who is a five-star in 247Sports’ composite ratings. Elected the sixth best player in the category, his recruitment has already become national.
However, there is one interesting thing that comes up with Harrison’s recruitment.
He wants to play football and basketball in college.
The coveted recruit told 247Sports’ Anna Adams that he plans to play at least a year of college basketball, but will use his scholarship to put up football numbers as that will take precedence over everything else (subscription required).
As a North Carolina native, he made many visits to campus and maintained communication with the football and basketball programs. Harrison also spoke with former Tar Heel great Julius Peppers about the decision to play both sports at the college level.
According to the tight end recruit, it doesn’t matter if the college basketball program he commits to is good or not as he just wants to make sure he lace up his shoes on the hard court at some point.
Penn State got on his radar after being impressed with his White Out.
Harrison also has a connection to the Nittany Lions, as his brother’s friend is the former tight end’s cousin Brenton Strange of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It is unknown whether the head basketball coach Mike Rhoades has already been in contact with the multi-sport star, but this would certainly be an opportunity for Rhoades and Franklin to work together and do something.
This will certainly be an interesting recruitment process as there is more to navigate than just the football aspect.
