Things are slowing down in Happy Valley.
With summer here, there is no real news to report as far as the Penn State football team is concerned. Penn State coach Joe Paterno will hold an informal news conference later this week, and there will be a captain’s news conference as well.
Hopefully, there will be something to report as far as how the receivers are coming along or how the revamped secondary looks.
Until then, we have high school all-star games. Over the weekend, one such event was held in Piscataway, N.J., and featured some future Nittany Lions.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a closer look at that game, take a closer look at Penn State’s latest verbals and highlight another member of the Class of 2009.
Let’s start with the all-star game.
Justin Brown had a stellar afternoon in the New Jersey-Northeast All-Star Game on Sunday.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
All-Star Games Begin
It was New Jersey versus the Northeast in Sunday’s All-Star Game, which was held at Rutgers Stadium. And it was a future Nittany Lion who had the best afternoon of anyone on the field.
Justin Brown had a fantastic afternoon, hauling in seven balls for 71 yards. He also carried the ball twice for 16 yards as New Jersey picked up a 13-7 victory.
Brown showed why Penn State recruited him so hard. The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder made plays all day long. He came into the game, he said, on a mission.
“It was great,” Brown said. “One of the main reasons I did it was I felt like me and my friend Lewis from Delaware had something to prove we did well. I felt I showed Delaware can play ball.”
Brown was one of two future Nittany Lions who played in the contest.
The other was Curtis Dukes (6-2, 225), who played at running back.
Dukes, a member of the Class of 2009 who we’ve already highlighted in a past OnLion, is from Indian River High School in New York.
Dukes finished the afternoon with 15 yards on six carries.
Brown talked about his future teammate.
“Curtis is a cool dude and we hit it off,” Brown said. “He is a big kid who really worked hard.”
More Verbals
The Nittany Lions recently added two more verbal commitments for next year’s recruiting class.
Both are from the WPIAL in Pittsburgh. The first is offensive lineman Miles Dieffenbach. He goes 6-5, 280 pounds and took the Lions over Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Dieffenbach had Pitt ties, as he’s the son of George Dieffenbach, the longtime coach of the Pitt women’s tennis program.
The other commit is North Allegheny product Tom Ricketts, who selected the Lions over Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue and Pitt. He is the son of Tom Ricketts, Sr., who played at Pitt and had a cup of coffee in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ricketts is 6-6, 270 pounds. Both players were recruited by Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley.
Penn State now has seven verbals.
The Nittany Lions wanted Gerald Hodges from day one.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Class of 2009: Gerald Hodges
Rivals.com four-star strong safety prospect Gerald Hodges was a high-profile recruit on the Nittany Lions’ radar from day one.
At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Hodges brings 4.46 second 40-yard speed, athleticism and an undeniable fire to the field every time he steps onto the gridiron. It’s something Penn State fans haven’t seen at the safety position in quite some time.
Of course, Penn State fans were devastated to learn that Hodges had made a verbal commitment to Rutgers in June. With the graduations of both Anthony Scirrotto and Mark Rubin and not much experienced depth behind them on the roster, Lions’ fans craved Hodges’ commitment.
It took some time, but eventually they got it.
As rumors swirled that Hodges’ commitment to the Scarlet Knights was wavering, the Penn State coaching staff landed an unofficial visit from him for the Michigan game in mid-October.
After the visit, Hodges’ commitment to Rutgers seemed to waver even more.
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I … I just don’t even know,” Hodges said after the visit. “It’s just a really confusing process, so I don’t know. Right now I’m just focused on school and the season.”
Hodges kept with the Scarlet Knights through his official visit to Piscataway in early December, but it wouldn’t last much longer.
Despite missing his official visit to Penn State the weekend of Dec.
12 because of an illness, Hodges switched his commitment over to the Nittany Lions anyway.
“It was hard. It was a very hard decision,” Hodges said. “The last few weeks were kind of confusing, because they were both really great schools, and they both have really great coaching staffs.
“It was just the way that I was recruited and everything they have to offer. The way that they recruited me really showed a lot of class, they were really respectful people when they came down and talked to me. The academics in the program that they have has a lot to offer.
I’m not saying Rutgers doesn’t, but theirs are really good.”
Shortly after Hodges made his decision, he was enrolled at Penn State as one of the Nittany Lions’ four early enrollees.
This season, Hodges led his Paulsboro team to a 10-1 record after racking up 70 total tackles (45 solo) and an interception. For his efforts, he was named first team all-state, first team all-South Jersey and first team all-conference after the season.
Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated, a weekly publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com. This column does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BWI’s writers or publisher.