PSU Football
News & Information
News—Dec. 3, 2025
National Signing Day
Penn State faced a disastrous recruiting slide after the dismissal of James Franklin and his ultimate re-surfacing at Virginia Tech. Almost the entire Class of 2026 de-committed with a number following Franklin to Blacksburg. Messiah Mickens RB, Troy Huhn QB, Matt Sieg S, and Tyson Harley DE led the rush elsewhere. The lack of success in replacing Franklin after 52 days of searching is a huge factor in the recruiting losses.
Amazingly, there was some good news on Signing Day as two players picked Penn State despite the chaos surrounding the lack of a permanent head coach. First was Jackson Ford DE who kept his commitment and signed with PSU. He’s a 4-star out of Malvern Prep (Phoenixville, PA). Ford is the #5 overall prospect in PA. Also joining the Nittany Lions is Peyton Falzone, a 4-star QB out of Nazareth, PA, who flipped his commitment from Auburn back to PSU. Falzone had been a Penn State commit until this past June when he flipped to Auburn in an apparent reaction to Troy Huhn’s commitment. Falzone is the #8 overall prospect in PA per ESPN and was an Elite 11 Camp participant. Rivals rated Ford the #8 overall recruit in PA and Falzone the #10 overall recruit in PA. Falzone also named 1st Team All-State QB in PA for 2025.
At this time, no other known commitments remain from the original group recruited by Franklin who are not committed/signed elsewhere. Reportedly, 11 potential Penn State recruits followed Franklin to Virginia Tech. 247Sports ranks the PSU 2026 recruiting class at #155 behind some FCS recruiting classes.
