Penn State football makes the top 5 schools for top 2024 JUCO prospect

The junior college prospects have paid dividends for the Penn State football team over the years. Specifically, Penn State has been able to leverage Lackawanna Community College for its JUCO success. Now, the Nittany Lions will target a west coast prospect who plays defensive back and is a highly-ranked player. This is Sione Laulea from San Mateo, California.

Penn State football makes the top 5 schools for top 2024 JUCO prospect

On Monday night, the No. 1 rated JUCO prospect in the 2024 class, Sione Laulea announced that he is down to his top five schools. They include Miami, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC, and Penn State.

College of San Mateo (Calif.) cornerback Sione Laulea, the No. 1 JC prospect in the 2024 class, named his top five on Monday https://t.co/52IxP0I4cc pic.twitter.com/wl7qgpqdzC

— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) July 31, 2023

This is massive news for Penn State and Terry Smith to know that they have made a great impression and now they have to work on sealing the deal. Laulea announced on his social media pages that he did unofficially visit Penn State this past weekend for the Lasch Bash which makes it his second visit to State College this year. What makes Sione Laulea an important prospect is that he will be able to contribute a lot sooner than a true freshman would in most cases. Since he will have two full seasons of JUCO football under his belt, if the Nittany Lions land Laulea he could be an impact player as soon as next season.

NIL could be the difference maker

With the schools that Penn State is competing against for Laulea, they will need to put together a lucrative NIL deal to make the Nittany Lions stand out above schools like Miami and USC. Recently during the 2023 Big Ten Media Days, James Franklin said “I think through Pat’s leadership, I think we’re continuing to close that gap and make really good progress.”

This is an encouraging statement for the future of how Penn State will compete with schools that have more NIL funding. If Penn State can truly close the gap with Laulea, the Nittany Lions could be in the mix to land a potential star cornerback.

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