Penn State Football: Critical Recruit of James Franklin Era Finalizing Decision

Penn State Football has had some very large recruiting wins in Pennsylvania during head coach James Franklin’s tenure in Happy Valley.

Micah Parsons, Nick Singleton, Cooper Cousins, Jven Williams, Miles Sanders, Saquon Barkley, and Lamont Wade were all fantastic recruiting wins for the Nittany Lions in the commonwealth over the last decade for different reasons.

However, despite the success (or disappointment) of each of these recruits (the jury is still out with quite a few of these young players) with the Nittany Lions, there may be one 2025 quarterback whose recruitment is more important to Penn State than any of those very coveted recruits.

Elite Penn State Football QB Target Zeroing in On Decision

Meet Matt Zollers, the elite 2025 in-state quarterback target that just set an April 4^th commitment date, per Chad Simmons with On3 Sports.

🚨NEWS🚨 Elite QB Matt Zollers will announce his commitment on April 4, he tells @ChadSimmons_‼️

Zollers ranks No. 17 NATL. (No. 3 QB) in the 2025 On300⭐️

Read: https://t.co/4ATc0VOAST pic.twitter.com/2BEgC3CGLP

— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) March 23, 2024

Zollers is a 6-foot-3.5 inch quarterback from Royersford, Pennsylvania that is among the hottest recruits in the country right now, rising quickly up the rankings into elite territory.

On On3 Sports On300 rankings, Zollers ranks as the number three quarterback and the number 17 overall player in the country. Boasting 21 offers from around the country, Zollers has climbed up the recruiting rankings since throwing for 2,917 yards and 37 touchdowns while running for 420 yards and seven touchdowns during his junior season. According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Zollers has climbed 92 places in the rankings in the past two months, with another season to boost his stock even more. Like Allar, Zollers ceiling is incredibly high and could boost the quarterback play for the Nittany Lions for years to come.

Some throws from today!! @CoachTaggart14 @SFRamsFB pic.twitter.com/f9XTh3H901

— Matt Zollers (@MattZollers) March 23, 2024

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Throughout his recruitment, Zollers has taken five visits to Penn State and will take one more before deciding on April 4^th. Penn State will host the talented signal caller on March 29^th, as his second to last visit before locking down his recruitment (visiting Georgia on April 2^nd), per Adam Friedman of Rivals. On February 6^th, Zollers put out a top four list that included Penn State, Georgia, Pittsburgh, and Missouri. Zollers scheduled his final visits at each school before setting his commitment date for April 2^nd. Per On3’s Collin Ginnan, Zoller’s draw to Penn State is “who is in the [quarterback] room. Coach Danny O’Brien just got promoted to quarterbacks coach and they also have Coach Andy Kotelnicki as the offensive coordinator. He has coached quarterbacks too, so getting two different points of view would be great there. They are great minds that work well together and I feel I could get developed.”

Four-star QB Matt Zollers tells me he will be committing on April 4th.

He has unofficial visits set for Missouri on Wednesday March 20th, Pittsburgh on March 28th, Penn State on March 29th, and Georgia on April 2nd. https://t.co/5udc1oIX5S @rivals @adamgorney @PowerMizzoucom…

— Adam Friedman (@RivalsFriedman) March 23, 2024

Why Matt Zollers Recruitment Could Define James Franklin Era

Penn State’s recruitment of Zollers is one of the most important recruitments in the James Franklin era in Happy Valley.

Drew Allar was the first five-star quarterback to commit to Penn State in the Franklin era, which was vitally important for the future of Penn State quarterback recruiting.

It is now important to show that Penn State develops the elite quarterbacks that it brings in, and that getting Allar to commit was not a one trick pony for Penn State.

Getting Zollers on board both shows that Penn State can continue to recruit elite quarterbacks to Happy Valley and ensures a very high level of competition in Penn State’s quarterback room for years to come after Allar departs campus, either after the 2024 or 2025 season.

The recruitment is also vital to show that Penn State can continue to lock down the top talent in the state of Pennsylvania and keep SEC schools from swooping in for highly touted prospects.

Keeping Georgia and Missouri from coming into Penn State’s recruiting territory to steal one of the best quarterbacks in recent memory from Pennsylvania would be a massive win for Penn State.

According to the 247Sports composite rankings, only twice since 2011 has Pennsylvania had a quarterback recruit that ranked inside the top 150 players nationally (2018 Phil Jurkovec, 2021 Kyle McCord), so the opportunity to bring in an elite quarterback on Penn State’s turf is few and far between.

With Allar able to declare for the draft after the 2024 season, it is imperative that Penn State bring another top signal caller to campus this cycle to compete with Beau Pribula, Jaxon Smolik, and Ethan Grunkemeyer to continue to elevate the level of quarterback play for the Nittany Lions. With the 12-team playoff beginning this year, and a possible expansion to 14 teams in the near future, there is no reason that Penn State should not be competing for a playoff birth every season, and quarterback play is one of the biggest factors at earning those coveted playoff spot.

Penn State will have one final shot next weekend to convince Zollers that the Nittany Lions can develop the talented signal caller for the next level. If James Franklin and company can push this one over the finish line, it will be one of the biggest recruiting wins during his tenure at Penn State and one of the biggest recruits for the future success of Penn State football.