Penn State, which has been losing prize recruits in the weeks since the NCAA handed down its harsh sanctions, picked one up on Saturday.
And it came at a position of need.
Jordan Smith, a 5-foot-10, 187-pound cornerback from H.D. Woodson High School in Washington, D.C, has given the Nittany Lions a verbal commitment. He is the second defensive back recruit in Penn State's 2013 recruiting class and the 10th overall following the decommitments of five pledges in the last three weeks.
"I can't speak to the sanctions. All I know is Penn State is my dream school and the place I wanted to go since Day One," Smith told ESPN after making his decision.
Smith claimed offers from Colorado, Kansas and Ohio State in a recent interview with Rivals.com's Mike Farrell, in which he also said he would be graduating early from Woodson after transferring in from Archbishop Carroll High School -- that would be important, because, if Smith enrolls in January, his scholarship could be counted against the 2012 recruiting class and open up another scholarship for 2013.
Under the NCAA penalties, Penn State will be limited to 15 scholarships per year, although Nittany Lion recruiting coordinator Charles London told the Mirror on media day Thursday that it remains to be determined whether that restriction will begin in 2013 or 2014.
Before sanctions were announced, Penn State was expected to sign four or five defensive backs in this class. Florida safety Neiko Robinson currently is the only other verbal commitment in the secondary; Ohio's Ross Douglas was among the recruits that had committed to Penn State but changed their minds after the sanctions were announced.
Smith made 90 tackles and five interceptions as a junior at Carroll. Illinois, Tennessee, Buffalo and Hawaii were other colleges said to have shown interest.
