×

Nittany Lions land 4-star CB recruit

Penn State added a future quarterback on Saturday. On Sunday, the Nittany Lions landed someone who should help them shut down opposing passing attacks.

Garrett Taylor, the 6-foot-1, 188-pound four-star cornerback from St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va., announced his pledge to the Lions on Sunday after taking an official visit to University Park for Saturday’s game with Michigan State.

The news comes a little more than 24 hours after blue-chip junior quarterback Jake Zembiec picked the Nittany Lions while in Happy Valley to see the same game.

Taylor is a big-time addition to Penn State’s 2014 recruiting class. He’s rated the No. 48 prospect in the class by Rivals.com and the No. 8 corner in the class by 247Sports, which gives him high marks for his instinctiveness, reaction ability and ball skills.

An Under Armour All-American, Taylor had scholarship offers from coast-to-coast, including Ohio State, Stanford, Miami, Michigan State, Mississippi, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin. He had committed to Michigan in March but changed his mind a few weeks ago. In recent weeks, LSU appeared to be emerging as the leader to secure his signature on letter-of-intent day after he took an unofficial visit to Baton Rouge and was about to follow that up with an official this week.

Those plans changed after he was one of three top prospects to take an official visit to Penn State this weekend and was part of a star-studded contingent of recruits on hand for the Nittany Lions’ 34-10 loss to the Spartans Saturday.

Taylor fits the mold of the bigger cornerback Lion coach James Franklin and his staff seem to prefer, and his decision means Penn State will sign two of the consensus top 12 corners in the country in this class, as he joins St. Joseph’s Prep’s John Reid. Penn State also has pledges from safeties Jarvis Miller and Ayron Monroe.

Penn State was known to be interested in bringing in a couple of cornerbacks in this class but missed out on Central Valley’s Jordan Whitehead, who committed to Pitt in October.

Taylor is coming off a torn ACL at practice seven weeks into the season, but that wasn’t scaring colleges off, and it shouldn’t be a factor for Penn State, which has recruited well in the secondary in its last couple of classes.

The Lions now have 19 recruits in this class. They’re expected to sign right around 25.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today