No. 2 player in PA chooses Michigan over PSU

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, recruiting goals of the Penn State football team is to retain the best players in Pennsylvania.

Overall, coach James Franklin and his team have succeeded in doing this.

In the past, Saquon Barkley (Whitehall), Micah Parsons (Harrisburg) and Jahan Dotson (Nazareth) became stars, and current players Nicholas Singleton (Shillington) and Abdul Carter (Philadelphia) are two of Penn State’s brightest talents.

But Penn State can’t get all of its players from Pennsylvania, and on Monday night, one of the state’s top prospects for the class of 2025 chose Michigan over PSU.

It was Andrew Olesh, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound TE from Southern Lehigh High School in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

BREAKING NEWS: Four-star TE Andrew Olesh has committed to Michigan, he tells me for @on3recruits

The 6’5 215 TE from Center Valley, PA chose the Wolverines over Alabama, Penn State and Florida State

Ranked No. 3 TE in year 25 (according to On3)

“Why not Michigan? Go Blue〽️〽️” … pic.twitter.com/Cnh5rMtTZl

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 8, 2024

247Sports ranked Olesh as the No. 2 player in Pennsylvania, the No. 5 tight end in the country and the No. 84 player overall.

Olesh visited Beaver Stadium several times last season, attending Penn State’s games against West Virginia (Sept. 2), Iowa (Sept. 23) and Michigan (Nov. 11). He visited Happy Valley in late January for one of Penn State’s Junior Day events and received an offer after the visit. He then attended one of the team’s spring practices in March and took his official visit the weekend of June 14.

The following weekend, he took an official with him to Michigan and finally selected him.

This is not the first case in which a top talent from PA’s class of 2025 has not chosen Penn State.

The best PA player in the class, Spring-Ford QB Matt Zollers, had Penn State as a finalist but chose Missouri.

OL Michael Carroll, a promising player from Central Bucks East, has committed to Alabama and Zahir Mathis, a star from Philly’s famous Imhotep Charter, has committed to Ohio State (though he took an OV to Penn State the weekend of June 21).

Penn State has nominated six PA candidates for the class of 2025.