College Football

Penn State Has Two Loyal Commitments Join The Fold On National Signing Day

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Paul Bowman
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Paul Bowman Sports Editor

Penn State Great Valley MBA, Penn State Berks Undergrad, Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor, IT Service Manager. I joined Sports Talk Philly in 2017 and root for all the Philly teams (as well as their minor league counter parts).

All posts by Paul Bowman
Sports Editor

Published03 Dec 2025

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Jackson Ford

The Penn State coaching search is an absolute debacle.

AD Pat Kraft (correctly) fired James Franklin a month and a half ago, but has spent the 50 days since then making absolutely no progress on getting a new coach while every other program out there has replaced their coach already unless they themselves lost their coach via poaching (and even some of those roles have been filled).

He put all his chips in on Kalani Sitake, who is staying at BYU. In the extra week Kraft took confident that he was signing the Mormon BYU alum to leave Utah, Bob Chesney, Brian Hartline, Will Stein, and Pat Fitzgerald were all hired by other schools.

That leaves the PSU reported interviewees left at Terry Smith and Commanders WR coach Bobby Engram with Louisville grad Jeff Brohm confirming he isn’t looking elsewhere and Georgia Tech grad Brent Key receiving an extension from his alma mater following the news of Penn State’s open job. Brian Daboll is the only other available name floated so far as an potential option.

That leaves Penn State without a head coach for signing day to go along with no direction and no idea what other coaching staff members may be back or may be leaving – which also goes for the players currently on the roster.

Despite that, two four-star prospects showed loyalty to the school and program on Wednesday, signing with a directionless Penn State squad on national signing day.

Jackson Ford is the major story there – the Penn State community should be showing him love for the rest of his career.

A class of nearly 30 recruits was on board to join the program and most jumped ship with all that went on. Not Ford, he was the only commit to express his faith in the PROGRAM instead of in the salesman that was leading it a few months ago, overseeing the most epic collapse in recent college football history.

The edge is a top-260 player by essentially every major ranking site and is universally a top-10 in-state player out of Malvern Prep and a top 25-edge recruit in the class.

He had been recruited by Deion Barnes and Terry Smith, both of whom will ideally be with Penn State for the future regardless of who gets the head coaching gig.

Ford had been committed since June.

The surprise of the day was QB Peyton Falzone.

Just days after Ford’s commitment to Penn State in June, Falzone flipped his commitment from PSU to Auburn.

Despite the chaos going on in Happy Valley, Falzone decided to flip back to his home state school on signing day.

Falzone is out of Nazareth, PA and also widely considered a top-10 in-state prospect and ranked around the 20th best QB prospect in the class.

During his commitment, he commented on how he was putting his hope behind Terry Smith getting the job.

While what will happen with a bowl game and the future of the head coaching position remains to be seen, it appears that Penn State just picked up two young, loyal potential leaders for their program for the next several years.