Penn State back among Top 15 in Team Recruiting Rankings following Kei'shjuan Telfair commitment

Penn State picked up commitment No. 11 in its 2027 recruiting class Sunday afternoon with the addition of cornerback Kei’shjuan Telfair.

A 6-foot, 160-pound defensive back from Euclid, Ohio, Telfair totaled over 40 scholarship offers throughout his recruitment. However, Nittany Lion cornerback coach Terry Smith was among the first in the country to spot his talent, offering him in Oct. 2024. In the end, getting a foot in the door early with Telfair played a big role in Penn State ultimately winning his recruitment.

It also played a big role in where the Nittany Lions now rank nationally.

A consensus four-star prospect by all three major sites, Telfair is now easily Penn State’s top-ranked recruit at No. 111 nationally in the Rivals Industry Rankings. He’s also the 14th-ranked cornerback and fourth overall in Ohio for his class. With just six of Penn State’s 11 commits currently counting in Rivals’ Team Rankings – more on that below – the class moved up eight spots from No. 21 to No. 13 nationally. PSU has an overall score of 89.671.

Understanding the Rivals Team Rankings

For those unfamiliar with Rivals’ Team Rankings, there are two major differences compared to other sites that you need to know.

1) We use the Industry Rankings, which puts together all three major recruiting sites – Rivals, 247 and ESPN – to find a cumulative score for each prospect. It’s not just based on Rivals’ rankings.

2) Rivals’ Team Recruiting Rankings solves the problem of varying class sizes throughout a recruiting cycle by totaling the highest-rated commitments for each team based on a rolling average of current total commitments among Power Four schools. That average is currently six.

That second point is a major difference between 247Sports and Rivals. Because of that, classes with more overall commitments than others often rate higher early in the cycle.

That’s why On3 designed this system to give a more accurate projection throughout the cycle of where a particular school is on pace to finish.

Fans can learn more about On3’s Team Recruiting Rankings here.

Around the Big Ten

Following the addition of Cooper Terwilliger just under a week ago, Penn State ranked seventh overall in the Big Ten. But as we noted at the time, there wasn’t much separating the Nittany Lions from climbing multiple schools. Now, with Telfair on board, that climb became official, with Penn State moving up to fourth in the Big Ten, surpassing both Nebraska and Washington.

There’s also been a change at the top of the conference standings, with USC surpassing Ohio State last week. That was largely because of a former Penn State target, DE Mekai Brown, committing to the Trojans on Friday. USC has 11 total commits, including five-star Ath. Honor Fa’alave-Johnson. They have five players total who rank among the Top 100 nationally.

That moved USC up to No. 4 nationally, but the gap to Ohio State is almost nonexistent at the moment. USC’s grade of 93.668 is just fractions ahead of the Buckeyes, who have a total score of 93.663. Ohio State currently has 10 commitments in the class, including five-star commits DE David Jacobs and WR Jamier Brown.

Oregon is third overall in the conference and No. 9 nationally with eight commitments so far. The Ducks don’t have any five-star commitments yet, but they do have Top 100 prospects like DE Rashad Streets and CB Ai’King Hall.