Penn State recruiting: Rush to signing day starts with New Jersey defensive end

Penn State's push to fill out a Top 10 recruiting class began with a raw but ultra-talented defensive end from New Jersey.

Three-star prospect Smith Vilbert from St. Joseph's High in Montvale recently switched his focus from basketball to football. He's 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds and saw his recruitment surge in the past few months.

He announced his verbal commitment to Penn State on Friday.

He ultimately chose the Nittany Lions over Florida but also had visited Oregon and reported scholarship offers from Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Nebraska and others.

Penn State now has 19 commitments in its 2019 recruiting class and has room to add six more players by National Signing Day on Feb. 6.

Defensive line is the top priority. Next up is four-star Maryland tackle D'Von Ellies, who is set to announce his pick between Penn State and USC Saturday night.

Vilbert "has a very high ceiling. I love the way he's relentless in his pursuit," said Adam Friedman, a Mid-Atlantic recruiting analyst with Rivals.com. "He's a guy I expect to improve by leaps and bounds at Penn State." 

This is what 247Sports recruiting analyst Brian Dohn had to say the recent verbal commitment:

"Vilbert has a lot of raw potential, and it gives Nittany Lions defensive line coach Sean Spencer a lot of work with during the next few years. How quickly he can make an impact at Penn State will be decided by his development, and how quickly it takes place, but he has a ton of talent."

Though the Lions sit at only No. 11 in the 247Sports rankings, they have fewer commitments than every team ahead of them — meaning they own the most space to add recruits and move up.

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Penn State also boasts the No. 5 average "star ranking" per player, behind only Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Auburn.

Vilbert comes to Penn State in the mold of another raw defensive end from New Jersey — 6-foot-5 pass-rushing Jayson Oweh from the Blair Academy.

Oweh reportedly made big strides while redshirting last season as a freshman and expects to make an impact in 2019.