Penn State

Penn State Football Recruiting: Nittany Lions Add Tiqwai Hayes, DJ McClary Following Dominant Whiteout Win

By
Paul Bowman
Author photo
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

Published26 Sep 2023

Disclosure
We sometimes use affiliate links in our content, when clicking on those we might receive a commission – at no extra cost to you. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
DJ McClary

It’s been a great few days for the Penn State football program.

After one of their most dominant wins in recent history in the Whiteout against a ranked, conference opponent, the Nittany Lions have added two blue-chip recruits to their 2025 recruiting class.

Though their 2024 class has a few spots left available, it’s largely complete. That leaves a lot more effort moving to the 2025 class, which is now at four commitments.

On Sunday, the program added DJ McClary to the fold.

The four-star linebacker is currently a top-100 player in the composite rankings and the third ranked player coming out of New Jersey in the cycle.

McClary becomes the second defender to commit to the program in the cycle.

Penn State also added four-star running back Tiqwai Hayes.

As the fan base likes to say, “The Best In PA, Stay In PA”. Hayes is an Aliquippa native and currently ranks as Pennsylvania’s 11th prospect in the cycle.

Hayes joins the previously committed Kiandrea Barker as the second running back commitment for the program in 2025.

He will continue a line of blue-chip running backs from PA to play at PSU – a list that includes Saquon Barkley, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown and Nicholas Singleton recently. London Montgomery is currently in his freshman year on the roster while Quinton Martin is committed in the 2024 class and Messiah Mickens kicked off the 2026 class a month ago.

The newly committed duo joins Barker and corner Omari Gaines to form what is currently ranked as the eighth-best recruiting class in 2025.

The Nittany Lions will certainly be looking to add to this group throughout what they hope will be a continues highly-successful campaign.