D.J. Woods, a 6-foot, 170-pound speedster from Strongsville, Ohio, committed to West Virginia during a visit to Morgantown over the weekend, both Rivals.com and Scout.com reported.
Once verbally committed to Nebraska, Woods had been considered to be strongly leaning to Penn State for a time after reopening his recruiting. He was at Penn State for the Ohio State game in late October.
However, it appears the Nittany Lions fell out of favor over difficulties in scheduling an official visit for the upcoming weekend, according to comments attributed to the Woods camp on those Websites. Reportedly, Woods called the Penn State football office more than once to set up the visit, but his messages went unreturned.
Woods also was considering Missouri, Auburn and Cincinnati.
In an interview at the time of his commitment to Penn State, Texas defensive back D’Anton Lynn told the Mirror that he had struck up a friendship with Woods and was hoping to help sway Woods to become a Nittany Lion with him. Lynn, however, is apparently wavering on his commitment to Penn State after his recruiting coach, Brian Norwood, left to become Baylor’s defensive coordinator last week; Lynn has told reporters he intends to visit other colleges now.
Penn State is still involved with several other receiver prospects for the Class of 2008, including Altoona’s A.J. Alexander, Virginia’s Deion Walker, Marcus Davis and A.J. Price and Maryland’s Kenny Tate.
The Lions also recently missed out on a top player at another position that appears to be a priority for 2008. Virginia blue-chip offensive tackle Vinston Painter announced that he had Virginia Tech on Dec. 4. Painter was long considered the Hokies to lose.
Penn State reportedly offered Shady Side offensive lineman Mike Farrell a scholarship over the weekend. Farrell was at University Park along with Davis and a number of prospects that had already committed to the Lions.
Price is expected to be at Penn State this weekend. However, it looks like North Carolina offensive lineman Nick Becton is cancelling his visit because of a conflict caused by his selection to his state’s Shrine Bowl all-star game.
Becton is also looking at North Carolina State and Virginia Tech.
