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H.S. Sports: Northwest football, basketball might leave Wyoming Valley Conference

It happened so long ago that it&#8217;s easy to forget that Brandon Polk made one of the biggest plays of Penn State&#8217;s season.Before KJ Hamler grabbed the tying touchdown in the opener against Appalachian State, before Miles Sanders put the Nittany Lions ahead in overtime and before Amani Oruwariye sealed it with an interception, Polk kept the Lions alive.On fourth-and-2 with the Lions trailing by seven late in the fourth quarter, Polk hauled in a hard-to-handle bullet from Trace McSorley, gaining 10 yards to move the sticks and set up Hamler&#8217;s score.The junior wide receiver then hauled in touchdowns of his own each of the next two weeks, starting seven games for the Lions on the season.Now Polk has confirmed that he will be leaving the team after not catching a ball in the team&#8217;s final seven games and all but disappearing from the offense.Polk&#8217;s name had reportedly entered the NCAA&#8217;s transfer portal a week ago, and the wideout went public on Thursday, saying that he would earn his degree this semester at Penn State before playing his senior year at another school.&#8220;After discussing this decision with my family and others close to me, and sending many prayers seeking guidance from God, I have decided to leave Penn State after I graduate this spring, and play my last year of college football elsewhere,&#8221; Polk wrote on Twitter.&#8220;I personally want to thank Coach (James) Franklin for giving me an opportunity to play football at the collegiate level, which is and always has been a dream for me. I also want to thank all of the other Penn State coaches and the strength and conditioning staff for helping me grow both as a man and as a football player.&#8220;Last, but certainly not least, thanks to the Penn State fans. You are truly amazing and I wish the program nothing but great success in the future.&#8221;As a grad transfer, Polk would be immediately eligible to play in 2019 at a new program. He joins three other Lions players who have announced they are taking the same route since the season ended &#8212; fellow receiver Juwan Johnson, cornerback Zech McPhearson and safety Ayron Monroe.In addition, three other players &#8212; safety Lamont Wade, tight end Danny Dalton and tackle Alex Gellerstedt &#8212; have reportedly entered their names into the transfer portal, which allows other schools to contact them as they consider a move. They have not made any definitive statements on their plans yet.Polk, who was also teammates with McSorley in high school, finished the season with nine catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns.The impending departures of Polk and Johnson leave the Lions with an extremely young receiving corps headed into 2019.All seven scholarship wideouts projected to be on the roster have either sophomore or freshman eligibility.After making his college debut in that win over Appalachian State in September, Hamler is now the dean of the group as a redshirt sophomore who led the team in receptions (42) and receiving yards (754).He is joined by redshirt sophomore classmates Mac Hippenhammer and Cam Sullivan-Brown, both of whom made one start apiece and played as backups here and there in 2018.Three members of the 2018 recruiting class saw the field, with Jahan Dotson burning his redshirt down the stretch, in part because of injuries and inconsistent play with the veterans ahead of him. He enters 2019 as a true sophomore.Justin Shorter and Daniel George will be redshirt freshmen, with Shorter perhaps poised to make the biggest jump as the nation&#8217;s No. 1-rated wide receiver recruit in his signing class.&#8220;The month Justin Shorter had, in my mind, was the best month I&#8217;ve seen this last month out of any of those (freshmen),&#8221; McSorley said after the Citrus Bowl. &#8220;I mean, he grew leaps and bounds in that last month.&#8221;John Dunmore signed in December and will arrive in the summer as a true freshman. Dotson, Dunmore, George and Hamler were all four-star recruits with Shorter topping the list as a five-star prospect.With the numbers now down at the position, however, it seems likely Penn State will pursue more receiver recruits for the February signing period &#8212; or perhaps a grad transfer of their own.McGovern No. 2 by ESPNConnor McGovern&#8217;s profile got a big boost in November when Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN rated the Lake-Lehman and Penn State product his No. 1 draft-eligible guard.Two months later, McGovern is still near the top of the list.Kiper&#8217;s updated rankings came out this week and McGovern was listed as second-best guard prospect in the draft, behind only Oklahoma&#8217;s Cody Ford. Both McGovern and Ford elected to head to the NFL rather than return for their senior seasons.Two other former Lions &#8212; Oruwariye and Miles Sanders &#8212; were listed as the No. 6 cornerback and No. 10 running back, respectively, by Kiper.Invitations to the NFL Combine will be going out by the end of the month, with the event being held from Feb. 26-March 4 in Indianapolis.Parker&#8217;s trial delayed againNewly hired Penn State wide receivers coach Gerad Parker will have to wait a bit longer for his misdemeanor DUI charge in Indiana to be resolved.His jury trial, which was scheduled for Thursday morning when the Lions announced his hire a week ago, has since been pushed back to April 18, according to court documents.Parker is alleged to have operated a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level between .08 and .15 on Feb. 21, 2017. A trial has been pushed back several times before this latest postponement.On Thursday morning, Parker tweeted that he was out recruiting for Penn State in Florida along with fellow assistant Sean Spencer.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brandon Polk started in seven games at wide receiver for Penn State in 2018 but didn&#8217;t record a catch in the final seven games of the season as his playing time fell off. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_AP_18258722844439.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brandon Polk started in seven games at wide receiver for Penn State in 2018 but didn&#8217;t record a catch in the final seven games of the season as his playing time fell off. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div>

PSU’s Polk confirms transfer plans; McGovern No. 2 in Kiper’s rankings