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Chamber music concert Feb. 11 at Penn State Hazleton

<p>Not content with expanding into Oregon and Florida in this recruiting class, Penn State has gone international.</p><p>The Nittany Lions reached all the way over to Germany for their latest verbal commitment, as three-star defensive lineman Joseph Appiah Darkwa went public for Penn State on Friday.</p><p>Darkwa becomes the 21st member of the Lions&#8217; 2019 class, 19 of whom signed back in December. The two latest pledges, Darkwa and New Jersey&#8217;s Smith Vilbert, are both defensive linemen who can officially sign on Wednesday.</p><p>With plenty of scholarships open, Penn State could end up inking 25 or more recruits when it&#8217;s all said and done. But none will come from farther away than Darkwa, who hails from D&#252;sseldorf, a city of more than 600,000 people in western Germany that is nearly 4,000 miles away from State College.</p><p>Penn State has signed European-born recruits in the past, but they had typically come over to the U.S. for a year or two of high school first &#8212; like Jack Crawford, a three-year starter at defensive end and NFL draft pick who grew up in London.</p><p>Darkwa, though, is the first in the 21st century to sign with the Lions directly from Europe. But the way things are trending, he won&#8217;t be the last.</p><p>The last few years have seen some of the biggest college football programs broaden their scope to include Europe. Checking in at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, Darkwa is the top-rated prospect in Germany per the 247Sports Composite and one of three from the country to earn FBS scholarships this cycle &#8212; two others are headed to Virginia.</p><p>Germany&#8217;s best prospect in 2018, defensive end Julius Welschof, signed with Michigan. In the 2019 class, the likes of Florida and Nebraska are still chasing after an offensive lineman from Finland. Georgia Tech already signed a defensive end from Belgium while Rutgers and Temple both inked linemen from Sweden.</p><p>Just a day earlier, Notre Dame landed a German defensive lineman of its own, securing a commitment from 6-foot-7 Alexander Ehrensberger for the 2020 class.</p><p>Why the recent spike? A group called <a href="https://ppirecruits.com/" target="_blank">Premier Players International</a> has formed to help European recruits connect with NCAA programs and organize trips to the U.S. to visit schools.</p><p>And the Lions have a connection with PPI, whose founder, Brandon Collier, was coached in college at UMass by none other than Penn State defensive line coach Sean Spencer.</p><p>With Collier in tow, Darkwa took his official visit to Happy Valley last weekend after visiting UCLA a week earlier and Rutgers back in November. The Lions offered him a scholarship on Jan. 9, prompting the visit.</p><p>For Collier, it was meaningful to see one of his charges working with his own college coach. Collier posted a picture of Spencer lining Darkwa up in a three-point stance on Twitter, adding the message, &#8220;How amazing it is my former coach hosting my kid at (Penn State). Such a special picture in many ways, I want this kid to be better than I ever was! Special Talent.&#8221;</p><p>Darkwa plays for the top youth squad of his hometown club, D&#252;sseldorf Panther, which has been playing American football for 40 years, the longest active stretch in Germany. The U-19 team is the most successful of its kind in the country, having won 15 national championships.</p><p><iframe src="https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/6910852/5b2e820fa018171774800c7a" height="360" width="640"></iframe></p><p>Along with Penn State, UCLA and Rutgers, Darkwa has earned scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Indiana and Virginia, among others.</p><p>And his talent was intriguing enough that coaches have recenlty been making the trip overseas to meet with him in person. In the past few weeks, Darkwa posted photos of himself with Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins, formerly of Temple, and Rutgers head coach Chris Ash.</p><p>Notre Dame sent defensive line coach Mike Elston to Germany this past week to take a look at Darkwa and Ehrensberger.</p><p>Collier believes that more and more schools will be checking out Europe in the coming years, predicting that as many as 50 recruits from the continent could end up signing with Division I schools in the 2020 cycle.</p><p>&#8220;If your coaching staff hasn&#8217;t came out to Europe to recruit, then it will be hard to claim that you are recruiting all of the best players in the world!&#8221; Collier wrote. &#8220;Because we have some of the BEST players in the world here in Europe!&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Nittany Lions land commitment from defensive lineman in Germany