La Salle standout Joey O’Brien, Pennsylvania’s lone five-star prospect and one of Penn State’s top targets in the 2026 cycle, is entering the home stretch of his recruiting process.
It’s been quite a ride for O’Brien, the No. 1 player in Pa. and the No. 30 overall prospect in the class, according to 247 Sports. O’Brien took his first visit to Penn State when he was in eighth grade. Since then, he’s grown into one of the most coveted recruits in the country.
The La Salle star is expected to decide in a matter of weeks where he’s headed next, choosing between six finalists: Penn State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State, Clemson and Tennessee. One will win out. The other five will be disappointed they missed on the 6-foot-4, 180-pound playmaker.
So, which one will it be for O’Brien? Everyone from James Franklin to Marcus Freeman to La Salle head coach Brett Gordon will find out soon enough.
“Joey is a very grounded kid who’s really handling the process as well as any 18-year-old in his shoes could handle it,” Gordon told PennLive. “I think he’s truly going through an evaluation process to make the best decision for him and his family long-term. I talk to him almost daily about where things are at. And now we’re working to figure out, as these official visits take place, what the timing’s going to look like for a decision.”
Gordon said O’Brien would “like to have his decision behind him” sometime in July. That coincides with what many consider to be the final pushes from O’Brien’s top options.
O’Brien has official visits lined up with his six finalists. He was in Happy Valley from May 16-18, along with four-star cornerbacks Khary Adams and Dorian Barney. O’Brien spent last weekend at Clemson. He’ll be at Notre Dame the next couple days. Then he’ll round out his visit schedule at Oregon (June 3-5), Tennessee (June 13-15) and Ohio State (June 20-22).
That’s a lot to juggle. The travel, the meetings, everything. But O’Brien views it as a necessity before deciding. And those schools are more than happy to make their pitches.
La Salle eceiver Joey O’Brien jumps up in the endzone while celebrating the score with his team. August 24, 2024. Jimmie Brown. jbrown@pennlive.com.Jimmie Brown
O’Brien has been considered one of the best players in the 2026 cycle for a while now. Penn State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan, Florida State and others all offered O’Brien after his sophomore season at La Salle.
Over the last three years, O’Brien has shined as a safety and cornerback. He stood out as a wide receiver. And while he’s being recruited primarily as a defensive back, there’s reason to believe he can make an impact on the offensive side of the ball at the next level, too.
When Gordon was hired as La Salle’s coach ahead of the 2024 season, he knew he had a special player on his hands.
“He’s just different from the standpoint of how he can impact the game in both phases. And candidly, if we decided to use him on special teams, he would probably make the same impact there,” Gordon said. “To see somebody who has his God-given size and athletic ability and then to see his range as a defensive back and as a receiver, his ability to track the ball, his catch radius and his instincts, I think that’s what separates him. He’s the all-inclusive guy.”
For some recruits, especially in the age of social media and NIL, having that kind of talent and that level of attention would make them a different person. With O’Brien, it’s been the opposite.
“With the celebrity-like status he already has as a high school kid, it could very easily go to someone’s head. That hasn’t happened to Joey,” said Gordon, who credited O’Brien’s parents, Joe and Tishara, as well as the player himself. “He does a great job with his teammates. In the locker room, he’s just one of the guys. It hasn’t been anything other than that.”
That’s one of the reasons why O’Brien is so coveted by college football’s top programs. But the biggest reason is he’s one of the best players in the country.
As a junior with La Salle, O’Brien was named the Most Valuable Player of the Philadelphia Catholic League — a league that featured a pair of state champs in St. Joseph’s Prep (Class 6A) and Bonner-Prendergast (Class 4A). O’Brien caught 68 passes for a single-season school record 1,029 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also made 36 tackles and broke up 13 passes.
Penn State recruit Joey O’Brien visits for the 21-7 win over Illinois on Sept. 28, 2024. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.comPennLive
O’Brien is the highest-ranked recruit to come out of La Salle since Abdul Carter signed with Penn State as a four-star prospect in 2022. And of course, Franklin and his staff would love to sign O’Brien, too.
“I’ve got to give Coach Franklin, Coach (Anthony) Poindexter and the whole staff a ton of credit. They’ve been on Joey from the beginning, and they continue to show him what a high priority he is for them,” Gordon said. “They’ve done a great job all the way through. It feels like it’s been going on for a long time at this point. I’m in very frequent contact with the Penn State staff. We’ve got a good rapport and relationship going. I don’t know how else to say it other than that they’ve done a great job recruiting Joey to this point.”
O’Brien isn’t the only La Salle star the Nittany Lions are after. Four-star offensive tackle Grayson McKeogh is also a high priority. McKeogh, who has Penn State, Notre Dame and Texas as finalists, will visit Happy Valley this weekend.
“The selling point Penn State has over the others is it’s an opportunity to stay close to home, play in front of families and friends,” Gordon said. “In both cases with Joey and Grayson, they come from very tight-knit families. And I told Penn State all along, just my two cents, that has to be their No. 1 selling point. They’ve got close-knit families who are very involved in a good way in their sons’ sports careers. And that’s a major advantage, in my opinion.”
Will it be enough? Will the draw to stay close to home and play for a program of Penn State’s caliber entice O’Brien to pick the Nittany Lions over Notre Dame and Co.?
Time will tell.