New Jersey's Top 2020 Prospect set to visit Penn St. Saturday
James Franklin and his staff will host New Jersey’s top 2020 prospects Saturday in running back Jalen Berger.
In June 2017, Berger put in an excellent performance at the staff’s Elite Prospect Camp, leaving with a scholarship offer that afternoon. Since then, he’s emerged as one of Penn State’s top overall targets, and the interest is mutual, as Saturday will be his fifth visit to University Park.
“Yeah, this will be my fourth or fifth visit now,” Berger said. “I was at the game against Nebraska last season, plus the two visits this spring. Every time I’ve been up there, I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a nice place and I’ve enjoyed meeting all the different people.
“I like that college feel up there and their facilities are great with the weight room, the locker room, the nutrition bar. All of that is real nice.”
Berger has also built one of his strongest relationship with running back coach Ja’Juan Seider. He said that two speak every few days.
“I’ve been talking to Coach Seider a lot,” Berger said. “We’ve been talking about me coming in and playing as a freshman. They got Ricky Slade in there playing as a freshman right now and he’s playing a lot. He’s been scoring and everything and Coach Seider thinks I can do the same.”
Berger added, “I feel like we have a strong relationship. He texts me like every other day now that the coaches can reach out to me. That’s been getting kind of crazy lately with all the coaches that can reach out, but everything with Coach Seider has been good. We were just talking the other day about how they’re number one in the nation with rushing touchdowns now.”
In addition to the Nittany Lions, Berger holds scholarship offers from Alabama, Florida, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin, to name a few. During the spring, he visited Boston College, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Tennessee. Rutgers and Virginia Tech have also hosted Berger over the past year.
However, none of those programs have hosted Berger as often as the Nittany Lions. He also said that Penn State is the school he's built his strongest relationship with to this point.
“I really haven’t been talking to many other schools on the regular. It’s just hard to with school and my season and all that," Berger said. "I get mail from everyone and I do talk to some coaches, but I would say that Penn State is the school I have the strongest relationship with.”
Berger is currently ranked 28th overall in the Class of 2020. He’s the fifth-ranked running back and the No. 1 prospect in New Jersey.