Norwood makes it 11

It's a familiar story to the Penn State faithful.

Back in 2004, the Nittany Lions offered a lightly recruited receiver, with hometown roots with a connection to the program. A few years later, Jordan Norwood left as the one of the Nittany Lions' all-time leading receivers.

Those same fans hope this story turns out the same way.

On Friday, Jordan's younger brother, Levi Norwood, made a commitment to Penn State.

"They offered a couple of weeks ago, and then I committed at the senior camp over the weekend," he said. "Jordan went there, and I've been living there since fourth-grade, and I've always wanted to go there."

Penn State wide receivers coach Mike McQueary recruited the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Norwood out of Midway High School in Waco, Texas, although he did not play football last season. Norwood has been camping at Penn State since eighth grade, when his father Brian was the safeties coach for the Nittany Lions.

"They were excited, I don't think they were very surprised though," he said. "I think they knew that I wanted to go there, they knew I was kind of leaning towards them."

"Its cool, definitely," said the soft-spoken Levi, who sounds very much like his older brother. "He had a great career there, and I'm excited to follow that."

Brian Norwood spent seven seasons on Penn State's staff, and although he has moved on to another coaching position, still considers his entire family part of the Penn State family.

"It's exciting for my wife, especially, and my family, his brothers and his sisters," said father Brian Norwood, who is now the defensive coordinator at Baylor. "We're very excited for him. We know a lot about Penn State, and we're just honored that they would give him a scholarship. It's a blessing."

The elder Norwood went on to note that, although he didn't play football at all last season, there was still interest there for both football and basketball.

"He had some schools back [East] talking to him, most of the schools that were talking to him the most were talking to him, and he was back in New York for the Rumble in the Bronx basketball tournament, he was being recruited in football in basketball by Fordham and some other mid-major basketball schools," he said. "He didn't play football this past season, just with the transition of getting him down here.

"All the schools that knew about him were back there. Penn State had talked to him, and with me being there, even when he was young, and he and Alex Kenney were at the camp together so that was a positive thing. He was being recruited on this end, he had a lot of interest from the Big 12 and schools who wanted to see him this year, which is only natural. Penn State just knew a lot more about him."