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Ohio native Trey Bixby high on Nittany Lions

Both official and unofficial visits have been suspended for five months now, but that isn't stopping prospects across the country from seeing some of their top schools on their own.

Penn State has seen a few Class of 2021 prospects take that route in recent months, including tight end Jack Pugh and defensive lineman George Rooks, both of whom drove out to State College earlier this summer to see the town and tour campus on their own. Now, Class of 2022 defensive lineman Trey Bixby is the latest prospect to go that route.

“This last weekend we actually came over and did a little family tour on our own,” Bixby said. “Due to current NCAA rules, we couldn't meet with the staff, but [Dann] Kabala was able to share through my head coach some key stops around town and on campus that we were able to go and check out. The campus was nice and the facilities really stand out. It was my mom's first time really seeing campus, besides the stadium. She wasn't able to make it for the camp last summer when we got full facilities tours, but did make it for the White Out game. My dad was at both though.”

Penn State Football Recruiting Trey Bixby
Bixby attended the win over Michigan last October.
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A four-star prospect from St. Edward in Lakewood, Ohio, Bixby had already been on campus twice before, camping with the staff in July 2019. He then returned three months later to take in the win over Michigan. He earned a scholarship offer from the Nittany Lions just over two weeks ago.

“I haven't had a call with new defensive line coach [John] Scott yet, but lately it's mainly been Coach Terry Smith, Coach [Joe] Lorig and Dann Kabala in recruiting," Bixby said. "It was Coach Smith that extended the offer. Last week, we did a call with Dann Kabala and got to meet the rest of the recruiting staff via FaceTime as well. So, it's kind of been a big effort talking with a number of different individuals, and it's gone great. The relationship with all of them has been really good."

Being able to attend last year's White Out win over Michigan also left a strong impression on Bixby.

“The passion of the fan base really stood out to me, especially being there for the White Out game," he said. "From the recruiting bus ride over through the tailgating lots and the sea of fans, to the walk-up or even coming out the tunnel 90 minutes before kickoff and the stadium being close to full already. Also, just walking to our seats from on the field pregame, we had countless fans cheering our names or telling us to come there. All of that really stood out to my family and I.”

So far, Bixby has earned eight scholarship offers. Fellow Big Ten schools Minnesota and Michigan State are both firmly in the mix. In fact, he and his family toured both of those schools on their own earlier this summer.

“We've visited just Minnesota and Michigan State on our own, along with Penn State recently," Bixby said. "Right before Covid-19 started, I went to Toledo's junior day. I had visits planned basically every weekend of the open spring period to schools like Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Ohio State. Last fall I did game day visits to Cincinnati, Penn State, Notre Dame and Minnesota. With our schedule at St. Edward, we get a lot of Saturday games, so it kind of cuts us short on game day visits unfortunately.”

Just like Penn State, he said that the Gophers and Spartans have done a great job building an early relationship with he and his family. Bixby also added an offer from an SEC program on Wednesday.

“Coach [Chad] Wilt at Minnesota was first to offer me when he was at Cincinnati. Then, he offered almost immediately when he got hired at Minnesota, so we have a really good relationship that goes back to last summer now. We've been having regular calls with him and Coach [P.J.] Fleck lately," Bixby said.

"Coach [Will] Peagler at Michigan State has been great as well and we're getting to know each other more since he offered this spring. Arkansas was new [Wednesday] when they offered, but I had a good call with Coach [Derrick] LeBlanc there. I was just getting to know him and their program more. We've also been having calls with Ohio State as well this spring and summer.”

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