Penn State impresses St. Frances safety Christian Garrett
The Penn State Nittany Lion football program hosted one of its top safety prospects in the Class of 2023 Saturday in Christian Garrett.
A native of Washington, D.C., Garrett plays for powerhouse St. Frances, which is located in Baltimore. Just this past weekend, he and his teammates travelled all the way across the country to play one of California's top high school programs, De La Salle, in a nationally televised game on ESPN2. Despite all the travel that had to take place for that, Garrett still had the energy to travel roughly seven hours roundtrip to State College the following day.
“Yeah, I had some second thoughts about it Saturday morning,” Garrett said, adding a laugh. “But I talked to my mom about it and she said that I had to make it happen after telling them I was coming, so she made it happen. It was a long weekend, but I was happy we did.”
Garrett, who checks in at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, visited Penn State for the first time back in June for a personal day with the staff. He said that since then, he’s developed a strong relationship with safeties coach Anthony Poindexter.
“When I went in the summer, that was really when I started building a relationship with them,” Garrett said. “It was good putting names to faces. Since then, I’ve been talking to Coach Poindexter. I like him a lot. He’s from my area, so I feel like he’s very understanding. I feel like I can talk to him as just a regular person and not really specifically as a coach. Really, I feel that way about all their coaches. I’ve talked to some others, too. They all connect well.”
That made Saturday night’s visit his second overall, although it was his first time seeing what Penn State has to offer on game day.
“The visit was my first time getting a full game experience there, so I was real interested to see their traditions,” Garrett said. “They’re real iconic there. The Stripe Out and all their traditions are real good. When I was watching the game, all I was thinking about was that their defense is too good. I watched them really close the whole game and they’re on a different level right now. But really, their whole team is playing well. The offense, especially their receivers, are playing good. That’s what happens when you have the best against the best in practice everyday. That’s something I want to do one day.”
Related: LB Jordan Hall recaps Saturday's visit to Penn State
So far this season, Garrett also attended N.C. State’s home upset over Clemson. He said he doesn’t have any other visits set elsewhere currently, but is planning to come back to State College in November.
“They talked to us about coming for the Michigan White Out,” Garrett said. “That visit is going to be more like a team visit because a lot of players from my school are planning to come with me for that one.”
In addition to Penn State, Garrett currently holds offers from Boston College, Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia Tech. He said he’s building strong relationships with each of those schools and has no plans to narrow his list or commit any time soon.
“I’m interested in really all the schools showing interest in me right now," he said. "All the schools who have offered me are pushing hard and I have good relationships with all of them, so there isn’t really a list of who’s standing out right now.
"I visited all of them expect Boston College so far, and that’s only because Boston College is far, but I’ll get there at some point, too. I went to the all the other schools in the summertime.”
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