James Franklin coached Donald Driver for a season in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and will now coach his son Cristian at Penn State as the four-star safety/receiver verbally committed to the Nittany Lions on Thursday afternoon.
Driver is rated the No. 210 overall prospect by the 247 Network’s composite rankings and No. 15 safety. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound prospect out of Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas, stated during his commitment announcement that he is looking to play on the offensive side of the ball — following in his father’s footsteps — but was willing to fit in wherever he could. He joins Jordan Allen and Tyrece Mills as the only two other safeties in the class. Driver is the highest rated of the three prospects
The 247 Network rates Driver as the No. 37 prospect in an always loaded state of Texas.
Penn State was the favorite to land Driver who selected the Nittany Lions over a handful of schools including Arizona, Arizona State and Arkansas.
The Nittany Lions’ 2022 recruiting class is still ranked the second best in the nation by all recruiting outlets and has 23 verbal commitments. Driver’s commitment is a bounce-back piece of positive news after the Nittany Lions lost the services of incoming freshman Lonnie White Jr. who recently opted to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates after being drafted earlier this summer.
Driver’s commitment likely rounds out a historic July on the recruiting trail during which Penn State landed 11 different verbal commitments with two days still remaining in the month.
