Height/Weight: 6-foot-6, 220 pounds
Hometown/High School: Minneapolis, Minnesota (North Senior H.S.)
Ranking: ★★★★ (0.8958 247Sports Composite)
Notable Offers: Arizona State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington
Penn State offered defensive end Davon Townley back in June, 2020. While the four-star defensive end’s recruitment saw programs come and go in the months following this offer one program that consistently remained in the picture was Penn State. Now, Townley is a Nittany Lion.
As part of Wednesday’s National Signing Day festivities Townley chose the Nittany Lions over his other two finalists — Nebraska and Washington. This is a big recruiting win for the Nittany Lions as defensive end was a massive need in the 2021 cycle, and other than Townley the only other defensive end they signed was Rodney McGraw who, despite a sky high ceiling, is at least a 2-3 year project.
Townley is a two-sport star in high school. In addition to shining on the gridiron for the Polar Bears, he is also a star basketball player. As of Tuesday evening he was averaging 16.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game for the Polar Bears this season.
While Townley brings great length to the table, he remains a thin 220 pounds. He will need some time in Dwight Galt’s strength and conditioning program before he is game ready. Due to this, he appears to be a slam dunk to redshirt in 2021.
Townley is a good athlete, which he puts on display on the basketball court. He is an explosive dunker on the court and this should transition well to being explosive off the edge in college, something he flashed in high school with a great get off.
Despite being a little under sized at the moment, Townley plays a physical game. He plays with a high intensity on the football field. Townley also does a good job in the run game which gives him the potential to be a plus three down defensive end in the Big Ten. Townley possesses a very high upside.
