Four-Star DT Aeneas Hawkins Chooses Penn State Over Cincinnati

It is official. Aeneas Hawkins has not committed to the Cincinnati Bearcats. The four-star defensive tackle from Cincinnati will instead be attending Penn State. Hawkins cut his list of schools down to two earlier this summer and finally made his selection on Thursday, making the announcement via a, uh, interesting video on The Players Tribune.

As a 6’3”, 265-pound defensive tackle with a four-star rating, Hawkins was heavily recruited by more schools than just his final two of UC and Penn State. A player for Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, Hawkins received 34 offers, including some from heavy hitters like Alabama, Clemson and Florida State. Even though he chose to become a Nittany Lion, jettisoning off to the Big 10 in the process, the fact that the Bearcats were even in the room shows just how far UC’s recruiting efforts have come in just eight months under Luke Fickell.

Even after Hawkins’ commitment, the Bearcats have the No. 38 recruiting class in the country for 2018, according to 247Sports, and the No. 1 class in the American Athletic Conference. UC has 17 hard commits for the 2018 class with all but one having three-star or higher designations, including four-star defensive end Malik Vann.

While its disappointing that Hawkins didn’t go with UC, there is a lot of reason to feel good because UC’s recruiting efforts are clearly in another stratosphere under Fickell than they ever were under Tommy Tuberville.