PITTSBURGH — Imani Christian four-star Class of 2025 linebacker Dayshaun Burnett committed to Penn State Wednesday afternoon, announcing his decision at his high school in the East Hills neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh.
Burnett chose Penn State over Pitt and Rutgers, the other two programs he named in his top three schools on Tuesday. He also had a top five school list that included West Virginia and Kentucky.
He stands at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds and is a force that offenses have to reckon with every time they play against Imani Christian. Burnett has great speed and agility, along with the strength to not only make any tackle needed, but with relative ease. He does well in coverage, but is best tracking down the quarterback on a blitz and getting into the backfield.
247Sports ranks him as the No. 39 linebacker in the country and No. 13 recruit in Pennsylvania in his class, respectively, while Rivals ranks him No. 246 in the country, No. 20 at linebacker and No. 7 in the state in his class, respectively.
“He has the ability to take over games,” Johnson said on his star linebacker. “He’s a dynamic athlete. He can do so much on the football field, but we just want him to grow into the game and continue to just grow and not limit himself on anything he can do, and we won’t do that either. He’ll do a lot this year and he’ll show even more ability. Just his experience now as a senior, I think it’s all going to come to a head for him and his best ball will be ahead of him, but he’ll have an outstanding year and lead us in all the ways he can. Definitely just proud of how much he’s grown just in the years. I remember when I first seen him and just now, where we’re at and understanding of the game, all of it is improved.”
Burnett is one of five WPIAL athletes committed to Penn State in the Class of 2025 and the fourth four-star. This includes North Catholic tight end/athlete Brady O’Hara, Aliquippa running back Tiqwai Hayes and Latrobe linebacker Alex Tatsch, who committed on Sunday. Pittsburgh Central Catholic three-star cornerback XXavier Thomas also committed to PSU back in December.
FFS
Wow, does Pitt even have a chance anymore??? They better figure things out, fast!
H2P!!!
Ever really have a chance come on the Steelers starting quarterback has been belittled because he went to pitt the media and the people in Pittsburgh are cult that runs deep for the middle of the state. It’s always been that like except for short window
Pitt players playing for the Stillers are always sacrificed for the Cult.
Unrivaled
Remind me: how’d they do against Ole Miss?
Or Ohio State or Michigan every year. They are killers against Buttgers, Maryland and other BigJoke dregs. Which is most of the conf.
Pretty sure they begged the Big Ten to not play them anymore with the new scheduling model. They’re trying to find the easier path to the 12 team playoff. Pitt may not be better than PSU, but PSU definitely doesn’t fit in with the teams they think they do. Problem is PSU fans can only laugh at Pitt fans since they’re second tier to everyone else.
recruiting does not have the same effect anymore because they have to re recruit them every season. We just got a few wpial kids back last few years. If these were the old days I would maybe worry but now freshman classes just don’t have that same impact anymore for 4 years.
They should have recruited the others in the pic for O-Line. D-Line.
Uncalled for comment! Willing to bet you wouldn’t say it to their faces without a weapon close by smh
It’s getting tiring watching these local recruits ignore Pitt. Especially at LB. Area of tremendous need for Pitt.
I second that, regardless of how good or not so good i think these guys are, i thought the local LBs would be jumping at the opportunity to play extremely early here! I think Cam Lindsey plays a lot early if not start ASAP!
Not sure why everyone’s got their shorts in a bunch over losing these guys to PSU. Go back 10, 11 years and look at their recruiting classes. How many of the WPIAL players ever really amounted to anything? Miles Sanders, JPJ, CJ Thorpe…that’s pretty much the list. Would I rather have them take their shot with Pitt? Sure. But in the end, i won’t lose any sleep over losing them.
True if they or their parents looked at WPIAL’s who went to Pitt and became huge NFL stars. Aaron Donald anyone. beats any Nitter. Tyler Boyd too ! James Connor, etc.
You want to become an NFL impact/star player YOU GO TO PITT !
Yeah, no big deal losing 4*. That’s the Pitt mindset and problem.
Keep telling yourself that these WPIAL kids are making a difference, troll.
If they won’t make a difference then why the anger?
If I was Narduzzi I wouldn’t even waste my time on the Wpial kids honestly..This kid spent all this time there and in my opinion it was just wasted time,money and effort for him to go elsewhere.Put more effort,time and money recruiting nationally…
He’ll just join a long list of nobodies at State Penn.
hahaha, right
I’ve been saying it for years and I’ll keep saying it because it is true. Pittsburgh kids don’t necessarily want to stay in Pittsburgh as adults. This goes all the way back to when I played in the 90’s. They know the could stay and help Pitt become a national power again, but they choose not to. These kids (along with many others before them) want to leave the area and explore other parts of the country. The allure of the city and what it has to offer IS NOT interesting to these guys. Yes a lot come back fairly… Read more »
Why start at Pitt when you can leave and transfer back if things dont work out? Not saying thats the route he will take but history shows Pitt is a fall back plan, especially for former WPIAL 4 star guys!
Either up the 💰 for recruits or wait to transfer back in 2 years. Pedo St. Has upped the cash to get these players. Obviously kids don’t want to stay local but will come back when Pedo flashes them down the toilet. H2P.
are you an adult? wow