Five days after the Pittsburgh Steelers made a Canadian their top pick in the draft, Penn State got a verbal commitment from a French-Canadian four-star quarterback.
A post to the Twitter account of Orleans, Ontario, native Christian Veilleux made the announcement Wednesday. It came 3 minutes after a tweet from Bethlehem, Pa. kicker Sander Sahaydak, who also announced an intention to join the Nittany Lions program.
Both commitments were tacitly acknowledged by Penn State coach James Franklin, who posts to his Twitter account when prospects make commitments to his program.
HAPPY VALLEY is HOME... ??? #WEARE21 @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/Y1Hjmn7ofh
— Christian Vei11eux (@VeilleuxQB11) April 29, 2020
Verbal commitments are non-binding. Players cannot sign national letters of intent until December.
The 6-foot-3, 201-pound Veilleux is attending The Bullis School, a private high school in Potomac, Md., that produced former Ohio State star and NFL first-round pick quarterback Dwayne Haskins. Veilleux is rated as the No. 15 pro-style quarterback among Class of 2021 incoming recruits by 247 Sports. Rivals.com has him as its 10th-best pro-style QB.
According to the recruiting services, Veilleux had about two dozen scholarship offers, including LSU, Michigan, UCLA, Pitt and West Virginia. Earlier this month, he narrowed his list Penn State, Clemson, Duke and Tennessee.
WE ARE!! ? pic.twitter.com/IPZPm9Nr4m
— sander (@SanderSahaydak) April 29, 2020
Sahaydak (6-1, 180) chose Penn State over offers from Rutgers and Army. He did not have a star rating. According to Rivals.com, Sahaydak converted 10 of 12 field goals with a long of 53 yards. He also made 21 of 22 extra points and had 34 of his 45 kickoffs go for touchbacks.
Sahaydak and Veilleux are the ninth and 10th commits to Penn State’s 2021 class. It currently stands 13th in the nation by Rivals and 14th by 247.
