Penn State's Ricky Slade chooses Old Dominion as transfer destination
Running back Ricky Slade, one of the top recruits in Penn State’s class of 2018, announced his decision to transfer to Old Dominion.
New beginnings ? let’s get it @ODUFootball pic.twitter.com/6w25E28dFi
— RS3⛏ (@TheSlade_Era) June 26, 2020
Slade, who entered the NCAA transfer portal in February, will be reunited with former Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne, now the head coach at Old Dominion. He will sit out the 2020 season as a transfer.
Slade was rated the No. 2 all-purpose running back in the nation in the class of 2018, running for 5,540 yards at C.D. Hylton (Va.) High School. He is from Woodbridge, Va., 174 miles from Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va.
Slade, who will be a junior this season, was Penn State’s starting running back at the start of the 2019 season. But he ended up behind running backs Journey Brown, Noah Cain and Devyn Ford in the quest for playing time.
Slade totaled 214 yards and two touchdowns for the season, including his best game in the Cotton Bowl victory against Memphis (58 yards on only five carries).
Penn State appears well stocked at running back. Brown, Cain and Ford, the top three backs last season, are returning, with freshmen Keyvone Lee and Caziah Holmes also filling up the depth chart.
Plus, the Nittany Lions count on quarterback Sean Clifford as a running threat. Clifford rushed for 402 yards last season.
Slade is the second top 2018 recruit to transfer from Penn State, joining Justin Shorter, who left for Florida.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.