Penn State football, Matt Campbell land quarterback recruit Will Wood

Penn State football landed its first high-profile quarterback recruit under coach Matt Campbell . While the Nittany Lions missed out on one top Massachusetts QB prospect this week (Peter Bourque), they received a critical verbal commitment from another (Will Wood). Wood's verbal commitment on Friday, May 15, was a significant recruiting win for Campbell and company.

Despite impressively building a Top 10 2027 recruiting class in relative short order, they had remained without a marquee high school senior quarterback halfway through the recruiting cycle. Wood (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) is rated as a top-30 quarterback by national recruiting services before his senior year at Xaverian Brothers High in Westwood, Massachusetts. He reportedly chose the Nittany Lions over home state Boston College and head coach Bill O'Brien and also was being pursued by the likes of Arkansas, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Maryland.

Wood picked Penn State a day after Bourque, the other Lions' top quarterback target, gave his pledge to Virginia Tech and former PSU head coach James Franklin. Bourque is the top-rated player in Massachusetts at the Tabor Academy and the No. 7 quarterback prospect in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.

He chose Virginia Tech over PSU and Georgia months after backing out of his initial commitment to Michigan. Wood, though, seemed to rise quickly among Penn State's recruiting priorities this spring. He reportedly possesses the same ability to extend plays with his legs as other quarterback success stories under Campbell, including current PSU starter Rocco Becht and former star Brock Purdy.