2027 five-star running back Kemon Spell decommitted from the Penn State Nittany Lions last week after the program fired head coach James Franklin.

Spell, who is from McKeesport, PA, had been committed to Penn State for over a year.

The five-star recruit, however, started wavering in his commitment amid Penn State’s recent struggles, so it wasn’t a surprise when he officially decommitted following Franklin’s dismissal.

Kemon Spell drops brutal quote about Penn State’s inability to win big games

Spell spoke to On3 this weekend, and he explained that he decommitted from Penn State because the program can’t win big games.

“I was leaning towards (decommitting) anyway, regardless, because they started losing, and I want to be in a winning program,” said Spell.

“I want to be in a winning program, to be honest,” added Spell. “They can’t win big games, and that’s something I want to do…if you can’t do that at Penn State, then coach Franklin got fired and that just put me over the top.”

Ouch. That’s gotta hurt if you’re a Penn State. It’s tough enough to lose an elite in-state recruit that looked like he was going to be the program’s next great running back.

But for that recruit to basically trash the program on the record? That’s going to be tough for Penn State to recover from.

And really, the only way to recover from it is to go out and win big games.

Penn State’s next head coach will be stepping into a pressure-filled situation. They need to win, and they need to win now. Otherwise, Spell won’t be the last recruit calling out the Nittany Lions for not showing up in big games.

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