The football team wrapped up its recruiting cycle for the Class of 2030 with 12 of its 20 newcomers signing their letters of intent on Wednesday’s National Signing Day.
Eight new Leopards were previously welcomed to the program during the early signing period on Dec. 3, but an influx of former players entering the transfer portal created holes that needed to be addressed ahead of Wednesday, according to head coach John Troxell.
“All of a sudden, in January, you find out you’re losing some guys,” Troxell said. “We weren’t recruiting some positions, just because we were expecting guys to come back.”
The first class under running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Anthony Johnson features an even split of 10 players on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, focusing on both depth pieces and players that will make an immediate impact in 2026.
Offensive linemen and defensive backs became the biggest priority for the cycle — signing five players apiece — after multiple starters in each group transferred. Johnson said the Leopards also “brought in some speed” at the wide receiver position, adding two newcomers in Joshua Babin and Kameron Vance to a group that will graduate senior wide receiver Elijah Steward, who declared for the 2026 NFL Draft.
“We did a great job filling our holes,” Johnson said. “Our overall philosophy is just bringing in good players at each position.”
Depth was also added to the defensive trenches, including interior defensive lineman Sterling Edwards and edge rushers Maddox Berantuo and McBright Ndukwe to replace the sack production of Jaylon Joseph. The Leopards also inked quarterback Eddie Jordan and running back Malachi Gamble, who will each be competitive for positions that lack certainty for the starting job.
“We make sure we keep the integrity of bringing in a true recruiting class,” Johnson said. “Not really just recruiting because kids left from the portal.”
The recruits represent 11 different U.S. states, eight of which hail from Texas. For the first time under Troxell, the Leopards did not add any players from the Lehigh Valley, with sophomore and James Madison University transfer offensive lineman Jake Hohenshelt representing the sole Pennsylvania native in the class.
“The Northeast is heavily recruited by a lot of schools,” Troxell said. “By the time we got back into recruiting good players, we had to go and find guys in other areas of the country that were scholarship-level players.”
Along with tapping into new pipelines across the country, Troxell said the coaching staff relied on high school coaches to “build knowledge of the kids,” particularly in talks after the early signing period.
“When you have all year to do it, you’re talking to those kids for months,” he said. “Then when you get to January, we have a month to figure this out and we’re talking to as many people as we can.”
Troxell’s message for the newest class of Leopards is that “they’re going to come in and compete.”
“I always tell them, ‘You can come here, you can start for four years, and you can come here and never start it down,’” he said. “That’s up to them in terms of how hard they’re willing to work.”