Nick Anderson is a hot commodity right now.
As the Kiski Area rising junior is working to increase the level of his on-field ability and strength, college recruiters are hoping to secure the services of Pennsylvania’s No. 1-rated offensive lineman in the Class of 2028.
The 6-foot-4, 270-pound road grader, already a highly regarded all-star after two years as a starter with the Cavaliers, earned a Division I offer last week from LSU, the SEC blue blood now under the direction of famed coach Lane Kiffen.
“I got connected with the Tigers when their offensive line coach, (Eric) Wolford, gave me a call,” said Anderson, a four-star lineman by several of the nation’s top ratings services, including 247 Sports and Rivals.
“It means a lot to get an offer from them since they are such a great program.”
Then, after a strong performance at Penn State’s prospect camp a few days later and a conversation with new coach Matt Campbell, Anderson earned an offer from the Nittany Lions, the football alma mater of his father, Bill. Further connections with former Gateway coach and PSU assistant Terry Smith and offensive line coach Ryan Clanton strengthened the Big Ten power among the leading list of Anderson’s Division I candidates.
“I’ve been to Happy Valley for spring practice and now a camp, and I am definitely going to try to make it back for a game this season,” he said.
Bill Anderson was a lineman at Penn State in the 1990s under Joe Paterno and was 6-4 and nearly 300 pounds when he finished his college tenure.
“Obviously, my dad is very proud of me for getting the chance to possibly play at Penn State,” the younger Anderson said. “But he also said that he wants me to make the best decision for myself.”
That decision could come at any one of a myriad of Division I schools throughout the country. He now has 10 Division I offers. The first, Sacramento State, came in the midst of his freshman year.
The smaller California university, a former Football Championship Subdivision school (formerly Division I-AA), is stepping up to the Football Bowl Subdivision in the Mid-American Conference this year. The Hornets didn’t wait around to go after what they liked.
“That one is still special to me because it showed that coaches believed in my abilities to play at the highest level,” Anderson said.
Anderson also has D-I offers from Maryland, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Liberty and Albany. He is scheduled for a tour of Big Ten country that will take him to Wisconsin over the weekend and to Ohio State next Wednesday.
Nationally, Rivals lists Anderson as the No. 12 interior offensive lineman. He said he also had a strong experience at West Virginia’s camp.
“I’ve enjoyed the recruiting process a lot so far,” he said. “What I like most about it is just being able to check out all kinds of schools and what they have to offer. There is a lot of traveling for me and my parents, and I am very grateful for my parents because they always make it work. The camps give me the chance to meet the coaching staffs and work with some potential coaches. It’s kind of a preview of what to expect.”
In the midst of all the traveling, Anderson said he is mindful of the preparation for his upcoming junior season with Kiski Area and what the upcoming season means for a Cavaliers team hoping to take that next step in conference play and in WPIAL Class 5A as a whole. Anderson continues to develop as a vocal and by-example team leader, a mantle he began to place on himself early in his freshman season.
“I am very excited for this upcoming season,” he said. “I believe we are going to do very well. I have a lot of trust in our new coach (Brayden Thimons) and the staff around him. The transition (from Colyn Haugh) has been very smooth. It’s a very young staff, and I think it will benefit us a lot.”
“I always relish the opportunity to influence not just my teammates but everybody around me.”
Anderson, in his varsity debut in 2024, made six tackles and delivered a couple of pancake blocks in a dominant 42-7 win over Knoch.
He was on his way.
Consistency was key for Andreson, who picked up all-conference honors as a freshman as Kiski Area came close to a spot in the WPIAL playoffs. The Cavaliers lost out to Latrobe in a playoff tiebreaker.
Last year, Anderson helped lead a Cavaliers charge to the postseason in the Big East Conference.
Kiski Area, Armstrong and Gateway finished tied in the conference at 3-3. The Cavaliers beat Armstrong by two and lost to Gateway by three. The playoff race was competitive, and Kiski Area earned its berth.
The Cavaliers fell to Shaler in the first round and finished 4-7.
“I feel last season went well,” Anderson said. “I liked that we made the playoffs, but we left things undone by not winning that (Shaler) game. I think the whole team felt that we lost a lot of close games we should’ve won and that hurt our chances to get a better spot in the playoffs. That gave us motivation in the weight room and on the field to work way harder.”
It wasn’t all football for Anderson the past couple of months as he also dedicated himself to his throws in the circle for the Cavaliers track and field team.
He won the shot put (49 feet, 11 inches) and the discus (157-6) at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championships in April at Mt. Pleasant.
Anderson took third in the discus (151-3) and second in the shot (51-0) at the prestigious Baldwin Invitational before punching his ticket to states with a fourth in the shot (49-8) at the WPIAL championships at Slippery Rock.
He capped his season with a 21st place in the shot (48-8) at Shippensburg University.
“The thing that has me most excited about what I accomplished this year in track and field is what I have the chance to accomplish next year if I keep doing what I’ve been doing,” he said.
Thimons said Anderson’s leadership and his talents have him excited for the present and the future.
“I’ve been around Nick since he came in as a freshman, and he’s always been the hardest worker in the room,” Thimons said. “That is saying something because we have a lot of hard workers on this team. He continues to always step up to challenges. That is the big thing I say to coaches when they come in. Nick, for four straight quarters, is going to try and dominate. That separates kids in the recruiting process who get the offers from the smaller schools and those who get ones from the LSUs and the Penn States of the world.
“A lot of them are starting to pull the trigger on Nick, and for good reason. I am super proud of him for the work he’s put in to get to this point. But for him, I know he’s not satisfied at all. He could have a million and a half offers, and it still would not be good enough. He’s not going to stop pushing and will not stop working until he gets what he wants.”