Fairview junior quarterback Bekkem Kritza will be on the move again soon.
Not to worry, Knights fans.
The highly sought-after 6-foot-5 gunslinger, who returned to Boulder and Tom McCartney’s program this fall following a string of transfers that saw him go from Colorado to California to Florida and back, committed to Penn State University live on 247Sports’ YouTube channel Tuesday evening.
The recruiting site’s top 2025 player from Colorado — its 34th-ranked quarterback in the class — also had the University of Colorado, Miami, Texas A&M and Washington in his top five.
“I can’t wait to be a Lion, man,” Kritza said as he was surrounded on the live feed by friends and family, including McCartney. “I’m excited to get up there.”
As a freshman with the Knights, Kritza was making next-level throws while filling up the stats sheet at the young age of 15. He finished that year with 3,192 yards and 22 TDs before citing family reasons for his move out of state the following summer.
When he returned a year and a half later, so did his nationally lauded skillset. Only now, it is more refined.
Once the Colorado High School Activities Association cleared him on a family hardship midway through this fall season, Kritza threw 20 TDs to just three interceptions in six games. The Knights won their last five games of the regular season, all by at least four touchdowns, before they were upended in the opening round of the Class 5A playoffs by Fountain-Fort Carson.
“I kind of go back to his freshman year and he had an incredible year,” McCartney said of Kritza last month. “And now you’re two years older. You’re wiser. He’s been to incredible places and seen a lot of different things.”
Kritza was on the field for Penn State’s home game against Michigan Saturday, then tweeted out his final five schools the following day, saying he’d make his decision live with 247Sports Tuesday.
According to Kritza, picking Penn State over the others was based on his trust in the Nittany Lions’ coaching staff. He noted that head coach James Franklin is someone he can rely on to tell him not just the good, but the things he needs to work on to improve.
The atmosphere he felt at Beaver Stadium had its own sales pitch.
“Itap a football town. They breathe football up there,” Kritza said before reminiscing about what it was like to be on field-level inside the second-largest football stadium in the country. “When I was on that field, I just took a look up and saw a packed-out house. When you got 110,000 people chanting your name and screaming ‘Go Lions,’ there’s nowhere else you want to be.”
Kritza is the second big-name local quarterback to commit to a Big Ten school in as many years as former Broomfield QB Cole LaCrue picked Wisconsin live on 9News last November.
Just east of them at Erie High School, senior quarterback Blake Barnett is committed to Kansas State.
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