Penn State Football: Top Commits in 2022 Class See Ratings Increase

Penn State football’s 2022 class continues to be among the very best in the nation as it saw four of its top prospects rise up the recruiting ranks on Wednesday.

While recruiting stars, evaluations and updates among various recruiting sites is a constant point of contention, the 247 Network’s composite rankings, which is best described by the network itself offers up perhaps the most well rounded evaluation tool.

“The 247Sports Composite Rating is a proprietary algorithm that compiles prospect “rankings” and “ratings” listed in the public domain by the major media recruiting services. It converts average industry ranks and ratings into a linear composite index capping at 1.0000, which indicates a consensus No. 1 prospect across all services.”

In any case Penn State’s 2022 recruiting class sits at No. 1 in the nation according to the 247 Network totaling 24 verbal commitments with 14 of those at the four-star level.

While the overall ranking itself somewhat obviously did not rise on Wednesday a few noteworthy members of that class did see their overall rating improve.

Receiver Kaden Saunders who was recently rated the 116th best prospect in the nation has seen his stock rise to the No. 85 spot and then No. 58 following the most recent update.

Quarterback Drew Allar who continues to impress as in-person evaluations continue following a COVID-19 impacted cycle last year is now up to No. 92 in the 2022 class from No. 135 and is rated the No. 7 quarterback in the nation. All told, Allar has been one of the hottest rising prospects in the nation, starting out last August at No. 517 in his rankings debut.

Athlete Menki Flowers is up to No. 120 from the No. 140 spot and his overall rating of .9508 gives Penn State five players above the .950 threshold.

While the rest of Penn State’s class saw relatively modest changes in both directions following the latest update, the Nittany Lions’ top verbal commit in defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton went from No. 50 to No. 49 in the nation while running back Nicholas Singleton went from No. 71 to No. 76.

According to the site, the 247 Network only grants a five-star rating to 32 prospects per cycle, a figure that represents – in theory – 32 players who would likely be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.

Penn State’s 2022 class is rated .9058 overall which is the second-best ranking for a recruiting class under James Franklin, the first coming in 2018 when the Nittany Lions managed to close out on the No. 6 overall class which had a rating of .9170 and three different five-star commits in Micah Parsons, Ricky Slade and Justin Shorter.

It remains to be seen if the Nittany Lions will hold on to the No. 1 ranking by the end of the class. Penn State currently has 10 more verbal commitments than Ohio State and Alabama while Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M among others are in similar situations.

Whatever the case turns out to be, Franklin and company can take heart in having bounced back from a ho-hum 2021 class with one of their best to date.