Drew Allar gives his take on his class' legacy at Penn State

It was an emotional win on Saturday night in Happy Valley for a Penn State class going out on Senior Night. There, injured quarterback Drew Allar was among those to walk, amid a frustrating season in what has been an otherwise very good college career.

Recently, Allar had the chance to think about his recruiting class’ legacy at Penn State. He’d explain that even while this season wasn’t what the team had planned for, there was still plenty of success that this class also brought to Penn State.

“I think for us as a collective group, obviously, we fell short of our ultimate goals,” Drew Allar said. “But I don’t think that really underlies how much success we’ve really had here. I think we’ve been a part of a lot of things. A lot of highs. Some lows, obviously, but that’s kind of the game of football and the game of life. I think we have a lot more to be proud of than not to be proud of.”

Drew Allar was a member of the Class of 2022. That year, Penn State had the seventh-ranked recruiting class in the country and the second-ranked class in the Big Ten. Along with Allar, edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton and running back Nick Singleton were also five-star recruits. Then, Kaytron Allen and Abdul Carter would also become stars during their time at Penn State. Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in that class.

“It’s been a fun ride, honestly. Just getting to build relationships with the coaches and the players over the last four years has been great. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. Just have lifelong friends. Obviously, you can look at things from a ton of different lenses,” Allar said. “And there’s always going to be outside noise and opinions but I know I’m proud of what we accomplished here. Obviously, we all wanted more, but we got to a spot where we really haven’t been in a while. Obviously, it didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to this year, but there’s still a ton to be proud of from this team and our ’22 recruiting class in general.”

That class largely led the 2024 Penn State team that became the program’s first team to go to the College Football Playoff and made it all the way to the semifinal. It was that group of players returning for 2025, which put national championship expectations on this year’s team and made their season so disappointing.

In the end, the Class of 2022 was the final class that head coach James Franklin would see all the way through, for four seasons, at Penn State. Without his replacement being hired, there are some major questions about the future of the program beyond this point.