Penn State’s star-studded Class of 2022 includes one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects in Drew Allar and one of the nation’s top running backs in Nicholas Singleton. Now just imagine if the two of those players decided to play somewhere else? In this case, they could have been heading to South Bend to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but the Irish may have been too slow to make their moves on each.
Allar and Singleton are among the nation’s top high school players participating in this weekend’s All-American Bowl, and each were asked about their recruiting process. And it turns out Notre Dame was just a ad too slow to m,ake the offer to Allar, now the quarterback of the future for the Nittany Lions.
“It was close, but I think I had my mind made up by the time Notre Dame offered me,” said Allar, according to 247 Sports. “They kind of came into the game kind of late for me personally, because I’d been in contact with Penn State for like two-and-a half-months before Notre Dame offered me. So I think Penn State already had a pretty good hold with me and I felt comfortable with him.”
It was a slightly different story for Singleton, who may have had to be restrained from making a quick decision on the fly at the advice of his family.
“Notre Dame was a great visit. I was close to committing out my OV,” Singleton said, again according to 247 Sports. “But my parents told me just to wait a little bit. Don’t commit like right on the spot. And once I thought about I knew Penn State was the place that I wanted to be at.”
James Franklin and Penn State’s staff may be thankful for that lesson in patience.
Perhaps history could have been so much different had Allar and/or Singleton committed to the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly left the Irish to take on the head coaching job at LSU. If Allar and Singleton had committed to the Irish under Kelly, would Kelly have stayed put? Perhaps not likely, given the money LSU was willing to shell out. But might Allar or Singleton have left Notre Dame to follow Kelly to LSU? That could be a realistic possibility.
Or, maybe they would have wound up at Penn State anyway after a coaching change in South Bend was a possible cause for re-evaluation. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about these hypothetical scenarios too much, because Franklin and his staff locked them both down early enough to avoid the whole fiasco.
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