Penn State's Class of 2022 is off to an excellent start, and Downingtown West OL Drew Shelton is a major reason why. A member of the Rivals100, Shelton committed to the Nittany Lions in the beginning of September, not long after taking a personal visit to State College with his family.

This past weekend, Shelton and his teammates opened an abbreviated season with a game against rival Coatesville. BWI's Ryan Snyder was at that game and caught up with Shelton to discuss a few more details about his commitment, who he's been recruiting to join him and much more. Check out the complete Q&A below!

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Ryan Snyder: When I first started interviewing you, I never got the impression you would end up committing as early as you did. You always wanted to take visits. When did that change for you?

Drew Shelton: I realized I wanted to stay closer to home in the summer. Then, I took a couple of trips on my own to Penn State and Rutgers. It really came down to those two schools. When I took the trips to Penn State and Rutgers, I found that I really fell in love with Penn State’s campus. Obviously, I already had a great relationship with all the coaches, so it felt like a no brainer.

Snyder: A lot of recruiting analysts, including myself, thought that Michigan was going to be a serious player with you. Did we kind of overthink your ties to Michigan? Did we make more of that than we should have?

Shelton: I grew up a huge Michigan fan. I remember getting in trouble when I was younger because I went in my room and slammed my door after Ohio State beat them one time. I got yelled out for that. But I just didn’t feel the same love from them that I did from Penn State. Coach [Phil] Trautwein and Coach [James] Franklin and everyone at Penn State really showed from the beginning that I was very important to them. It was never inconsistent with them and we built a bond pretty quickly. It was always easy to talk to them.