All 105 is a Nittany Sports Now series profiling each Penn State football player. This edition will look at second-year OL Drew Shelton.
Height: 6-foot-5
Weight: 308 pounds
Hometown: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Before Penn State: Shelton began his college football career last season after three years of lettering at Downingtown West High School.
Shelton’s play as a senior earned him an invite to the 2022 Under Armour All-American game. 247Sports, On3, Rivals and ESPN all had Shelton as a four-star recruit. 247 had Shelton as the No. 3 player in Pennsylvania from his class. On3 and ESPN also had him No. 3 in the state, with On3 ranking him the No. 7 offensive tackle prospect in the nation. Rivals ranked him fourth overall in PA.
Shelton committed to Penn State Sept. 4, 2020, choosing it over Florida, among other schools.
2022: Shelton received a baptism by fire late in the season. When Penn State’s best offensive lineman, Olu Fashanu, went down with what ended up being a season-ending injury, Shelton stepped up and started the last five games at left tackle. He held his own, and in Penn State’s Rose Bowl win over Utah, he helped Nick Singleton run for an 87-yes touchdown.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nick Singleton races 87 yards up the middle for the go-ahead touchdown for #PennState! pic.twitter.com/AKxGgjpWtu
— Nittany Lions Wire (@NittanyLionWire) January 3, 2023
Where he stands: Fashanu surprised a lot of people by deciding to come back to school for 2023 when he almost certainly would have been a first-round pick had he declared for the draft. Because of this, Shelton is battling fifth-year senior Caedan Wallace for the starting right tackle job. Regardless of how that plays out, it’s hard to see Shelton not playing a big part of Penn State’s line as long as he’s healthy.
A quote by Shelton: “I remember getting the play call, and I was like, ‘ok, I like this play. We worked on it in practice. Special cadences. We knew it would work. It was a part of the game plan. I just remember taking my steps, falling on the guy and I hear the crowd roar, and I look up, and he’s gone. Big guys like me, we don’t like running 80 yards down the field. But that is a special circumstance to chase him down in the end zone.” — Shelton to reporters on Singleton’s Rose Bowl run at Penn State’s second-year player media availability this past February.
A quote about Shelton: “He’s a guy that, you know, if we weren’t trying to save his redshirt, would have played a bunch already this year. He’s done a really good job, is super smart, prepares extremely well. He’s gotten bigger, stronger, he’s right around 300 pounds now. He’s done a nice job.” — Penn State coach James Franklin on Shelton to media after a Wednesday practice last November.
