Drew Allar walked the short distance from the Penn State locker room to a chair on top of a platform set up in front of a horde of reporters and broadcasters.
Moments earlier, the Nittany Lions had fallen to Ohio State for the seventh straight season with an awful offensive performance. They had failed to convert their first 15 third downs.
Allar finished 18-for-42 passing in his first college game in his home state, an event that had been ballyhooed. Afterwards, he looked like he was carrying the weight of his team and the Penn State fan base on his shoulders.
“Sucked,” he said memorably with tears rimming his eyes when asked to assess his play. “It sucks to lose like this. Nobody wants to feel this way.”
When his parents heard about their son’s reaction, they were not surprised. From his days as a Little League pitcher and midget football quarterback, Drew Allar has always been his harshest critic.
“There was a lot of built-up emotion into that game,” said Kevin Allar, Drew’s father. “You had a 19-year-old kid coming back to the state of Ohio. Everybody puts these expectations on you. He wanted to go in there and win that game for his teammates, just like he does every week. He wants to be perfect for his teammates because he respects all of them so much.”
The lessons he learned against Ohio State and then in a later loss to Michigan were painful but helpful. They motivated, prepared and toughened him for the 2024 season when Penn State will seek a berth in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
“It was frustrating to me how close we were,” Allar said. “I definitely could have played better in those games. That experience in general is going to be very beneficial for me going into this year, not only with the bigger games on our schedule but with every game.”
Allar completed 59% of his passes for 2,631 yards and 25 touchdowns with just two interceptions last season, his first as the starter. He became one of only two quarterbacks in Football Bowl Subdivision history to throw at least 25 TD passes with two or less interceptions in a season.
Yet he seems to have a large number of detractors, who ignore that Allar protected the football so well or that his wide receivers struggled to get open.
“How can I say this without coming across as arrogant?” Kevin Allar said. “If you’re a fan sitting in the stands, you really don’t know the ins and outs of what’s going on. Even me being a dad and knowing the game of football pretty well (as a former Eastern Michigan tight end), I don’t know what happens on a specific play.
“I don’t know what the call was or what the check was. When I hear fans say stuff, it kind of goes in one ear and out the other.”
At least for last season, Allar didn’t meet the expectations heaped on him when he became the top-rated high school quarterback that James Franklin has recruited to Penn State. That’s the root of the criticism.
“Are there some things we can improve on? Sure,” said Lions quarterbacks coach Danny O’Brien. “But you don’t throw your first 311 (career) attempts without a pick by accident. He did a lot more good than bad. I thought he had a really good year. Now it’s about cleaning up a handful of plays.
“The quarterback is going to get more fame than he deserves when things are going well and more blame than he deserves when things are bad. It’s part of the deal.”
Franklin made a stunning staff change in midseason when he fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, who played a primary role in recruiting Allar. He replaced him with former Kansas OC Andy Kotelnicki, who had explosive offenses the last three seasons with the Jayhawks and at Buffalo and Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. Kotelnicki uses pre-snap motion and shifts to create openings for backs and receivers.
“(Legendary San Francisco 49ers coach) Bill Walsh wrote that the game of football can never be reduced to the point where you just blame players for not physically overpowering their opponent,” Kotelnicki said. “We can’t just say, ‘Well, these guys can’t get open’ if we’re never doing things to help them get open. We can’t say, ‘These guys can’t block those guys’ if we’re not doing things to help them block those guys.
“By doing all these things, it should help the quarterbacks’ production.”
Last year under Kotelnicki’s direction, the Jayhawks ranked in the top 10 nationally with 39 plays of at least 30 yards, compared to 19 for the Lions. Kansas also averaged 10.04 yards per pass attempt, compared to 6.77 for Penn State.
“One of the things that Drew loves about Coach K is that he explains the why and the how behind everything,” said Dawn Allar, Drew’s mother. “Drew said after the Blue-White Game that it was the toughest spring that he’s had but that it was the most fun he’s ever had playing football.
“He loves that Coach K is kind of a professor and he’s teaching him.”
Allar struggled last season with his downfield passing, even though he threw long touchdown passes to KeAndre Lambert-Smith against West Virginia and Indiana, which was a game-winner. He had 11 completions of at least 30 yards, compared to Sean Clifford’s 17 in 2022. Of Allar’s 25 touchdown passes, only five of them were at least 20 yards.
Whether he was coached that way or not or whether it was because receivers weren’t open, he did not often throw deep passes and mostly avoided taking risks.
“He’s going to follow the game plan,” Kevin Allar said. “He’s not that guy who’s going to argue with the coaches, argue with the play, argue with what the game plan is. He’s that ultimate team player. He will not sacrifice the team for the benefit of himself.”
Four wide receivers left Penn State since last season, including Lambert-Smith, who led the Lions in catches and yards. Former Pennsylvania high school star Julian Fleming transferred from Ohio State and is expected to start with Harrison Wallace III, but no other receiver on the roster had more than 13 catches.
That might create more opportunities in the passing game for running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and tight ends Tyler Warren and Khalil Dinkins. It also puts more burden on Allar to carry the offense.
“He’s growing as a leader because he’s been through it,” O’Brien said. “He needs to be more vocal, something all young quarterbacks can improve on. I tell him to stay even keeled and to trust his training. ‘You’re super talented, dude. Play free. Trust what you see. Trust your training and good things will happen.’ ”
For Drew Allar, improving Penn State’s passing game begins and ends with him.
“I’m not going to blame anybody else,” he said about the 2023 Ohio State and Michigan losses. “I’m not going to blame the play-calling. I’m going to reflect on myself and my performance and what I could have done better.to put the team in a better position to win. I felt like I let us down.
“Being at your best when your best is required is something I’m working on. I’m trying to be as consistent as I can be in practice against one of the best defenses in the country. We talk about letting it rip. I could have done a better job of that last season. It’s about not being hesitant, trusting what I see and letting the ball go.”
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