Here’s The Catch: Allar’s Ascension as a Passer Lies In The Hands of Penn State’s WRs

Sponsor: FTB’s Donors Club – the most direct way to support our efforts – is back for another year! (sad Sarah McLachlan music plays) For $9.99 you can feed a starving blogger…and get a cool FTB bottle koozie in return! JOIN HERE.

Drew Allar is getting a lot of pub this offseason. The Nittany Lions’ strong-armed, floppy-haired senior quarterback is being mentioned among the best college players at his position for 2025 and his potential at the next level is also a hot topic as the draft approaches. He’ll spend the summer answering questions about what he learned from last season (the disappointing finale against Notre Dame in particular), how he plans to expand his leadership, why Andy Kotelnicki is fun to play for, what Lion legend-turned-assistant coach Trace McSorley has brought to the QB room, et cetera et cetera.

But how much Allar improves, or even how well he plays, will only matter if he gets the help he didn’t have for his first two seasons as a starter.

As we race toward Allar’s final season at Penn State, the elephant in the Lasch Building remains the same: Who in the name of Freddie Scott is going to step up and be an alpha dog in Penn State’s wide receiver room?

Omari Evans, Tre Wallace, and Julian Fleming are out. Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross, and a new crop of true freshmen are in. Liam Clifford, Kaden Saunders, and Anthony Ivey are among the returnees who have had chances to make a significant impact but so far haven’t.

And oh, yeah, Tyler Warren is gone, too.

Penn State’s lack of star power at wide receiver, when compared to both its peers at the top of the Big Ten and the other positions on its own roster, is puzzling in a few ways, starting with the fact that even when the Nittany Lions were knee-deep in the worst of the sanction era, they usually had at least one stud on the perimeter with one waiting in the wings. Allen Robinson, Chris Godwin, DaeSean Hamilton, KJ Hamler, Jahan Dotson, Parker Washington. And then, just when Penn State finally landed its blue-chip quarterback, the pool dried up. The receivers didn’t get open. They dropped passes. They weren’t on the same page with Allar. That the Nittany Lions won as many games as they did the last few seasons despite the inconsistent mediocre unacceptable production from the wideouts is a credit to, well, pretty much the rest of the program.

But as we saw in the second half against the Fighting Irish, a dynamic pair of running backs and a good line and a tough defense and a crazy-good tight end can only take you so far. The team that won the national championship, and the one the Lions have beaten once in the last 13 meetings, has arguably the best collection of receivers in the country year-in and year-out, and the schools that have won in recent years (Bama, Georgia, LSU) have had some insane receiving talent, too. The kind that means you don’t have to have an elite quarterback, and that you don’t even have to have an offense that can grind out 80 yards in 13 plays, just a kid or two who can go for 60 on one of those plays.

Yes, Wallace and Evans and KeAndre Lambert-Smith all had their moments, but none developed into the dependable sort of player you need to make dynamic plays in the biggest games. You can put some of that on Allar, to be sure, but Warren showed the world exactly what the big QB could do with a reliable weapon, and Kotelnicki showed the ability to scheme him open even when he was, largely because of the lack of perimeter threats, commanding the bulk of the defense’s attention. The Nittany Lions don’t need someone to be Warren, or Robinson, or Godwin. They don’t need someone to catch 80 passes or 15 touchdowns. But they need at least one receiver whom Allar can trust in a tight spot, who can stare the future pro corner from Ohio State or Oregon in the eye and know he’s going to make a play because he’s done it before.

Ross and Hudson have put some good stuff on tape. They’ve impressed their teammates during the winter and spring with their talent. Tyseer Denmark, Lyrick Samuel, Matt Outten, and Koby Howard all have intriguing traits, too. Penn State doesn’t take players without talent whether it’s through the transfer portal or conventional recruiting. But talent without results is the oldest sad story in sport, and this particular version in this particular position group was one of the biggest reasons a really good 2024 season didn’t wind up being a great season. And until the Lions figure out a solution or two, it will keep Allar, the rest of the offense and the team at large from reaching whatever true potential it has in 2025.