Sunday Column: Freshmen Growing Into Larger Roles for Nittany Lions – Some More Quickly Than Others

There are three ways for freshman college football players to see the field:

1. They replace an injured player
2. They get into a game that is well in-hand (or well out-of-hand)
3. They prove that they deserve to be there instead of an upperclassman

Penn State’s Class of 2022 continued to use those various entry points to Saturday’s 45-14 romp over a mostly hapless Indiana team, which illustrated both the hope for the Nittany Lions’ future and what makes their present a bit vexing.

The Nittany Lions’ offensive line was beaten up entering the game, with Olu Fashanu and Landon Tengwall left behind in State College with injuries. True freshman Drew Shelton started in place of Fashanu — a role he could find himself in on a more-permanent basis if Olu leaves for the NFL Draft — and accorded himself nicely, as did not-freshman-but-first-year-Nittany Lion JB Nelson, who replaced an injured Hunter Nourzad at guard on the first possession.

Such was the dominance of the Penn State offensive line (no, there are no typos in this sentence) and of the rest of the team that by the fourth quarter, there were a pair of walk-on freshmen (Jim Fitzgerald and Ian Harvie) getting reps. A good day for a unit that has, despite some recent bad luck with injuries, quietly come on the last few games.

The offensive stars of the afternoon were two players that fall into the third category. Rookie running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton combined for 231 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns and continued to stake their respective claims as not only centerpieces of the current offense but perhaps the biggest reasons to get excited about its future.

The Penn State defense spent most of the afternoon in the Hoosiers’ backfield, as the Nittany Lions racked up a school-record-tying 16 tackles for loss. The leading tackler, who had 2.5 of those TFLs, was redshirt freshman Kobe King, whose brother and true sophomore Kalen recorded his first career interception. Another true freshman, Dani Dennis-Sutton, had a pick as well. Throw in linebacker Abdul Carter, who broke up a pass, and the Nittany Lions have young stud defenders at various stages of development in what is a deep and well-rounded defense. They might not all have supplanted a veteran starter yet, but they’re proving they need to be on the field each Saturday, and before the score gets lopsided.

It’s easy, though, and often prudent, to mix in young defensive linemen or linebackers or defensive backs with the starters. It’s trickier at the quarterback spot, and that brings us to the pair of elephants in the room. Sean Clifford started, as he has roughly every Saturday since the Truman administration and, aside from an ugly early pick that was probably only slightly his fault, was solid, spreading the ball around to a variety of receivers and getting the Nittany Lions in the right play against a tired and overmatched Hoosier defense. Allar entered the game midway through the third quarter and played well, showing both touch and zip on his passes and a pocket presence to elude a little more rush than he might have liked to see.

Did the offense have that much more life with Allar leading it than Clifford, or even any more at all? That depends on the eyes of the beholders, of course, and more than a few of those beholders would, understandably, be happy to see anyone but Clifford get snaps, let alone someone with Allar’s talent. In any case, it’s debatable, and also takes us back to the top of this column.

Allar has now played in seven of Penn State’s nine games, checking both of the first two boxes thanks to a minor Clifford injury at Purdue and big early leads by his team in the other contests. He has not yet checked the third box, and it is looking increasingly like he won’t. Allar won’t supplant Clifford as the full-time starter because he hasn’t had enough game reps to prove he is a demonstrable upgrade, no matter how much he might pass the eye test or even the statistical test (for those who care about that sort of thing, Allar’s QB rating ticked ahead of Clifford’s Saturday, 148.97 to 144.97).

Short of a major dropoff in Clifford’s play in the last few Saturdays or Allar becoming an unstoppable laser-rocket-armed force in practice, the sixth-year senior will remain the starter, and Allar’s remaining 2022 reps will continue to be determined by how successful his team is at building the sort of cushion that got him into Saturday’s game. Would permanently shelving Clifford and giving Allar starting duties and/or the bulk of the snaps be a boost to 2023 and beyond? Perhaps (though I have a future column that says otherwise). Would it have a drastic impact on the remainder of this season, given the stakes and the opponents on the remaining schedule? Doubtful.

Which, on balance, is probably fine. Allar still has much to learn, and if he can do it from the sideline and from the huddle the last few weeks, all the better. If it’s more from the sideline, well, that’s OK, too. His classmates at many other positions are showing him he’ll have plenty of help when he takes the keys on a full-time basis next year.