Sunday Column: ‘It’s The Quarterback, Stupid!’

The most impressive thing about Drew Allar in 2023 might have been the way the then-sophomore quarterback owned up for his and his team’s few failures in the post-game media room. Often emotional but always accountable, Allar showed a maturity beyond his years and earned respect from both grumpy sportswriters and, far more importantly, his teammates.

The next step in Allar’s ongoing development is having to do that less often this fall.

Look, I said a few weeks ago, and still believe, that Andy Kotelnicki is the guy who will have the largest influence on the type of season the Nittany Lions have, but close behind is the team’s QB1. At least some of the maturity Allar displayed when talking to reporters is going to have to translate to how he handles rotating safeties and blitzing linebackers and how he handles both deep shots and short throws if Penn State is going to maximize its potential.

Wow, yes, the starting quarterback playing well is a key to the season. Very astute analysis there.

Well, while this is almost always true for every team, it’s especially true for a Penn State offense that appears as though it will have many of the same pieces in place to be a truly dynamic and explosive unit – as it did last year – but will need to, ya know, actually put those pieces together, which it most decidedly did not do last year.

It starts with Allar, who told reporters this past week that he wants to play more loosely and freely this fall than he did during his first season as a starter. And there is something to that, to be sure. Yes, he threw only two interceptions in 389 pass attempts last season, against 25 touchdowns, but you could and probably ought to add that he also didn’t take the kind of risks that do lead to the occasional pick but are also necessary to crack open the sort of big plays through the air that the offense struggled to make.

You could also see Allar pressing a bit, not just in the losses to Michigan and Ohio State but in wins against less stingy opposition as well. He’d make a tough throw look easy on one play and then make two relatively easy throws look impossible after that. The uneven playcalling and his receivers’ lack of ability to consistently separate didn’t do him any favors, but although it seemed as though the speed of the game wasn’t too fast for Allar, his rhythm was off far more often than it was on, and that spilled over to the rest of the unit.

There were some mechanical issues, too. When Allar sets his feet, he is as mechanically sound as any quarterback to have come through the program. He still needs to work on knowing when to reset after evading pressure, when to bail the pocket entirely, or when to throw on the run, and adjust his targets accordingly. The best way to create a big play is to complete the pass, whether it’s 50 or 8 yards downfield, and Allar’s completion percentage (.599 overall, .452 in Penn State’s three losses) is where he can make the most tangible progress.

A sharper, more confident Allar would do a lot of things for this Penn State team. It would keep the offense on the field longer (Penn State was sixth in the Big Ten in third-down conversions in 2023), which not only means more opportunities for a big play but more opportunities to give Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen work. It would take pressure off of a receiving corps that as a unit had one of the most underwhelming seasons in team history. And ultimately, it would help Penn State rely less on a defense that has been as up to the task as any the last few seasons but continues to lose stars and depth to the NFL.

So, yeah, the offensive line has some rebuilding work to do this offseason. The receivers should have a chip the size of Mount Nittany on their shoulder. And again, how comfortable Kotelnicki is able to get not just Allar but the entire offensive roster and coaching staff with his offensive system will be crucial. But if the quarterback can be not just a steady hand at the controls but a weapon who can strike on any down from any part of the field, there are few limits on what this offense and this team will be able to do. Allar flashed that potential in both 2022 and 2023. Showing it on a more consistent basis this fall would be more impressive than anything he might say after the game.