One of the signature images of Drew Allar’s first season as Penn State football’s starting quarterback was of him in tears.
On a beautiful mid-October afternoon in Columbus, Allar played in what was then the biggest game of his career against the team he, as a Medina, Ohio, native, grew up rooting for, Ohio State.
He failed to deliver, completing just 18 of his 42 passes for 191 yards and a touchdown thrown after the Buckeye win had already been decided.
After the game, Allar, fighting back tears, summed up how he felt about his performance in two words:
“I sucked.”
Three weeks after Ohio State Allar was on an even bigger stage against eventual-national champion Michigan at Beaver Stadium, with Penn State’s Big Ten and College Football Playoff aspirations hanging in the balance.
Again, Allar and PSU fell short, with the quarterback completing just 10 of 22 passes for 70 yards, a critical fumble early in the second half and another late touchdown which proved to be meaningless.
Allar’s season had plenty of successesโ anybody who ends the year with 25 touchdown passes and just two interceptions is doing something rightโ but there are people who judge Allar’s tenure as Penn State’s QB1 to this point solely by how he performed in Penn State’s biggest games.
Nobody knows how 2024 will go, but one guarantee is that Allar and every other college quarterback will have failures.
In Allar’s case, it’s easy to fail even in practice, considering he’s going against a perennially excellent defense that should again be one of America’s best.
How Allar responds will be crucial.
“That’s been my goal,” Allar told reporters in Holuba Hall after practice Tuesday. “I’ve been talking to (quarterbacks coach) Danny (O’Brien) and Coach (James) Franklin a lot. Obviously, we wouldn’t rather have it any other way. We’re going against what’s going to be a top defense in the country again. Honestly, our D-line makes it a living hell on us as quarterbacks and offensive lines just with how much talent and depth they have up front. But we wouldn’t rather have it any other way. With the amount of pressure they apply and just how good they are.”
“I think the biggest thing for us is learning how to ย bounce back when things don’t go our way. You’re going to have a bad play, a bad series, but you can’t have bad quarters and halves, and I think we’re doing a really good job of that right now as an offense of just bouncing back faster and learning how to wash the last play. Honestly, that’s a really hard skill to develop is washingย that last play, whether it’s good or bad.”
Allar then gave an analogy that illustrates whatย Penn State’s quarterbacks are trying to do with the rest of the offense.
“We talk about being a thermostat vs. a thermometer, and I think, as a quarterback room, we’re doing a really good jobย of that,” he said. “When something doesn’t go right, we’re going to get guys back rallied and ready to go and it’s been paying off because in my first two years here, I don’t think we really had that…
Allar said that, in his first year as the starter, he had a hard time shaking it off when something went wrong.
He feels he’s taken a big step in that department this fall.
“I kind of dwelled on things when things didn’t go my way,” he said. “I think I’ve done a better job of learning how to flush that, and then whenever I go back and watch the film, just learning from that. So, I think that’s the biggest thing that we’ve taken a step in as an offense through these past four of five practices. So it’s just been cool to see.
Allar knows not everything will go his way, but also knows bouncing back from setbacks will be big in Penn State reaching its goals.
“Obviously, the defense is going to get us on some plays just because that’s how football goes and that’s how talented they are,” he said. “So it’s been really fun competing against them, and I’m just looking forward to competing against them with however many practices we have left of fall camp.”
