INDIANAPOLIS– Penn State QB Drew Allar came back to school because he wanted to win a national championship.
Had Allar declared for the draft after his junior season, he could have gone in the top 10.
But with Penn State coming within a drive of making the national title game and bringing back several other key contributors, such as RBs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton, Allar had every reason to believe Penn State could win it all in 2025.
It didn’t turn out that way. Collectively, Penn State went from being a national title favorite to its coach, James Franklin, being fired halfway through the season. Individually, Allar broke his left ankle Oct. 12 against Northwestern, thus ending his college football career.
Instead of Allar’s college career ending by hoisting the national championship trophy on a January night in Miami, it ended with him being carted to the locker room on a mid-October afternoon in State College.
When speaking with reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Friday, Feb. 26, Allar reflected on his decision to stay and whether he’d do things the same way if he knew the outcome.
Despite everything he’s gone through, Allar would do it again.
“Yeah, I think I would have,” Allar said. Obviously, it’s not what I envisioned. I’m a firm believer in ‘everything happens for a reason.’ I’ve just taken this opportunity through this injury to better myself, both as a person, teammate and as a player. So I wouldn’t change a thing. Everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that, and I know everything’s going to work out for the best in the long run.”
Allar also wanted to come back to increase his development before leaving college.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I think experience is one of a quarterback’s best friends,” he said. “The more pictures you can see throughout your college career, I feel better prepared you are for the NFL. Obviously, it’s a different game. I’m glad to learn NFL defenses and all that sort of thing. But the more familiar you can get with those pictures, I feel like the more successful you could be.”
Unfortunately, Allar spent the last two and a half months of Penn State’s season having to focus on rehab.
All he could do was try to make the best of it, and ended up going to California to train for the draft.
He credited the Penn State training staff for getting him ready.
“It happened at somewhat of a good time, where I was at rehab at school for the remainder of the season after I was hurt. So I was fortunate enough to be around a training staff that really helped me prepare myself and get myself in a good position, so when I got out to California to start training for the pre-draft process, I was at a really good spot.”
Allar had never experienced a significant injury before.
“It was definitely challenging,” he said. “It’s the first injury I’ve really had to deal with in a substantial amount of rehab. But I took it as an opportunity to grow and learn and better myself, whether that was physically with my ankle or just flexibility-wise, working on all aspects of myself as a person and like an athlete. So it was a fun process. I’ve had a lot of good people between PT and athletic trainers and coaches in general who have helped me throughout the process. So it’s been a fun one.”
Allar said he’s fully healthy and thus will be able to throw at the Combine and at Penn State’s Pro Day, scheduled for March 18, although he said he won’t be running.
