Since stepping foot in Happy Valley, the expectations for highly rated QB Drew Allar have been through the roof. Expectations of reaching the College Football Playoff, an explosive offense, and being the pinnacle of college football is what the entrance of Allar brought to the Nittany Lions. Most fans would say that the career of Allen and the Penn State Football team the past year has left way more to desire. Allar’s season was very weird statistically. He arguably had the best ball security of any quarterback in the country, throwing only two interceptions to 25 touchdowns, but had a completion percentage under 60%.
I think the main problem with Allar was that he was BAD in every big game Penn State had this year. Against Ohio State he had a completion percentage of 42.9% and the Nittany Lions were having fits getting a lot going of offense. Michigan, which was Allar’s worst game of the year, went 10-23 with 70 yards. For your big-time quarterback this performance was unacceptable. In the bowl game against Ole Miss, Allar had a completion percentage of 48.7% and once again the Penn State offense had offensive woes in a big game.
Backup QB Beau Pribula had some success in his stints behind center. He was used more as a wildcat option and predominately ran the ball, but maybe that is what is needed more of for this offense to click. This is a “win now” season for the Nittany Lions and I do not think there will be a ton of patience for Allar to get settled in. A lot of pressure on the once-top-rated QB and we will see where he takes the Nittany Lions this season.