From the outset Drew Allar has always been in a difficult spot. Compared to Trace McSorley and Sean Clifford who came to Penn State with modest credentials, Allar enters every game with the expectations of a kid who was once rated the best quarterback prospect of his recruiting class. Where McSorley and Clifford were perpetually overachieving what people once expected out of them (you’ll recall McSorley was often recruited as a safety) Allar will always be held up against the standard of what people think he can become.
How close Allar got to achieving that in 2023 is a mixed bag. Allar did a lot of things well and left a lot on the table to get better at. An underwhelming receiving corps and a headstrong offensive approach did little to help his cause either. Penn State could end up with two more years of Allar, to what degree that is a blessing or a curse in a 12-team playoff world remains to be seen. For now, here’s a look back on Allar’s season, and a grade to go with it right out of gates.
*This grade doesn’t address Beau Pribula who did a lot of good things for Penn State this year but very few of them were as an actual quarterback. He probably gets a B for running the ball well but any claim that Pribula is a better quarterback than Allar is based on a lot of wishful thinking and not a lot of evidence. All of that is a debate for a different time in a different story.*
Grade: C
The Good: There was an argument to be made at the start of Penn State’s season that Drew Allar didn’t really need to be a better passer than Sean Clifford but rather he simply needed to make a few better decisions with the ball than his predecessor did. In a lot of respects Clifford was a good quarterback, but his propensity for the poorly timed mental error or what appeared to be a comfortability with taking unnecessary chances in the Nittany Lions’ biggest games of the season was often Penn State’s achilles heel in those moments. For Allar the question wasn’t so much “could he make all the throws?” but to what degree he would be willing to try to make them when he didn’t need to. With a season in the books you can’t really says Allar spent the year taking chances, and whatever his shortcomings may have been, turnovers weren’t one of them. From the position of “don’t do anything dumb” Allar was about as good as you could ask for. To what degree he lived by that mantra too often is a different discussion.
On paper Allar completed 59.9% of his passes and his 2,631 yards finishes 12th all-time just behind Anthony Morelli in 2007 just ahead of Daryll Clark in 2008 in terms of seasonal yardage. 25 passing touchdowns is third all-time behind two different Trace McSorley seasons and while there were a few that should-have-been, two interceptions all year is about as good as you can ask for. Allar broke the 200-yard mark on seven occasions with Penn State winning six of those seven games.
When it’s all said and done Allar proved that he can make all of the throws, showed glimpses of why scouts think so highly of him and was smart with the ball far more often than not. Penn State won 10 games because of it. A honorable mention to Allar’s pocket presence, if he sees the first guy coming he can often make him miss simply by stepping up. Not all quarterbacks can do that.
The Not So Good: If you were waiting for a moment when Drew Allar looked like the quarterback Penn State fans have been waiting for, those moments were few and far between. Allar did a lot of things well – especially considering some of the limitations around him – but it’s safe to say he didn’t raise the level of his teammates’ play in a way that helped them overcome their own shortcomings. There were throws Allar made that some recent Penn State quarterbacks couldn’t have, but the overall results were about the same as they’ve always been. From the standpoint of Allar providing Penn State was something new, he came up short. Why that’s the case doesn’t fall just on his shoulders.
For as poised as Allar seemed most of the time, there were also times when he didn’t see the field well, threw behind some targets, looked a bit in over his head and left some points out there. By the time Penn State got to Ohio State and Michigan on the schedule it was pretty clear that the Nittany Lions had bigger issues on offense than just Allar, but he didn’t do much to make them better either. He finished the year completing less than 50% of his passes in four of Penn State’s final seven games.
Overall: Drew Allar’s first season as a starter didn’t strike fear into the hearts of Penn State’s opponents but some degree of the criticism he faced has a lot more to do with the quarterback people are hoping he turns into than the quarterback he is right now. How much you think a quarterback should be able to overcome factors outside of his control will inform how you view this season. He absolutely could have done more, he also absolutely could have used more help. This grade is an attempt to be a reflection of both.
See all of the Positional Grades HERE.
