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ALLAR SZN is upon us!
It’s time for our annual season top 10! Each summer, the staff votes on its top 10 players ahead of the upcoming season. A first place vote is worth 10 points, second place is worth nine points, and so on.
Reminder: This is a Top 10 for how the players will produce this season. It’s not just based on what they have done in their career up to this point. Instead, it’s how we think they will play this coming season.
HOW HE GOT HERE
When he first committed to Penn State back in March 2021, Drew Allar was a three-star quarterback who had yet to blow up on the national scene. By the time he had officially sent in his Letter of Intent to PSU in December 2021, he was the top-rated QB in the 2022 signing class, and was part of the much-vaunted 2022 class that James Franklin and staff hauled in, including Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Drew Shelton, and Dani Dennis-Sutton.
After enrolling early in January 2022 along with fellow QB classmate Beau Pribula, Allar went through Spring ball as the No. 3 QB on the roster at best, behind backup Christian Veilleux and fourth-year starter Sean Clifford. It was during that Summer of 2022 though, that the light started to come on for Drew, as his natural physical tools fused with his grasp of the playbook, allowing him to supplant Veilleux as Cliff’s backup.
Allar’s first bit of actual game action as a freshman came much sooner than expected, when he was called in to sub for Cliff early in the second half in the season opener against Purdue. A lot of folks in Allar’s situation would’ve succumbed to the pressure and just looked to make the “safe” play, but Drew stood there in the pocket and fired some nice, accurate, zingers to his targets downfield, including one of the most beautiful incomplete passes I’ve ever seen that went right off the chest of Tyler Warren, who clearly was not expecting to be hit in the numbers with a Purdue defender right on his tail.
Drew would go on to appear in ten total games in the 2022 season (mainly in garbage time), connecting on 35 of 60 total passes for four TD’s and no interceptions, and even tacking on a rushing TD. Not only did he gain valuable experience in terms of playing time, but also as an understudy to Cliff.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2023
Even though James Franklin has insisted ad nauseum that there were will be a “competition” at QB during Fall camp, we all know it’s only a matter of time before Allar is officially named the starter for the West Virginia game. Not only does Drew have the benefit of playing some last season and learning under Cliff, but he’s also Mike Yurcich’s hand-picked guy, one that Yurcich thinks can execute his offense as he envisions.
Most importantly, Allar is surrounded by a bunch of key pieces, including Singleton/Allen in the backfield, a quality offensive line to keep him in the pocket long enough to work through his reads, a stud in the making at tight end in Theo Johnson, and a wide receiver room chock full of potential that has been slept on and is looking to put the rest of the college football universe on notice. If he can put it altogether and live up to his five-star billing, the sky is the limit for Drew Allar and the Penn State offense in 2023.
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By: Tim Aydin
Title: Penn State Preseason Top 10: No. 7 Drew Allar
Sourced From: www.blackshoediaries.com/2023/8/8/23822156/penn-state-preseason-top-10-no-7-drew-allar
Published Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:00:00 +0000
