Drew Allar of Medina, Ohio, who will start for the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions on Saturday vs. third-ranked Ohio State in Ohio Stadium, is just the latest in a rapidly growing line of high-caliber quarterbacks from the Buckeye State who chose to play their college football in Pennsylvania.
That’s a lot of Ohio’s in one sentence — especially when Allar plays for Penn State.
Allar, who wears No. 15, follows in the footsteps of No. 14 Sean Clifford of Cincinnati, Ohio, who was a four-year starter for Penn State and twice led his team into The Horseshoe with little luck — he was 0-4 as a starter vs. his home state Buckeyes.
A decade before Clifford started a record 46 games for Penn State, No. 17 Daryll Clark of Youngstown, Ohio, led Penn State to identical 11-2 records, plus a share of a Big Ten title, on his way to being the Nittany Lions’ only two-time All-Big Ten Conference quarterback.
Allar, potentially, could be succeeded by Ethan Grunkemeyer of Lewis Center, Ohio, who is a senior at Olentangy High School — 8-1 going into its Senior Night game against Marysville on Friday — and has verbally committed to attend Penn State in 2024.
That’s a lot of QB border-hopping. Which is not new.
THE START OF IT ALL
John Shaffer of Cincinnati, Ohio, credits a fellow No. 14 — Todd Blackledge of North Canton, Ohio — with pioneering that Ohio-to-Penn State quarterback pipeline.
“It’s an honor to be included in this group,” Shaffer said this week, “but let’s remember that it ALL started with Todd. He was the original. ‘We’ came after Todd and hopefully did our best to uphold and continue what he started.”
In a span of five seasons in the 1980s, Blackledge and Shaffer led Penn State football to two national championships.
Blackledge did it with a big brain and a big arm, guiding Penn State to an 11-1 record and a Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia that gave Joe Paterno his first national title in 1982. He was 29-4 as a starter and was a first-round NFL Draft pick.
Shaffer followed suit in unsimilar fashion. He led with a big brain and a big heart, guiding Penn State to a perfect 12-0 mark and a 14-10 win over Miami (Fla.) in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl that gave PSU its second title in a short span. Shaffer was 25-1 as a starter at Penn State, the lone loss coming in the 1986 Orange Bowl. Overall, Shaffer was 66-1 as a starting QB, from eighth grade in Cincinnati to a senior high school season where he led legendary Moeller High School to a 13-0 record and a mythical national championship.
“In Ohio, we take our high school football seriously. It matters!” Shaffer said. “I was kidding Sean Clifford before last year’s Rutgers game that Moeller had just beaten his high school team, St. Xavier. I think we have a special bond among the Penn State quarterbacks from Ohio.”
In part, it’s because of the priority that the Buckeye State places on high school football, the toughness that is part of its brand and the elevated stature of a Penn State quarterback, with the accompanying pressure.
“The preparation I received at Moeller, the competition I played against in high school in Ohio, the sophistication of our offense — it was so important,” Shaffer said. “The crowds were amazing. We played in front of 21,000 people for our home games and 42,000 people in our state championship game against Massillon — and Chris Spielman — which we won. All of it helped prepare me for Penn State and the pressures to come. I think all of the Ohio-to-Penn State quarterbacks can say the same thing. The foundations of our future success started in Ohio.”
WHAT A PATERNO SAYS
Jay Paterno, who coached quarterbacks at Penn State for many years — including Clark — and also counted Ohio as part of his recruiting territory, readily agrees.
“I think for the guys I know best — Blackledge, Shaffer and Clark — Penn State was the right fit for them and they were the right fit for Penn State,” said Paterno, who co-hosts with former PSU defensive coordinator Tom Bradley both a television and a radio show focused on Penn State football.
“This place is not for everyone. And for those guys the success personally and the team championships they won certainly proved that they were the right guys. But whether it is one of those guys, or Allar or Clifford, the general mindset of Ohio high school football has always been toughness, team-first and at every high school football was really important.”
In Ohio, football is the No. 1 sport from border to border, all 220 miles of it.
“In Ohio, football is the most important high school sport in every town and city,” Paterno said. “In a state like Pennsylvania, when you go to Philly, basketball takes on the most importance in many of those schools. But in Ohio that’s not the case. Heck, I even remember watching LeBron James play high school football through his junior year, even though everyone knew by the time he reached 10th grade that he was going to the NBA.
“So when those Ohio QBs get to Penn State, they already get it.”
BLACKLEDGE NOT A BUCKEYE AT HEART
For his part, Blackledge acknowledges, “Ohio and Pennsylvania are border states that both take great pride in high school football.”
But, as Blackledge pointed out this week, he didn’t spend his life going to Buckeye games in The Horseshoe, as did Allar. His father Ron was a bit of a peripatetic football coach (are there any other kind?), going from Cincinnati to Kentucky to Princeton to Kent State to the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was coaching during Todd’s senior year at Penn State.
“I did not grow up as an Ohio kid dreaming of playing for Ohio State because my dad was a college coach at several places,” said Blackledge, who is the No. 1 college football analyst for NBC, and as such called Penn State’s 2023 season-opener in Beaver Stadium against West Virginia.
“During the recruiting process, Penn State turned out to be a better fit for me,” Blackledge said. “We were not in the Big Ten at that time, but we did play — and beat (31-19) — the Buckeyes in the 1980 Fiesta Bowl, which was a huge deal for me and my family.”
That Blackledge picked Penn State was an anomaly at the time. In fact, he was the first player from Ohio to ever start at quarterback for Penn State — though Joe Paterno heavily recruited Art Schlichter, who eventually decided upon his home state Buckeyes and was a four-year starter.
“Penn State has been recruiting players from Ohio for decades for all positions,” said Penn State football historian Lou Prato, who has written a half-dozen books about Penn State football. “But quarterbacks were a very low priority because there were great ones in Pennsylvania.
“For example, first team All-American Richie Lucas was from Glassport, Pa. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy race of 1959 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986. And Chuck Fusina was from McKees Rocks, also in Pennsylvania, and he was a first team All-American in 1978 who finished second in Heisman.”
| QB/Hometown | Years / record | Passing | TD / Int. | Distinction |
| Todd Blackledge Canton | 1980-82 / 29-4 (.879) | 341-658-4812 (51.8%) | 41 / 41 | ’82 National Title |
| John Shaffer Cincinnati | 1983 -86 / 25-1 (.962) | 262-547-3469 (47.9%) | 18 / 24 | ’86 National Title |
| Daryll Clark Youngstown | 2006-09 / 22-4 (.846) | 444-738-5742 (60.2%) | 43 / 16 | ’09 B10 POY |
| Sean Clifford Cincinnati | 2018-22 / 32-14 (.696) | 833-1356-10661 (61.4%) | 86 / 31 | 2 NY6 bowl wins |
| Drew Allar Medina | 2023 / 6-0 (1.000) | 153-241-1598 (63.5%) | 16 / 0 | AP No. 7 / 0 int. |
| Total | 114-23 (.832) | 2033-3540-26,282 (57.4%) | 204 / 112 |
NATIVE SONS ALLAR AND YURCICH
Allar, the No. 1 ranked high school quarterback by both 247 and On3, was recruited to Penn State by Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, a native of Ohio who had his eye on Allar in his previous stints at Ohio State (2019) and Texas (2020), and developed a very tight and trusting relationship with the entire Allar family.
Penn State head coach James Franklin is a self-proclaimed “Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart” who was a high school quarterback at Neshaminy (Pa.), then was a four-year letterman at quarterback and a two-time All-PSAC selection at East Stroudsburg. Through 120 games at Penn State, he’s yet to have a quarterback who played his high school football in Pennsylvania.
Christian Hackenberg and Trace McSorley both played their high school football in Virginia. Spot starters Will Levis (Connecticut) and Christian Veilleux (Canada) were not from the Keystone State either. Allar’s backup, Beau Pribula, is from Pennsylvania. So is Ohio State’s current starting quarterback, Kyle McCord.
But Franklin gets why Yurich has an affinity for guys from his home state, like Allar and Grunkemeyer. Yurcich, after all, is in the sports hall of fame at Euclid High School in Ohio, where he was 20-3 as a starting quarterback and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in passing yards and TDs.
“Let’s be honest, on top of it, (Yurcich) is from Ohio,” Franklin said this week. “If you got buddies and friends calling you about guys, it just is more natural to kind of find out about guys and be aware of guys that are from your area just because of the connections and the network you have.”
Shaffer, who was a successful executive on Wall Street, knows all about lucrative networks, on and off the field. He likes the one he belongs to in Pennsylvania the best.
“I am proud to be from Ohio and to have played football at Moeller,” he said. “I was proud to wear No. 14 and play quarterback at Penn State. To be included with Todd, Daryll, Sean and now Drew — well, that’s pretty cool.”
