Years ago a college sophomore version of Saquon Barkley walked across an empty Lasch Building lobby and stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Saquon,” he said with equal parts charm and what appeared to be a surprising degree of nerves. He sat, he talked and the rest was history.
Fast forward to 2023 and Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is tucked away in a small corner office looking at a computer screen just down the hall from where Barkley offered his hand. Allar has done a smattering of group interviews over the past few months, but this is his first one-on-one since coming to Penn State. It is the start of his life fully in the public eye. After a year of learning how to read Big Ten defenses and getting thrown into the fire on more than a few occasions, the pressure to match his potential increases by the day.
Here he is, the quarterbacking wonder boy, ready to save the day. No pressure kid.
But let’s not forget the introductions.
“Hi, I’m Drew,” he says in an incredible moment of déjà vu.
The last few years of Allar’s life have been a whirlwind. Developed in the dark turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, Allar’s recruiting profile laid dormant until the lead-up to his senior season. You couldn’t travel; how in the world could you evaluate a kid living on a football field in Ohio? So Allar incubated, sharpening his skills, honing his talents and getting bigger and stronger all the while.
Come out the other end and you’ve got one of the best quarterback prospects in the nation. Hello, America. Meet Drew Allar.
“It’s hard to put it into words really,” Allar told StateCollege.com. “I would say it’s been like something I’ve always dreamed of doing. Ever since I’ve been a little kid I’ve always dreamed of playing college football at a historic school like this, so it’s really a dream come true for me. A lot of experiences that I’ll never forget, especially over this past year, like the trip out to California for the Rose Bowl. I always dreamed of playing in that game since I was a little kid. So you know, it’s kind of come full circle for me so far.”
Allar’s boyish looks coupled with a 6-foot-4, 240 pound frame make him a recognizable and noticeable figure even on Penn State’s expansive campus. And once people know you, once everyone knows you, that sense of normalcy your life once had never really returns. In fact, Allar’s life will probably never be the same. If anything his life will become increasingly unique as the days tick along. People already know his face and he hasn’t even done all that much yet. He’s hard to miss and easy to remember. Just days prior to this interview, a rumor bounced around Twitter that Allar was seen riding a scooter often reserved for injured players. Allar laughed at the moment, another sign things just aren’t the same anymore.
“Just being recognized around campus and around when I’m back home in Medina,” Allar said of the first sign his life was changing. “I would say that’s the only thing that’s kind of different … It’s definitely a blessing to have. But you know, it definitely gets overwhelming at times, though.”
Allar and Barkley are similar in some unavoidable ways even if they’re vastly different in others. Both are players tasked with using their God given talents to carry a football team as far as they can, even if Barkley may never fully feel the pressure a quarterback does to orchestrate an entire offense. A talented running back room and a bevy of receivers and tight ends will help the cause, but the ball always starts in the quarterback’s hands. For better or worse, whatever happens next will often come back to him.
In the context of James Franklin’s time at Penn State, Allar also represents something of a last gasp at doing what has escaped the Nittany Lions for the past decade. Franklin’s tenure may not end with Allar, but Allar is the quarterback the program has longed for. That in and of itself comes with challenges and pressures that Allar never asked for but is saddled with all the same. If he can’t do it, who will? If Franklin can’t win with the best quarterback prospect Penn State has had in decades, then what can he win with?
In some respects, Allar may never be more interesting than he is right now, standing on the precipice of expectations with hope and optimism. It’s a unique thing to see someone face down the start of a long and treacherous marathon and take those first steps with a smile. What happens next will determine much about the future of Penn State football, and much of that future will come down to the arm and mind of a kid not even old enough to buy beer. Quite the thing to sign up for.
“I just want to see where we can go as a team,” Allar said. “Because I know we definitely have the potential, especially building off a year like we had last year, so I’m really looking forward to the future. Just going through these workouts and spring ball and seeing what we have as a team and just seeing how much work we’ve already put in this year. And how hungry we are. I’m really looking forward to just getting the pads back on and going out there and playing against one of the best defenses in the country. I’m just looking forward to seeing where we can take this thing.”
Away from the field, Allar will have to battle with the life that comes with being Penn State’s quarterback. Everywhere he turns people will want a piece of him. His name image and likeness ventures are handled by CAA, one of the largest and most powerful agencies in the world. How do you even begin to find authenticity in all of that? How do you even begin to find a safe space in world like that? It will take learning on the fly, but the good thing about good athletes is that they often didn’t get there on their own.
In a perfect world you’re insulated, but there’s a loneliness in that as well. Everyone deserves friends, happiness and companionship. The challenge is finding it.
“Talks with my parents,” Allar said of finding authenticity. “They’ve really helped me along this process. And Sean [Clifford] has helped me a ton … Sean provided a lot of invaluable experiences to the whole room. From all the things he had to go through, all the ups and downs — what he didn’t like how he handled and what he did like how he handled. So I think his experiences have really helped me get a greater perspective on things and what to look out for and just, I guess, tells for people that are in it for me and invested in me and want to see me do the best be the best I can be. Or for people that want me to be the best so they can get something out of it. So I think that has really helped me a lot — his experiences overall and talks with my parents.”
Ask Allar point blank how good he thinks he can be and he politely and deftly dodges the question. It’s the safe play. Nobody has benefited from talking a big game without having even started one. But there is an understanding behind his smile: maybe players do their best not to get caught up in the hype, but they can read what’s written, and yes they do read it. You don’t get into the business of high level athletics without some understanding of where you fit into the bigger picture or without at least a passing curiosity what everyone thinks. You also don’t end up being one of the top prospects in the nation by thinking you’re just an average one.
But for all the hype, Allar understands he still has to go out and perform. To his credit his confidence seems rooted in the work he has put in over the years and not so much the things he has been told to believe about himself. He’s got some swagger behind the his quiet humble nature, but you’ve got to dig it out of him a bit and read between the lines.
“I would say nobody has higher expectations for me than myself,” Allar said. “I put a lot of things on my plate that I’m trying to work at and get better at. I would say I put a good amount of pressure on myself but never never too much. I love the grind and the process [almost] more than I like the results. I think that has really helped me be in this position because, like you said earlier, I wasn’t a top-ranked guy or whatever we want to call it, but I just fell in love with the grind and the process and everything else took care of itself.”
From here on out things are more real than they’ve ever been before. Allar had to prepare last season like he was going to start, but for as long as Clifford could stand on two feet there was safety in the quarterback room. The job wasn’t Allar’s just yet.
And then that day finally came when Clifford’s long career drew to a close. A picture-perfect curtain call at the Rose Bowl under a rainy Pasadena sky, an empty locker in the Lasch Building and meeting rooms with no more No. 14. For all the good Clifford did at Penn State, it’s poetic that the quarterback of the future is looking to do just a bit more and will give it an honest effort in a No. 15 jersey. Just a bit more than 14, just a bit further than 14.
“I was definitely sad to see him go just because he was a great friend,” Allar said. “He was a great mentor to everybody, not just the quarterbacks but everybody on the team. All the younger guys and all the older guys that really looked up to him. So I would say just from that standpoint, I definitely miss being around him because he’s a great guy just to be around and talk to and joke with. But as far as for the quarterback room now, I think we’re doing a really good job of competing against each other and pushing each other but also we have a really, really tight room where we’re also very supportive of each other and helping each other. So I think we have the best of both worlds right now.”
It’s worth noting, as Allar quietly points out, nobody has been named the starting quarterback yet. There’s still the business of earning the job, even if nobody — perhaps not even Allar’s sophomore counterpart Beau Pribula — thinks anyone but Allar will get the nod when it’s all said and done.
When that day finally comes, Allar will have arrived in the role so many have been eager to see him in for so long. There will be learning along the way, Allar is more often a quieter leader than not, something of an opposite from Clifford’s fiery demeanor. Allar might learn to be that way in the long run, but unique arm angles, powerful throws and pinpoint accuracy might do the talking for him.
If you can ball, they’ll follow you.
“I’m more of a lead-by-example type of guy, at least right now,” Allar said. “I’m working on just becoming a little bit more vocal. I think I’m doing a good job of that but definitely a lot of room to improve right there. From my standpoint, I wanted to come in here and work as hard as I can and be the same guy every day. And I think I’ve done a good job of that so far.
“Just from the first time I stepped on campus, just being the same guy that I was when I got here. And I think just from that standpoint, you know you’re becoming a leader when other guys know you’re gonna go into a workout and you’re never going to give up. You’re always going to push through it no matter the pain or the hardship that you’re gonna go through. Just like the season, it’s gonna be hard at times and it’s all about how you respond to adversity and I think the whole team has done a really good job with that throughout winter workouts, just holding each other accountable. And just making sure that we’re all living up to the standard and surpassing the standard because at the end of the day, we have goal huge goals for our team here this year, but we had to bring everybody along and hold everybody accountable and is up to the standard.”
Allar knows that the honeymoon period won’t last forever. He’s going to make mistakes down the road, and it seems probable that he will lose a game or four between now and the end of his career. If he learned anything from watching Clifford’s swan song, he knows that the love comes and goes. Heavy lies the crown, so to speak.
A reminder for another day when Allar isn’t perfect, handed out by a kid just living a dream.
“I’m probably more mad about it than they are,” Allar says with a smile on the thoughts of third-down incompletions. “Because you know, I’m not trying to go out there and throw incompletions or miss reads. At the same time, I love to have fun [but I’m competitive] and they’re not going to be more upset than I am.”
But then again, if he turns out to be the quarterback everyone thinks he can be, maybe nobody will leave this pivotal era upset. Time will tell, but the story begins now.
