Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is no stranger to the spotlight, even if his performances haven’t always lived up to expectations.
Now midway through his fourth year on campus and third as the full-time starter, Allar has already played in three White Out games (2023 vs. Iowa, 2024 vs. Washington, and 2024 vs. SMU), plus a high-intensity “White Out Energy” matchup against Illinois. He’s also faced tough road environments at Ohio State, Wisconsin and West Virginia (at least for the first quarter).
And while he’s only secured one win in six games against top-10 opponents, the experience has been valuable.
“I think you can prepare all you want to be the quarterback at Penn State, and I’m not undervaluing the preparation that they need to do to become the star quarterback at Penn State,” said head coach James Franklin. “But the reality is, there’s an aspect that until you’re actually back there and dealing with everything that comes with it, it’s hard to totally prepare for that.”
Allar has also played in major postseason contests, including three New Year’s Six bowls, three College Football Playoff games, and last season’s Big Ten title game—a 45-37 loss to Oregon. He’ll get a shot at redemption on Saturday when the Ducks return to Beaver Stadium.
“I took a lot of things away from that game,” Allar said. “I think overall, I played pretty well throughout that game. Obviously, the two turnovers kind of hurt us, so just learning from those things.”
On the other side, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore enters Saturday with much less big-game experience.
Now in his third year of college football, Moore has limited starts under his belt. His two most challenging matchups came during his freshman season at UCLA, both on the road against ranked teams. He struggled in both: a 14-7 loss at Utah where he went 15-for-35 passing for 234 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and a loss at Oregon State where he completed just 14 of 33 passes for 165 yards, tossing one touchdown and three interceptions.
Neither Rice-Eccles Stadium nor Reser Stadium is known as a particularly daunting environment, especially compared to a Penn State White Out. How Moore will handle Saturday night, when over 110,000 fans are expected to pack Beaver Stadium with the primary goal of disrupting his gameplay, remains to be seen.
That said, Moore appears to have improved significantly as a junior. His decision to transfer to Oregon has paid off statistically, but he has yet to face an atmosphere like this one.
With two evenly matched teams on paper, experience could be the difference-maker, and Penn State has it in spades. From Allar down to the offensive line and secondary, the Nittany Lions field a more battle-tested roster. Allar said he’s learned “how to handle things” when playing in close games.
“It’s going to be a heavyweight fight between two really talented teams with really great coaching staffs on both sides of the ball,” Allar said. “So it’s going to be a fun matchup from that standpoint … So we’re gonna land shots, they’re gonna land shots. It’s just about how you respond to those things and really bounce back.”
