From Philadelphia to State College, the Fourth Down Push

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is every bit his 6-foot-5, 242 pound frame. He might not move as fast as some of his predecessors, but he has the power, and in ultra-short fourth down situations, all you really need is your very large quarterback to go under center, and then push him forward.

Last weekend against Iowa, Penn State employed that strategy on three occasions, lining Allar under center and pushing him past the line to gain. It’s a move that the Philadelphia Eagles have popularized in the NFL, pushing super-strong quarterback Jalen Hurts over the line and moving the chains in the process. As a result the Eagles have turned into a historically great fourth down team in those circumstances. It has led some commentators to question if the rule should be changed back, but much like the NCAA — which changed the rule in 2014 — the NFL ultimately deemed “pushing a runner” to be a difficult thing to adjudicate.

Whatever the technicalities might be aside, Penn State has turned into a solid fourth down team the past few seasons, this year’s 8-for-9 mark only finding one failure under quarterback Beau Pribula against Illinois. Otherwise, the Nittany Lions continue to move the chains, and are happy to use all four downs to do it.

“I also would say we have gone for it on fourth down as a philosophy coming into the season,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week. “For a while you couldn’t do it. Then they changed it and said you could. It’s going to be interesting if this one stays. But yeah, I think it has been good. I think your point of a 240-pound quarterback helps. Being 6′-5″ helps. Our offensive line and tight ends help.”

Penn State’s approach to fourth down in general has been an interesting progression to watch. In 2022, Penn State converted 21 of its 30 attempts on fourth down, and with this year’s totals taken into consideration, has converted 29 of its last 39 attempts, a 74% clip. In the previous three years combined Penn State converted on 34 total attempts. For another comparison, Penn State’s stretch of success in 2016, 2017 and 2018 saw the Nittany Lions never convert more than 10 attempts. Then again, as Penn State scored points in bulk during the 2017 season, 14 attempts on fourth down was a reflection of the rarity of fourth down as much as anything else.

But in general, the mode toward fourth down is changing, and Penn State is calling the game accordingly.

“Within the coaching community, it definitely has because everybody is using some form of analytics now,” Franklin said last season. “We use a company, and we know everybody else in the conference and the teams we play who uses the same company, so they’re getting the same recommendations that we are. So that’s always interesting.

“[But] I think within the coaching community there is no doubt that there has been a shift. I would say a pretty significant shift. … really the data is pretty significant. I think a perfect example of that is — again, it goes back to execution — but I think a perfect example of that is the one on Saturday where we punted it, shanked the punt. I think it ended up being a 16-yard punt, and there is one where really the data at that time was saying that punt was the right choice. But then after you punt it you only really net 16 yards, so you’re like, really wasn’t necessarily worth it. Probably should have went for it there. But you can’t think like that based on the result, although we all like to.”

Fourth down shouldn’t make a difference on Saturday when Penn State takes on Northwestern, but as the games get bigger and bigger, the Nittany Lions will be glad it might only take a little push to get over the hump.