{"id":72933,"date":"2025-03-14T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T19:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=72933"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:32:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:32:57","slug":"who-is-the-qb2-behind-drew-allar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/03\/14\/who-is-the-qb2-behind-drew-allar\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the QB2 Behind Drew Allar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no doubt that the Penn State Nittany Lions are a team built to win NOW. \u00a0The heat is on head coach James Franklin, between seasoned starters that are returning and transfers that will be depended on to contribute.\u00a0 Advancing to the College Football Playoffs (CFP) semifinals has left the team and fans wanting more.\u00a0 A key determining factor in winning the title next season will be the performance of quarterback Drew Allar<\/a>.\u00a0 Regarding contingency planning, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki needs to consider the backup quarterback spot, and importantly, who is the QB2 behind Drew?<\/p>\n

Who is the QB2 Behind Drew Allar?<\/h2>\n

Not As They Drew It Up<\/h3>\n

While Drew Allar can be described as a successful Penn State quarterback overall, his performance in big games has made him an enigma.\u00a0 His statistics are great against most teams.\u00a0 Seeing Ohio State, Michigan, and other big-time programs (most recently Notre Dame<\/a>) across the line of scrimmage turns Allar into a quarterback that is average at best.\u00a0 Those performances are certainly not how Franklin, Kotelnicki, and Allar drew it up.\u00a0 Following last season, despite NFL Draft rumors, he stuck with his original plan of returning for his senior season.\u00a0 The trio will have one more chance to win it all.<\/p>\n

Last season, Allar completed 66.5% of his passes for 3,327 yards with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions.\u00a0 However, for both Allar and the team, it is imperative that he performs well in the biggest spots this coming season.\u00a0 To help him get over some of the big game struggles, Penn State recently hired<\/a> Trace McSorley as an assistant coach.\u00a0 Additionally, Allar works with arguably the best running back tandem<\/a> in the country, which is Nick Singleton<\/a> and Kaytron Allen<\/a>.\u00a0 However, Allar will be breaking in a new set of receivers<\/a>, with Kyron Hudson<\/a> and Devonte Ross<\/a> replacing Trey Wallace and Omari Evans.\u00a0 These players\u2019 ability to quickly mesh will be needed to replace the production of tight end\/running back\/quarterback Tyler Warren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Success is there for the taking for Allar and the Nittany Lions.\u00a0 However, what if Allar gets injured or struggles mightily?\u00a0 The key question then revolves around the backup.\u00a0 Who is the QB2 behind Drew?<\/p>\n

The Pribula Problem<\/h3>\n

The least popular person on the roster is the backup quarterback.\u00a0 Nobody really wants to see him play.\u00a0 He is not an important part of the team until he is.\u00a0 In one play, the backup quarterback easily moves from the least important to the most important player on the entire team.\u00a0 For Penn State, the hope is that Allar makes it through the whole season and performs up to his vast potential.\u00a0 However, hope is not a strategy.\u00a0 If Allar gets injured or underperforms, there needs to be a Plan B.\u00a0 That is where it gets interesting.<\/p>\n

Entering last season, Penn State had Beau Pribula<\/a> on the roster.\u00a0 A change of pace from Allar, Pribula is a dual-threat quarterback who could both throw and run the football.\u00a0 There were plays that were designed for him in Kotelnicki\u2019s offense, so he got to see the field.\u00a0 However, playing behind Allar meant Pribula had to wait his turn for the starting job.\u00a0 When the signs started pointing to Allar returning to Happy Valley, Pribula faced a tough decision.\u00a0 He ultimately decided to enter the transfer portal<\/a> before the end of the season.\u00a0 In doing that, he missed the playoffs but got an early start on the process that ultimately landed him at Missouri.<\/p>\n

With Pribula leaving, Franklin and Kotelnicki were put in a tough spot.\u00a0 There was no experienced backup behind Allar for the playoff run.\u00a0 It was a conundrum that is similar to what they face in this off-season.\u00a0 While there are options on the roster, they lack experience.<\/p>\n

A Lot To Figure Out This Spring<\/h3>\n

Heading into Spring practice, determining the backup quarterback will be an important task.\u00a0 The options currently on the roster have a combined two pass attempts.\u00a0 Allar will be focused on building a rapport with his new receivers.\u00a0 Other than that, he should not see too many reps.\u00a0 That should open the door for Ethan Grunkemeyer<\/a> and Jaxon Smolik<\/a> to make their cases to be QB2 behind Drew.<\/p>\n

Grunkemeyer, a true freshman last season, ended up being the backup quarterback for Penn State during the playoff run.\u00a0 Luckily for Allar and the Nittany Lions, Grunkemeyer did not see the field for meaningful snaps in the playoffs.\u00a0 He did enter the SMU game<\/a>, which Penn State handily won.\u00a0 His first pass attempt was intercepted, though he completed the second attempt for a nine-yard gain.<\/p>\n

Smolik, a redshirt freshman last year, was injured and missed the entire season.\u00a0 Smolik entered one game in 2023 against Delaware.\u00a0 However, he did not throw a pass.\u00a0 After missing all of last season, he will look to reestablish himself in the offense.\u00a0 The good news is that Penn State has options.\u00a0 The challenge is that the options do not come with much experience.\u00a0 This will be a big storyline to watch through Spring practice.\u00a0\u00a0 However, it is unlikely to have an announced winner any time soon, for fear of the quarterback not chosen as the QB2 behind Drew to follow Pribula to the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no doubt that the Penn State Nittany Lions are a team built to win NOW. \u00a0The heat is on head coach James Franklin, between seasoned starters that are returning and transfers that will be depended on to contribute.\u00a0 Advancing to the College Football Playoffs (CFP) semifinals has left the team and fans wanting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":72938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10906,2,35610],"tags":[32817,837,8764,309,7524,225,34200],"class_list":["post-72933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-cfb","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-james-franklin","tag-omari-evans","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-penn-state-quarterbacks","tag-trace-mcsorley","tag-trey-wallace"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72933"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72940,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933\/revisions\/72940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}