{"id":73211,"date":"2025-03-29T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=73211"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:32:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:32:57","slug":"curious-quarterback-comments-at-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/03\/29\/curious-quarterback-comments-at-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Quarterback Comments at Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Spring ball progresses at Penn State, one of the major storylines for the Nittany Lions involves how head coach James Franklin handles his veterans.\u00a0 Fresh off a College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinals appearance<\/a>, Penn State is well-positioned heading into the 2025 season.\u00a0 However, Franklin had a surprisingly long list of items for senior starting quarterback, and returning captain, Drew Allar<\/a> to work on.\u00a0 Interestingly, something he did not list is a bigger unlock for his signal caller.\u00a0 Overall, Spring practice started with some curious quarterback comments at Penn State.<\/p>\n

James Franklin’s Curious QB Comments<\/h2>\n

Speaking of Drew Allar, Franklin said, \u201cHe needs to take another step when it comes to his mobility.\u00a0 He needs to take another step when it comes to his leadership.\u00a0 He needs to take another step in terms of his completion percentage.\u00a0 Needs to take another step in terms of his touchdown-interception ratio. [\u2026] Just being transparent, I will say I don\u2019t think it\u2019s one necessarily specific thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allar\u2019s statistics and measurables were solid and have improved over the past few years.\u00a0 What Franklin only barely touched on (with the leadership comment), and where Allar really needs to take his next step, is in the intangibles.\u00a0 In the immediate future, he needs to build rapport with his new receivers<\/a>.\u00a0 Additionally, he needs to finally win the \u201cbig\u201d game, more specifically a contest where Penn State is not favored.\u00a0 While the relatively vague and textbook answer from Franklin was likely a way to answer the question without a real answer, they were very curious quarterback comments as Spring Practice starts at Penn State.<\/p>\n

Statistically Speaking: Mobility<\/h3>\n

Drew Allar has put up statistics that would be the envy of most starting quarterbacks.\u00a0 In his two seasons as Penn State\u2019s full-time starter, he has improved.\u00a0 Of note, he continued to develop while playing for two different offensive coordinators.\u00a0 His statistics are good enough to win a national championship.\u00a0 That is what makes Franklin\u2019s quarterback comments so curious.<\/p>\n

The first area mentioned by Franklin is Allar\u2019s mobility.\u00a0 In last year\u2019s preseason, Allar was lauded for the development he showed in mobility.\u00a0 It is important to remember that Penn State has arguably the best running back room in the nation<\/a> with Nick Singleton<\/a> and Kaytron Allen<\/a>. Despite that, Allar produced on the ground last season.\u00a0 He was third on the team with 302 rushing yards.\u00a0 He added six rushing touchdowns.\u00a0 If Franklin wanted a dual-threat running quarterback, he had one.\u00a0 However, backup Beau Pribula<\/a> is now in Missouri after entering the transfer portal<\/a> at the beginning of last season\u2019s playoff run.<\/p>\n

Statistically Speaking: Throwing the Ball<\/h3>\n

Allar\u2019s stats in the passing game will be difficult to improve.\u00a0 This will be his second season in coordinator Andy Kotelnicki\u2019s offense.\u00a0 He will be working with Singleton and Allen again, who also contribute in the passing game.\u00a0 The offensive line should be a strength.\u00a0 However, Allar will also need to break in new receivers (Kyron Hudson<\/a> and Devonte Ross<\/a>), who came to the team via the transfer portal.\u00a0 Tight end Tyler Warren is off to the NFL, and his production will be difficult to replace.<\/p>\n

Franklin mentioned that Allar\u2019s completion percentage needs improvement.\u00a0 In his first season as a starter, Allar completed 59.9% of his passes.\u00a0 Last year, that improved to 66.5%.\u00a0 Yes, improving his completion percentage is possible.\u00a0 Consequently, Allar would need to take fewer chances down the field.\u00a0 In that scenario, defenses can begin stacking the box to stop short passes, which also adds to the difficulty in running the ball.<\/p>\n

A related stat, also mentioned by Franklin, is Allar\u2019s touchdown-interception ratio.\u00a0 Like completion percentage, maximizing this stat has other ramifications.\u00a0 In 2023, Allar\u2019s first season as a full-time starter, he had 25 touchdowns and only two interceptions.\u00a0 Last season, with more chances taken downfield, that ratio was 24 touchdowns to eight interceptions.\u00a0 However, his yards per attempt increased 25%, from 6.8 in 2023 to 8.4 in 2024.\u00a0 The incremental interceptions were a cost of a more balanced offense under Kotelnicki.\u00a0 Regardless, 49 touchdowns to 10 interceptions over two years is very impressive.<\/p>\n

What Really Needs to Improve<\/h3>\n

It is no secret that Allar and the Penn State offense have teed off on lesser competition.\u00a0 The statistics look very different when he faces the best competition.\u00a0 Allar turns into a pedestrian quarterback at best against the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame.\u00a0 That is where he needs to improve, in approach and attitude.<\/p>\n

While he did not mention this big game dynamic in his Spring practice Allar assessment, Franklin likely realizes this.\u00a0 To help, Franklin went back to a prior Penn State quarterback to help out.\u00a0 Trace McSorley was hired<\/a> during this offseason as an assistant coach.\u00a0 If he helps Allar step up in the biggest of contests, he will provide a great return on investment.<\/p>\n

Spring Practice is only 15 days.\u00a0 The greatest accomplishment coming out of the cycle will be good health across the roster and rapport built between Allar and his new weapons. Allar, as a returning captain from last season, should be more focused on leading the team and building the mental fortitude to compete with the best.\u00a0 That will ensure success more than looking to satisfy Franklin\u2019s curious quarterback comments at Penn State.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Spring ball progresses at Penn State, one of the major storylines for the Nittany Lions involves how head coach James Franklin handles his veterans.\u00a0 Fresh off a College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinals appearance, Penn State is well-positioned heading into the 2025 season.\u00a0 However, Franklin had a surprisingly long list of items for senior starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":73220,"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":[2,5,35610],"tags":[34881,32817,7983,837,309,7524,8145],"class_list":["post-73211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-2025-spring-camp","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-big-ten-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-penn-state-quarterbacks","tag-tyler-warren"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73211","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=73211"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73221,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73211\/revisions\/73221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}