James Franklin details conversations with Drew Allar ahead of Ohio State game

Penn State head coach James Franklin didn’t initially plan on talking to Drew Allar about having a big game on the road or going home for a game but after getting asked about it several times, Franklin admitted that he’s going to have some kind of conversation about it.

Franklin explained that he doesn’t normally like to have that kind of conversation because it has to do with things outside of the building. However, it might be good to have in this spot.

“Well, I wasn’t going to talk to him, but this is my third interview today and everybody obviously is talking to him like that, so I am going to talk to him,” James Franklin said. “We don’t really do things like that, but I am going to have a conversation with him because I can’t control the things outside of our building.”

Penn State is getting ready to take on Ohio State this weekend. That’s always a huge game but especially this season when it has both Big Ten East and potentially College Football Playoff implications. It’s a huge game for a first-year starter like Drew Allar. However, it’s an even bigger deal for Allar because he’s an Ohio native.

“But, yeah, I want Drew to do the same thing he’s done all year long. I want him to prepare the same way. I want him to practice the same way,” Franklin said. “You know, I don’t think he’s a big social media guy, so tune all that stuff out, get better this week through his preparation and performance, which is really no different than any other week.”

Drew Allar was a five-star recruit and the third-ranked quarterback overall in the Class of 2022, per the On3 Industry Rankings. This season, he’s thrown for 1,254 yards and 12 touchdowns while taking care of the football and not throwing any interceptions.

Ryan Day has a lot of respect for Drew Allar

Ahead of the game, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day praised Drew Allar. He also explained what led to the Buckeyes not landing a commitment from Allar at the time of his recruitment despite being a five-star quarterback from the state of Ohio.

“A lot of respect for him and his program. Certainly, being from the state of Ohio, he’s a very good player,” Day said. “He’s an Ohio kid that had a great career. We already had Quinn Ewers committed to us and it was a reclassification. At that point, he was already committed to Penn State.”

Ohio State did add a quarterback in the 2022 cycle, Devin Brown, who is expected to get some playing time in packages against the Nittany Lions.