James Franklin gives in-depth evaluation of Drew Allar's preseason camp

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is widely expected to be the starter under center when the Nittany Lions kick off the 2023 season against West Virginia. But the sophomore signal-caller has not yet been named the starting quarterback.

Head coach James Franklin spoke to the media Tuesday ahead of the rivalry game this weekend, and evaluated Allar’s performance in preseason camp.

“This is something that I probably drive everybody crazy about but we basically keep a record of everything,” Franklin said. “Every throw, completion, percentage, touchdown-to-interception ratio, explosive plays. You have interceptions, which are easy to track. Well, if there were interception decisions, in terms of he threw the ball and he was fortunate that the DB dropped it but that was an intercepted-type throw, we track that as well to make sure that we’re able to kind of have an understanding of decision making as well.

“He’s been really, really good. His decision making has been good. His completion percentage has been really good. The other thing that’s really cool is having all this data then you’re able to go back and compare to historical data. You’re able to compare it to Trace McSorley. You’re able to compare it to Sean Clifford so on and so forth. I think there’s a ton of value in that in terms of trying to get an idea of how you are in camp.”

Allar played in 10 games as a backup quarterback in 2022, finishing the year with 344 yards and four passing touchdowns.

He entered Penn State as one of the top quarterbacks recruits in the country. On3 ranked him as the nation’s No. 7 overall player and No. 2 quarterback in the 2022 On300 ranking.

“We’re different in college football, obviously, than the NFL where you have a preseason and you kind of got a pretty good understanding of how you are,” Franklin said. “When you’re going against yourself, sometimes that’s hard to tell. Are you going against a really good defense or are you going against a poor defense? Obviously you guys know I don’t feel that way about our defense. But my point is sometimes it’s hard to really kind of have an idea of of how good you are or what some of the challenges may be. I thought he had a great camp. All his numbers were really good. There’s been some great situations that have come up in terms of how we cover situational football, whether it’s two-minute or four-minute, how to manage all those types of things.”

The hope among Penn State fans is that Allar rises to the occasion as the best quarterback in recent memory, which would ideally evaluate the program from a consistent top-10 team to a College Football Playoff participant.

It is too early to tell whether that will end up being the case.

“I think going against a really good defense and a really good defensive back unit, there’s been a ton of value in that,” Franklin said. “I think what we do defensively, testing protections in terms of pressures and disguising coverages, it’s challenging for a young quarterback. I think all those things have been really valuable and hopefully we’ll put our QBs in the best position to be successful. But I think Drew’s had I would say a good camp and a camp that’s given himself and the coaches and his teammates a bunch of confidence.”