James Franklin discusses 'lot of excitement' surrounding quarterback Drew Allar

As Penn State prepares to put together a potential College Football Playoff run in 2023, it will be relying on star quarterback prospect Drew Allar to run the offense.

Allar takes over for veteran Sean Clifford, and the expectations are through the roof for the former five-star prospect, one of the prized gets in the 2022 recruiting class.

“He’s kind of more of the old-school, traditional NFL quarterback,” Penn State coach James Franklin said in an exclusive interview with On3’s JD PicKell. “He’s 6 foot 5, he’s 242 pounds. He can make if not every throw on the field almost all of them. But he actually has a little bit more mobility than people may think, so there’s a lot of excitement about him.”

As a freshman, Allar actually got a decent bit of playing time in 2022 as Penn State fairly routinely built big leads against most opponents.

He finished the year 35-of-60 passing for 344 yards, with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran 18 times for 52 yards and a score.

“We’ve got a competition for the quarterback spot and Drew Allar is a young man that there’s a lot of excitement about,” Franklin said. “Coming out of high school he was the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country, was our backup quarterback last year. And unusually he was able to play in almost every single game, so that was a real positive that we were able to get him a ton of reps and experience last year.”

Though Clifford was sometimes a little inconsistent in big moments, he was a steady presence for Penn State at quarterback. Replacing him won’t be easy.

Clifford threw for 2,822 yards and 24 touchdowns last year. He did a pretty good job taking care of the football, too, throwing only seven interceptions during the season.

One of the ways Franklin stressed that Penn State will try to make quarterback Drew Allar comfortable by stepping up around him.

“I think a couple things. I think No. 1 we’ve got a chance to be better on the O-line, we’ve got a chance to be better at running back, we’ve got a chance to be better at tight end,” Franklin said. “We have a question mark at wide receiver. I saw some things this spring to get excited about but not ready to stamp ’em yet.

“And I say all that because your point is a good one. We had a veteran quarterback that seemed like he played here forever, is now with the Green Bay Packers in Sean Clifford.”

But there’s plenty of confidence in what Allar can make happen on the gridiron. He’ll get a chance to show it come fall.

“That’s a big question mark going into our season replacing a vet,” Franklin said. “But to your point obviously there’s a lot of excitement about Drew and his potential.”