Neal Brown breaks down how to prepare for Penn State QB Drew Allar

Penn State head coach James Franklin hasn’t named a starting quarterback yet, but Drew Allar remains the presumptive starter. With that, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown knows that the Mountaineers need to be ready for Allar.

Brown explained that while there’s tape from last season on Allar, it can be helpful to go back and look at high school tape of young players.

“You go back, watch a lot of high school, and then he played,” Neal Brown said. “Like I said, he played a lot of fourth quarters last year.”

Drew Allar came to Penn State as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. As a freshman, he backed up Sean Clifford, getting experience in 10 games, completing 58.3 percent of passes for 344 yards and four touchdowns

“And when he played, they let him play,” Brown said. “It wasn’t like he was just handing off. So, you’ve got some video. He’s super talented. You know, he’s a big kid, he’s more athletic than people give him credit for, he can run — he’s good at scrambling and making plays downfield. You saw that last year, you saw that in high school. He’s got a huge arm. He can make all the throws.”

Entering his fifth season at West Virginia, Neal Brown is now considered to be on the hot seat after going just 22-25 in his first four years. A win against Penn State could go a long way toward cooling off his seat.

“Whoever starts is gonna be making their first start ever, and there’s some pressure that goes along with that. So, we’ve got to make it tough on him. We’ve got to disguise some things. We’ve got to give him some different looks,” Brown added. “But he’s really talented.”

James Franklin downplayed hype about Drew Allar

This summer, amid plenty of hype surrounding Drew Allar, his head coach James Franklin chose to downplay the excitement.

“I think outside of the Lasch Building I try not to answer those questions. People are asking and I really just try to downplay it as much as possible, but inside the building, as you know as a former player, we don’t really talk about those things,” Franklin said.

“It’s like are we working the way we need to work? Are we preparing the way we need to prepare to do the things we want to do starting with West Virginia? Nothing else matters. If we’re doing those things, the games take care of themselves.”