Drew Allar will be the backup Penn State quarterback at Purdue, James Franklin says
Penn State has a new backup quarterback.
Head coach James Franklin said Monday that freshman Drew Allar is the team’s No. 2 passer behind Sean Clifford. It means he has overtaken last year’s backup, Christian Veilleux, for that job after his first preseason camp.
“Drew Allar is our backup quarterback for week one,” Franklin said. “That’ll not a set-in-stone thing for the entire year. That’ll continue to be a competition and fluid. But, Drew Allar is the backup quarterback.”
Allar arrived in State College back in January with much fanfare. The Medina, Ohio native was a five-star recruit who ranked as the No. 28 player overall and No. 3 quarterback in the On3 Consensus player rankings for the Class of 2022.
What led to the freshman winning the job?
“Because when we take all of the all of the information, coaches’ opinion based on their gut and experience, data from everything that we keep track of, we feel like Drew has earned that opportunity in week one,” Franklin said. “But again, I think we all remember last year as well. Veilleux, he was the third-string quarterback last year and ended up being a second-team quarterback and came in and did a great job for us.
“But taking everything into consideration, the coaching staff felt like this was the right decision. Obviously, they’re tough conversations to have. We sat down with everybody and did it with each one of the quarterbacks. Met with them one on one and communicated how and why.”
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More on Penn State picking Drew Allar as its backup quarterback
Allar is unlikely to play when Penn State takes on Purdue Thursday. However, he’s now only one play away from seeing the field, and that’s notable as the Lions prepare for a new season. That’s the case even if the competition will continue for the backup role, as Franklin noted.
Clifford told reporters Monday morning that he’s been impressed by both Allar, his quarterback classmate, Beau Pribula, and Veilleux during preseason camp.
“All three of them have just been phenomenal,” Clifford said.” It’s been really, really easy as a vet QB to just be able to share my insights. Be able to show them everything that I’ve learned over the past few years. And now getting into game prep, be able to truly dive into what it looks like. What film are we watching on Tuesday? What film we’re watching on Wednesday? And when I’m referring to Tuesday, Wednesday, I’m saying like, Saturday, Sunday, because it’s been such a weird week. Today’s a Wednesday for me personally and the team.
“But, just showing them exactly how I operate and how I get prepared for the games that way I can go in as confident as ever, I think that that’s the the main key. Honestly, they’ve done just a fantastic job of opening their ears and listening, asking a bunch of questions whenever they have one, not being afraid to ask and and just being really receptive to both praise and criticism. I think that we have a room that is is very loving of each other, want everybody to succeed, and at the same time have that competition, which is really good. So I think it was one of my favorite rooms so far. And just lots of talent. So really excited moving forward with them.”
