Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503568
A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 31 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Q U A R T E R B A C K S / / / / / / / tany Lions as they prepared to kick off to Purdue to start the second half of the teams' matchup in West Lafayette last September. "I was looking around for Sean and I couldn't find him," Allar recalled. "Then Coach Yurcich came up to me and said, 'Go get warm, you're probably going in.' That's how I found out about it. I was looking for Sean and I was like, 'Where is he? We're about to start.'" Allar was a true freshman at the time — a five-star true freshman, but a true freshman nonetheless. His only colle- giate action to that point in his career had come in the Blue-White Game four months earlier. Now he was being thrown into a game that was very much in doubt and was pivotal to coach James Franklin's hopes of leading PSU to a bounce-back season after mediocre finishes in 2020 and '21. The young quarterback ended up taking 6 snaps against the Boilermak- ers that night. He handed off to run- ning back Kaytron Allen on his first play as a Nittany Lion, then calmly completed passes to KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Mitchell Tinsley before the drive fizzled out and PSU had to punt. By the time Penn State regained pos- session, Clifford was back. He had stayed in the locker room to get an IV at half- time, but now he was ready to go, and he ended up leading the Nittany Lions to a 35-31 victory. Allar's night consisted of those 6 plays. While the 30 yards they produced weren't terribly significant in deter- mining the outcome of the game, they showed that the highly touted prospect wasn't going to be intimidated by a hos- tile environment or an unnerving set of circumstances. "It was a surreal moment," Allar said. "I was hoping to play last year, but to be thrown into that type of environ- ment, Week 1 on the road, is definitely something that was super cool to be a part of." 'This Guy Can Spin The Pill' There are certain to be even bigger, more-consequential moments ahead. As the Nittany Lions' presumptive starter heading into his sophomore sea- son, Allar is going to be asked to rise to those occasions, too. In all the preseason punditry, from Athlon to ESPN, his performance has been portrayed as the key variable that will determine how far Penn State goes in 2023. "If he's as good as everyone thinks, this is their window to get past Michigan and Ohio State," noted an anonymous Big Ten assistant coach quoted by Athlon. "He's the difference between another top-end season and the breakthrough they've wanted un- der Franklin." Much of the excitement that has ac- companied Allar's rise is based on his obvious physical skills. At 6-foot-5, 243 pounds, he's got enough brawn to shrug off arm tackles in the back- field, and that's just one of the ways in which his strength shows up on the field. The other way is evident in how the ball behaves when it leaves his right hand. "This guy can spin the pill," FOX an- alyst Joel Klatt told viewers when Allar went into the Purdue game last year. "It's as pretty as you will ever see." That didn't happen by accident. Al- lar has been working for years with a private throwing coach named Brad Maendler in his native Ohio. In his work with young quarterbacks, Maendler likes to use a baseball metaphor, but with a twist. He believes quarterbacks need to think like batters, not like pitch- ers. Allar, a talented high school baseball player at Medina High, took that lesson to heart. "I used to throw the football like I was a pitcher," he said. "The way he teaches it, it's all rotational. So, instead of throw- ing a baseball, you're hitting a baseball. You're constantly staying loaded on your back hip, then a quick front-foot strike. It's just like an at-bat in baseball. You let your lower body do the work, and you cast your arm out there and the ball is going to go far every time if you square it up right." Armed with a better understanding of his throwing mechanics, Allar passed for 4,444 and 48 touchdowns as a senior at Medina High. Now it's Penn State's turn to reap those benefits. Allar provided the Nittany Lions with some glimpses of his potential during 10 game appearances last fall. He com- pleted 35 of 60 passes for 344 yards, with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. Most of those appearances were in games that had been decided, but it was enough to il- lustrate the kind of problems he can create for opposing defenses. "He's able to make people defend the entire field because of his arm," Franklin said. "Most college defenses will give you something. They have to. Most of them will give you the farthest flat. They're go- ing to make throwing to the boundary and the middle of the field difficult, but they'll give you the farthest flat, the field flat, because most college quarterbacks can't make those types of throws." Allar can make those throws, Franklin said, and the Nittany Lions intend to give him that opportunity. A Speedy Ascent The other asset that makes Allar such a promising quarterback prospect is less "You can do all the drills you want — throwing, footwork, fundamentals, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, it's hard to teach poise in the pocket. He just seems to have it. There can be chaos all around him, but he's efficient with his movement." J A M E S F R A N K L I N O N A L L A R