Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1537537
3 4 A U G U S T 2 0 2 5 / / / / / / / 2 0 2 5 F O O T B A L L P R E V I E W / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / A reinvigorated Drew Allar brings championship aspirations into his final college season Never Better NAT E BAU E R | N AT E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M T he January days run together in the memory of Penn State senior quarterback Drew Allar. After defeating SMU and Boise State in the first two rounds of the College Football Playoff, Allar and the Nittany Lions reached the CFP semifinals against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. The game took place Jan. 9 in Miami Gardens, Fla. By the end of the night, what had been a touchdown advantage for Penn State late into the fourth quarter turned into a loss to the Fighting Irish in the game's closing seconds. And for Allar, a first-down interception thrown on the Nittany Lions' side of the field with 37 seconds remaining became the nightmare moment. Following the 27–24 defeat, Allar sat between head coach James Franklin and running back Nicholas Sin- gleton to answer questions in the postgame press conference. Asked what happened on the interception, he explained his progression and said he had wanted to "dirt it" at the feet of receiver Omari Evans, only to leave just enough air under the ball for Irish cornerback Christian Gray to make the pick. Allar said his performance wasn't good enough to lift Penn State to a victory and insisted he would learn from the experience. "I'm just looking forward to continuing to grow, learn more about myself, get better in any way I can," he said. "I'm going to learn from it, move on, and take it on the chin right now." The next 72 hours were the most painful. Then a few days later came the CFP national championship game between Notre Dame and Ohio State, and that wasn't much better. Penn State had come close to beating both teams only to fall short in the end. The near-misses — and Allar's mistakes — stayed with him. W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M