Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544053
3 8 A P R I L 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicho- las Singleton. Allar may or may not be the first of those players to be selected, but he un- questionably helped himself on Pro Day. Allar's predecessors — Christian Hackenberg, Trace McSorley and Sean Clifford — followed the same routine in their Pro Day performances. They would set up a route with a receiver, discuss the route and how to throw it with the quarterbacks coach, and then go through the drill. It's a slow, methodical activ- ity carefully orchestrated by the coach to maximize the quarterback's perfor- mance. That changed with Allar. He worked with four receivers plus Allen, and he ripped through the route tree, going quickly from player to player, stopping occasionally to reset with his personal coach, John Beck, with whom he's been working in preparation for the draft. It was a deliberate choice by Allar, who has now thrown at three Pro Days. "It was definitely intentional," he said. "John Beck, the guy I've been training with, helped me put together the script. And then it was [a matter of doing] things that he knew teams would want to see from me, but also just me putting together the script. He had the script in hand and would tell me what everybody had. The receivers did a great job of asking questions throughout this past week about certain depths on routes, and just talking through everything." Allar is coming off a senior season in which he was forced to sit out Penn State's final seven games with an ankle injury. He missed a few throws, includ- ing some of the vertical leads he struggled with during his career at Penn State, but overall, he was accurate and precise to all parts of the field. He showed good ac- curacy off-platform, from un- der-center play action and more. With his showing at Holuba Hall, Allar built on a strong effort at the combine. In Indianapolis, he threw to a mix of wide receivers during the on- field passing session. More important, he was out there competing. The NFL Network reported during the broadcast that Allar was four months into a full five-month rehab process and chose to throw anyway. It showed competitive spirit and grit, plus a willingness to put himself out there without guarantees. "Obviously, it wasn't an ideal end- ing to the season, me being out," Allar said. "But I took that as an opportunity to grow and learn from that and make myself a better player, both athletically and mechanically. I think I've showed teams that I'm a competitor. I love going out and competing and just throwing. This is a job, but it's also my passion. I love doing it." Those intangibles are what teams want to see in football players, especially quar- terbacks. Allar faced a lot of adversity throughout his college career, but he has pretty good tape, and the problems, when you watch the coaches' film, are many and varied. He's a smart, hard-working, dedicated player who has the IQ to make plays. Allar clearly interviewed well, given the wave of positive news coming out of the combine about him. Some teams will likely go back and watch his film with a more critical eye toward his teammates and scheme. Come late April, Allar is most likely going to be a second-round pick, thanks to his recent performances for the scouts and the scarcity of quarterback talent. Meanwhile, Wheatley had to show at Pro Day that he has the athleticism to match his film over the past two sea- sons. While his time in the 40- yard dash — 4.62 seconds — wasn't blazing, he proved that he's a great all-around athlete at 6-foot-3, 202 pounds. Wheatley's shuttle (4.11) and three-cone drill (6.89) were par- ticularly impressive, with the latter number standing out for a player who tops 200 pounds. The most curious aspect of Wheatley's NFL profile is that he's a tweener at the safety posi- tion. His size says that he's a box safety, but his skills — zone cov- erage, ball-tracking, and cover- age IQ — are all free safety traits. Wheatley's test results show he could be either. His 40 time is fast enough that he could play in a split-field (two-high) defense that asks its safeties to do a little bit of everything. While he's not reminiscent of former Nittany Lion star Jaquan Brisker in terms of his run defense and hitting, he showed last season he's a willing tackler who can secure the ball- carrier when he needs to make a play. Nothing is set in stone, but Wheatley probably secured his spot as a Day 2 pick. Dennis-Sutton is in that mix, Olaivavega Ioane is expected to be chosen sometime in the middle of the first round. He didn't give up a single sack in his last two seasons at Penn State. PHOTO COURTESY NFL.COM