Drew Allar’s remarkable Big Ten title game performance could see him leave Penn State early

A first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff may not be the only thing that Penn State lost out on with its 45-37 loss to No. 1 Oregon on Saturday night in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Nittany Lions may have also lost another season of quarterback Drew Allar in blue and white. 

Even with an atrocious defensive performance, the program’s worst since 2015, Penn State hung around with the Ducks in a back-and-forth shootout, in large part because of Allar’s late-game heroics. The junior finished 20/39 for 226 yards and three touchdowns but with two very costly interceptions, one that led to an Oregon touchdown and another that sealed the Nittany Lion’s fate with a chance to tie the game on their final possession. Still, the flashes of brilliance from the former five-star and No. 1 QB recruit in the 2022 high school class, were enough for several NFL Draft evaluators to fall in love. 

Now, the Twitter scouts are far from positions of decision-making power in the NFL, but they’re typically a good barometer of what the league will do when draft season finally comes around, and public opinion is starting to head in Allar’s favor. At 6-foot-5 with impressive mobility and athleticism, a big arm, and the ability to come through on crucial plays, it’s hard to imagine what would stop Allar’s rise up the draft boards. 

Allar has been nails on fourth down all season, think back to his two conversions on the game-tying touchdown drive against USC, and that continued last night against the best team in the country. There simply aren’t that many guys in the country that can make this throw, if any. 

Penn State failed to provide Allar will the necessary weapons at wide receiver to compete for a national championship and even with a clear path through the 12-team CFP laid out in front of the team, that hasn’t changed. However, the general belief held by most Nittany Lions fans, and certainly plenty of people within the facilities at State College, was that they’d have another bite at the apple this offseason as the transfer portal opens up on Monday, December 9. That, with Allar heading into his senior year, the staff would be able to atone for the faults of last offseason with a transfer portal haul of weapons and make another run in Allar’s season year. But now, that senior year may never come. 

Drew Allar could be leaving for the NFL once Penn State’s season comes to an end, so James Franklin better make the most of the few games he has left with possibly the most talented quarterback in program history.