Grading Drew Allar’s performance in Penn State’s Week 1 win over West Virginia

Nearly every decision that James Franklin made on the offensive side of the football this offseason was made with maximizing Drew Allar in mind. In 2023, his first year as a starter, the former five-star was hamstrung by Mike Yurcich’s play-calling, but was entirely pedestrian, completing just 59.6% of his passes for 2,627 yards with 25 touchdowns to two interceptions. 

In Week 1 of the 2024 season, Penn State fans saw a different Drew Allar, an aggressive Drew Allar who led a highly efficient offense that averaged 7.6 yards per play, racked up 457 yards, and cruised past a West Virginia team that won 9 games last season, 34-12. 

A year ago, Allar protected the ball well, but Penn State’s offense lacked explosiveness, ranking 109th in the country in pass plays over 20 yards downfield. Yurcich was fired midseason and replaced by former Kansas OC Andy Kotelnikci. 

Then, following a 38-25 loss in the Peach Bowl, Franklin retooled his wide receiver room, watching as KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Dante Cephas walked out the door into the transfer portal, and replacing them with Ohio State transfer Julian Fleming. 

Fleming played 35 snaps in the opener but didn’t receive a single target from Allar. The junior quarterback instead relied on Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans in his breakout performance. 

Penn State desperately needs Allar to play to his immense potential which made him the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the 2022 class, and Kotelnicki and Franklin saw a glimpse of it on Saturday. Now, let’s break down the game and grade Drew Allar’s performance in Week 1. 

Allar finished just 11/17 but threw for 216 yards and three touchdowns. His yards per attempt improved from 6.7 last season to 12.7 in Morgantown, and he ran the ball six times for 44 yards. 

While it wasn’t the most comprehensive performance, Allar did what was asked of him on his 17 attempts and 20 dropbacks, and most importantly he hit his deep shots. Allar completed two of his three throws over 20 yards downfield and connected on two passes that went for over 50 yards. 

Allar attacked the middle of the field aggressively and didn’t shy away when Kotelnicki drew up shot plays. He posted a career-long average depth of target for a start at 13.2, which may be the new norm in this offense. With his reconfigured mindset, Allar posted a career-best single-game QBR of 98.3, second only to Alabama’s Jalen Milroe in Week 1, but he checks in at a B+ because he got a lot of help to get there. 

Allar’s second pass over 50 yards downfield had little to do with his excellence and more to do with Omari Evans just beating good coverage. 

This was an example of Allar just throwing it up, which is still positive because he was unwilling to trust his pass-catchings last year, but doesn’t deserve particularly high marks. 

It wasn’t just improved play from his wide receivers that aided in Allar producing the most efficient performance of his career. Allar’s protection was excellent. Despite a 3.02 second time to throw from Allar, Penn State’s new offensive line allowed only three pressures and each time Allar had a clear lane to scramble. 

Allar’s use of his legs was impressive and is a big reason his EPA/Dropback jumped from 0.424 across the 2023 season to 1.273 in Week 1. Four of his six runs went for first downs, and five were scrambles which accounted for 41 of his 44 rushing yards. 

While he wasn’t sacked much in 2023 and had just a 10.2% pressure-to-sack ratio, Allar only scrambled 24 times all season for 208 yards and 51 of those came in the Peach Bowl. It’s obvious that Allar is a more decisive player, in and out of the pocket, but again that’s due in large part to the help he’s getting. It’s a lot easier to be decisive when your offensive coordinator makes the right decisions so clear. 

Kotelnicki’s creativity with motion and unique formations gave West Virginia’s defense fits, and Allar made a living with play-action and screens. Just look at how simple this completion is for Allar and it’s all because of the look that Kotelnicki gave pre-snap. 

Of Allar’s 17 attempts, only 9 came on a straight dropback with no play-action and no screen and he completed five passes for 76 yards, but those plays included two of his touchdown throws. 

Arguably Allar’s best throw came with 12:36 left in the second quarter with Penn State ahead 6-0, when he ripped a 17-yard out route to Harrison Wallace III on 2nd and 15. It was one of Wallace’s five catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns as he finally emerged as a true WR1. 

There’s no denying that Drew Allar looks much better than 2023 and no denying that he was the most efficient he’s ever played. Still, I’ll withhold a grade of an A, until I see him do it at a higher volume and under more difficult circumstances. 

It’s a good thing that Kotelnicki, Wallace, and the offensive line made Allar’s life easy on Saturday and that the offense appears to have a flow and rhythm that it never found under Mike Yurcich, but Allar hasn’t answered every question, not yet.