Former 5-star quarterback Drew Allar named No. 2 quarterback before Penn State’s season opener
James Franklin dropped his first surprise of the season Monday afternoon at his weekly press conference. The Penn State football head coach named former five-star quarterback and true freshman Drew Allar as the team’s backup signal caller behind Sean Clifford.
Allar was widely expected to be the third or fourth quarterback on the depth chart to begin the season, with redshirt freshman Christian Veilleux expected to serve as the team’s backup.
Franklin said the decision was made by the coaching staff and involved having some difficult conversations with everyone involved.
“When we take all of the information, coaches’ opinions based on their gut and experience, data from everything that we keep track of, we feel like Drew has earned that opportunity in Week 1,” Franklin said. “...Taking everything into consideration, the coaching staff felt like this was the right decision.”
Veilleux served as the third-string quarterback to begin the 2021 season but was moved to the backup spot later in the year and played the majority of the snaps when the team took on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in November. He completed 15 of his 24 passing attempts that game for 235 yards and three touchdowns.
The decision to move Allar to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart leaves only longtime starting quarterback Sean Clifford ahead of him, with Clifford entering his fourth season as the starter and sixth with the program.
Clifford lauded Allar, Veilleux and freshman quarterback Beau Pribula for the work they’ve done this offseason.
“I think that all three of them have just been phenomenal,” Clifford said. “It’s been really, really easy as a vet QB to just be able to share my insights, be able to show them everything that I’ve learned over the past few years and now getting into game prep, be able to truly dive into what it looks like.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 12:25 PM.
