How Drew Allar’s Penn State journey came to an end at Pro Day — with more to come in the NFL
Drew Allar looked down at his black Nike cleats as he spoke.
The quarterback was standing in front of a Penn State backdrop and speaking to the media for the first time since head coach Matt Campbell was hired and brought in a new coaching staff. So when he was asked about Danny O’Brien, who was his quarterbacks coach at Penn State and is now at Virginia Tech with former head coach James Franklin, he seemed to get emotional. He briefly avoided eye contact, his voice cracking slightly.
“He was somebody I really looked up to,” Allar said after his Pro Day workout. “He taught me a lot about football. He gets a lot of criticism for unknown reasons, in my opinion. If you guys ever sat in a quarterback meeting with Danny, you would know the type of coach he is, the type of person he is. And he’s part of the reason why I was staying around here. I really looked up to him throughout when he got hired here when I was a senior in high school.”
But then Allar pushed through what he was feeling, and started to speak with more passion about his former position coach.
“I really built a relationship with him before I early enrolled, and then he played a constant factor in helping me get better, helping me understand football from an NFL perspective, and obviously college experience,” Allar said. “He did a ton of stuff to put, not only me, but every quarterback that has been in the room last four or five years, in a better position.”
For Allar, Wednesday morning’s Pro Day was the end of his journey at Penn State, one that allowed him to reflect on everything that played out in his four years in college.
The 6-foot-5 quarterback was at his best during his workout on the field. He showed off his prodigious arm strength, making throw after throw to his receivers on the field at all ranges. There were occasional cheers from teammates when he’d unfurl a deep ball 50+ yards down the field and drop it right in the bucket to whichever wide out he was hitting in stride.
It’s no surprise that he performed as well as he did. He’s always been an immense talent. And when asked what his Pro Day performance doesn’t prove because of the controlled environment of throwing in a T-shirt and shorts, he pushed back on the idea.
“I think there’s not anything I really can’t answer in shorts and a T-shirt for deficiencies,” Allar said. “Obviously throwing out here and throwing in the game setting is different. But you know, I think I’ve shown them throughout my junior year and then this past year, and then leading it through the combine, the growth and maturity I’ve made.”
And guard Vega Ioane, who’s widely projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft, pushed back when asked how he felt about the idea that Allar could have a “rough night” on draft night.
“You don’t know that,” Ioane said. “You don’t know if it’s gonna be a rough night for him. For all I know it could be a rough night for me. He’s put a lot on tape for himself. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Come draft night, he could go first round. Where could I go? So nobody knows. All I know is that he put his best foot forward, worked his ass off to get to where he’s at, and he’s gonna prove himself.”
That’s not to say Allar is going as high as he was originally projected, or that he even played to the level expected as a senior. His play was disappointing for fans in the team’s first six games, but that was true of pretty much everyone on the roster — with the exception of Ioane — and a broken ankle didn’t allow him for some of the redemptive arcs that many of the team’s stars went on over the final seven games of the season.
Instead, he had to get surgery and rehabilitate his injury. And now, just over five months after his injury, he feels ready to get on the field.
“I feel really good,” Allar said. “I haven’t really had any limitations the last month and a half, two months. I was training in California, when I got out there, it was just straight rehab and throw. ... But, honestly, I could have played a game, I feel like, two weeks ago. I feel like I could go out and play a game right now.”
But all of that — the injury, the rehab and now his readiness to play — comes after a four-year career that did not end how he, or anyone else at Penn State, wanted. He recalled being at a Pro Day and watching then-quarterback Sean Clifford throw to then-wide receiver Jahan Dotson. And then he even threw a couple of times at Pro Days, helping out former teammates Theo Johnson and Julian Fleming, among others.
Finally, on Wednesday, it was his day in the spotlight. His opportunity to prove what he can do as a quarterback and that he’s still worthy of the hype that he bore on his shoulders for four seasons after arriving as a five-star recruit. He did everything he could on the field at Holuba Hall, then defended his resume when he spoke afterward.
And in one month he will learn just how much an NFL team believes that, despite all of his setbacks, there’s still a starting NFL quarterback to be unearthed.
