Penn State’s season opener against West Virginia is just 54 days away and the start of camp is now firmly less than a month away as the Nittany Lions look to leave their mark in a busy year of firsts with the Big Ten and College Football Playoffs both expanding. A lot of factors will come into play this season for Penn State, but it’s safe to say that the quarterback room is often where it all starts and ends for teams hopeful to make a run toward a national title.
Last Year: In 2023 Drew Allar was better than people give him credit for and not as good as people were hoping he would be. Whether or not that is a product of Allar’s shortcomings as a young quarterback or fan’s unreasonable expectations is a debate for another time. No matter what though, Penn State left last season certainly feeling like it needed to make a change in how it approached the biggest games of the year on offense. Enter new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.
New Faces, Returners and Losses: Aside from one positional swap, Penn State returns the same quarterback room it had in 2023 with Drew Allar, Beau Pribula and Jaxson Smolik making up the top three on the depth chart. Smolik, who was injured during spring practice, is an interesting one to watch of the bunch, likely not in the running to unseat the multi-tooled Pribula from his place behind Allar but still progressing nicely as just a sophomore this season. Ethan Grunkemeyer adds more Ohio roots to the quarterback room as well. All told you should really only need to think about Allar and Pribula this year. Anyone else and something hasn’t gone according to plan.
Of Note: Karson Kiesewetter made a switch to safety this offseason. A depth piece pretty much from day one, Kiesewetter is likely more of a help there than in the quarterback room. Probably why the change happened in the first place.
The Storyline: Considering some other questions that this team will need to answer in 2024, it’s probably a bit unfair to say that Penn State’s season will come down to Drew Allar, but it’s also not unfair to say that the Nittany Lions will pretty much go as far as he can take them. Allar should look reborn a bit under new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki but that won’t make the throws for him. The usage of Beau Pribula will be an interesting talking point all year long as well, but that’s always a risky situation to juggle when your backup quarterback runs the ball often enough that he might end up being your injured quarterback. In turn, Smolik’s development isn’t without consequence this season.
Overall: If Allar can get help from his receivers, his running backs and his offensive coordinator there’s a chance he can start to turn into the quarterback people were hoping he could become. There probably isn’t a world where Allar just suddenly turns into Joe Burrow, but it’s not hard to imagine that another year under his belt and a new look at things via Kotelnicki could have drastic impacts on Penn State’s year at-large. Time will tell if any new problems arise, but for now the vision is easy enough to understand – if Allar and the help around him is just a bit better, so too will the results.
