Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is special in a lot of ways, perhaps most of all is his ability to make every throw. There isn’t much that Allar and his arm can’t do. Frankly, if there is something that tandem can’t pull off, Penn State fans haven’t seen it yet.
And that confidence was on full display Saturday night as Penn State didn’t shy away from rolling Allar out of the pocket, trusting him to make reads, throws and plays on the run. More often than not he did all three, and more often than not it left you impressed having seen just the tip of the iceberg of what Allar can do.
It does bring up the question of properly using those abilities though. If great power brings great responsibility then a great arm brings the need for great decision making. And that in a way is the challenge of Allar’s skillset – he can do things that other quarterbacks shouldn’t do, he can’t do things other quarterbacks shouldn’t try. And yet he makes them look easy. So how do you balance the basics of good decision making with the talent he has?
“I think it’s all in risk management or risk opportunity,” Allar said on Tuesday. “There’s certain points and games and downs where you need to take risk. One that I think of right now is the third down where I hit [KeAndre Lambert-Smith] coming back across the field. And that situation I mean, it was third down, we need to get a first down or get at least get half because we might have gone for it and that situation. You kind of just have to push it a little bit and test the limits, but I think it all comes down to opportunity and risk opportunity and just assessing that. Because obviously there’s some points in the game, if you’re up in a one score game … you don’t want to force anything that could possibly lead to a turnover and in turn. So I think it’s just all in assessing it pre snap and just knowing what you can and can’t do in certain situations.”
For the likes of head coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich they face the same balancing act. What you’d left Sean Clifford do might be different than what you like Allar do. Then again decades of quarterbacking have led to some basic principles of good decision making, so don’t forget those either.
A challenge, but not a bad one to be sure.
“I think it’s a fine line,” Franklin said Tuesday. “So I would say you maybe put it on a degree scale. So what I’m saying is, okay, maybe for most quarterbacks if you’re rolling to your right, you would say, never throw back across your body with a crossing route. I’d still say that is the general rule, but maybe that degree that he can throw is maybe a little bit wider grace period than you’d give for other guys. I still think in general you don’t want to roll to your right and throw way back across the field, but he may have a little bit more wiggle room on that because he’s shown the ability to do it.”
And sure, maybe you live and die by the exceptional play, but maybe you win a game after breaking those rules a little bit too. Just ask KJ Hamler.
“You know, it’s a little bit like the KJ Hamler kickoff return against App State,” Franklin added with a laugh. “You shouldn’t have brought it out. The coaching book said don’t bring it out, and I’m on the sideline going no, no, and he makes somebody miss and then the ball is on the 48-yard line, and you’re like, yes, yes. Then we go down and score and [eventually] win. There’s just a fine line to it, and for me to sit here and say that ability doesn’t affect the rules for coaches and players would not be accurate. Ability plays a part in that.”
Safe to say Allar has the ability, question now will be how he uses it.
