Consistency: it may as well be the slogan of Penn State’s 2023 season. Do something well and then do it again, and then do it again. Stacking plays, drives, games, days, weeks and seasons. That’s consistency.
In a lot of respects there wasn’t much to learn from the Nittany Lions’ 63-7 win over Delaware on Saturday afternoon. Everyone already knew Penn State was bigger, stronger, faster and better. The Blue Hens managed 66 of their 140 yards of offense on just one play, and while that long touchdown run only accentuated some early season worries about Penn State’s run defense, it was otherwise inconsequential.
That said, when it comes to the play of quarterback Drew Allar, there is nothing about an opponent that makes your technique better or worse. You either make the throw or you don’t. You either make the read or you miss it. You either have good habits or you don’t. So as Allar waltzed his way to a 22-for-26, 204-yard afternoon that lasted just over two quarters, it was his first opportunity to stack good games back-to-back. And he did.
There’s something to be said for that, because for all of the flashes Allar showed last year and for as well as he played against West Virginia, there was more optimism than evidence that Allar might be everything fans, teammates and coaches are hoping he can be. Seeing is believing ,after all. Now he’s starting to show everyone that they can believe.
“I think you guys have gotten the chance to see him last year and a little bit in practice,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier in the week. “So you’re getting to see him kind of more extensively now and forming your opinions. We’ve kind of felt this way for a while, that he has a chance to play really well for us and be the type of quarterback that people will be excited about and his teammates will believe in.
“The thing that’s promising to me — some guys that are super talented. They don’t work like [Allar does]. They don’t live in the way he does, so to me, you know, until he continues to do it game after game and stack days, it’s still somewhat unproven. But it gives me comfort as the head coach with an offensive background to watch him and his habits and how he approaches it. To feel like he’s got a chance to play at a high level on a consistent basis.”
Step one, win over your coach. Step two, win over your teammates.
“I think we knew what he was like in practice but once everybody sees him in [a] game we all know he’s gonna be the same guy,” tight end Tyler Warren said on Saturday. “Every game, every practice. It’s important for an offense.”
“Oh definitely,” running back Nick Singleton says with a laugh when asked if it’s nice not to have to be the only guy after a high school career built on being the guy.
There’s something to be said for an offense going through the process of finding out its best player is also its most important. For as many games as Sean Clifford won as Penn State’s starting quarterback, he was further down the list of assets the Nittany Lions brought to the table. For as good of a winner as Trace McSorley was, even he was limited in some areas of the job. They both were good quarterbacks, crucial to Penn State’s success, but in a sense they both facilitated the best player(s) on the field. Now Penn State’s offensive weapons are facilitating the quarterback or running well enough to make his job easier.
Allar— so far — has been everything Penn State needs him to be, and it is creating a belief in what that means for the season and the program while he still calls State College home. And as that belief continues to grow, and as Penn State’s ground game continues to follow suit, it changes everything about how you can — or maybe can’t — beat Penn State.
“I think if you’re the first two opponents, specifically the first opponent, you say ‘I’m not going to let Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen beat us,’” Franklin said on Saturday. “I’m going to make a first time starting quarterback prove that he can do it. No matter what the hype has been like, he’s still got to prove that he’s done it. Now I think the defensive coordinator moving forward is in a tough, tougher spot. You’ve got two running backs that can be challenging. And you’ve got a quarterback that’s shown that he can do it and can make the throws and make the plays. Now there’s enough evidence out there that as a defensive coordinator, you’re questioning, ‘What is our model for beating Penn State?’”
Penn State will face tougher challenges than West Virginia and Delaware as the season goes along, but there’s something to be said for Allar not having to ease into the season and find himself. One could make the argument that his command at the offensive line is far better than expected and that his accuracy has only improved as his habits have. He makes smart throws, happy to take what is given, and has limited the number of times he has tried to push the envelope to a negligible total.
Which is maybe the scariest part about Allar: he’s going to get better. If the first two weeks of the season were a preview of what is to come, the Nittany Lions should head into every game with the confidence that they have one of the most important tools to winning that game. Penn State may have had that swagger in 2017 and late in 2016, but how many times in the last two decades have the Nittany Lions walked into their biggest games with a genuine confidence in the result? It often comes back to QB1, and whatever you might say about those who came before Allar, he’s slowly building that cache in ways his predecessors rarely could.
“I think biggest difference is that my comfort level from last year,” Allar said. “Last year I thought I knew what I was doing and sometimes I was just wrong. This year, I know what I’m supposed to be doing. Whether it be run plays or pass plays, … I think just everybody has that inner self-belief on the offense that we’re very good, but we have to go out and prove it. We can’t just say we’re very good offensively and not go out and play like it. And I think it’s a mindset and I think we’re doing a really good job through the first two weeks of doing that.”
So it’s back to consistency, that pesky word that will define Penn State’s season. The Nittany Lions won’t have to be perfect, but if they believe in Allar and themselves as much as they seem to right now on Sept 9, it’ll go a long way toward coming pretty close.
“I showed a film to the team today before coming out that was talking about guys like Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and LeBron, who not only had successful careers but did it for 10-20 plus years — and Tiger Woods — and how hard that is to do. It’s a great message about consistency,” Franklin said. “And I think that’s really what we’re all trying to do in college football is how do you teach young people how to practice and play on a consistent level and that’s our challenge, right? We practice good, like a really good football team. Are we displaying the habits and behaviors of a great world team? And that’s a challenge for me and the coaching staff and leaders.”
One day at a time.
