Penn State sophomore quarterback Drew Allar has taken meaningful snaps on the road before, but nothing will be quite like his first road game as the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback this weekend as Penn State faces Illinois to open conference play. Fortunately for the Nittany Lion faithful, there’s no indication that the seemingly steely-eyed quarterback will be anything but that this weekend.
“Like I keep saying with Drew, he’s doing all the right things and taking all the necessary steps,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week. “We expect it to be a challenging road environment, but we didn’t wait until this week to prepare for that. Whether it’s crowd noise or whatever it may be, we’ve done that all training camp.”
Illinois is 1-1 on the year coming off a loss at Kansas and an opening week last-second victory over Toledo. The Illini are coached by once longtime Wisconsin head man Bret Bielema who returned to the Big Ten in 2021 after time at Arkansas and a few various stops in the NFL. For its part, Penn State will open Big Ten action on the road for the eighth-straight season and 13th time in the last 14 years.
Illinois enters the Week 3 meeting the No. 106th team in the nation in scoring defense. In 2022 the Illini were ranked the No. 2 team in the nation when it came to forcing turnovers, generating 31 turnovers over the course of 13 games. So far this season the Illini have forced three turnovers. Penn State has yet to turn the ball over this season, although one should-have-been interception by Allar was dropped. Penn State is one of nine teams this season to have yet to register a turnover.
“We played on the road a ton last year, and even if I didn’t get in the game I was still able to experience what it’s like to be on the road,” Allar said. “They have a great fan base and they have a really cool environment at that stadium. And obviously Illinois plays a lot of teams extremely tough, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge for us this week.”
“They’re a really well-coached defense,” Allar added. “They’ve forced a lot of turnovers in the past and they really get after the quarterback and they do a good job of slowing down the run game, so it’s going to be a huge challenge for us this week. I think they present a lot of different things. They make everything look the same, and they do a really good job of disguising. They have a lot of big guys up front, a lot of size up front, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge this week.”
Allar will look to join Sean Clifford, Matt McGloin and Daryll Clark as the fourth Penn State quarterback to win his opening road Big Ten contest since 2008. Trace McSorley, Christian Hackenberg and Rob Bolden all won their opening road starts. All told newly minted starting quarterbacks are 3-3 on the road in their opening Big Ten start since 2008. As always, a ton of context comes with each season and subsequent victory or loss.
First Big Ten Road Game As A Starter:
- Sean Clifford: at Maryland, 59-0 win.
- Trace McSorley: at Michigan, 49-10 loss.
- Christian Hackenberg: at Indiana, 44-22 loss.
- Matt McGloin: Michigan, 41-31 win.
- Rob Bolden: at Iowa, 24-3 loss.
- Daryll Clark: at Purdue, 20-6 win.
