Why Drew Allar and Andy Kotelnicki can take Penn State to the next level in 2024

Drew Allar took a moment to ponder his response, leaning forward in his chair.

Allar, more poised than ever, looks the part of what everyone expects him to be. Calm and composed, he let out a small breath before finally answering. How did he handle being the guy at Penn State?

“I think at the point I’m at right now, I’m handling it a lot better than before. I think that’s more just because I’ve been through it,” Allar told the Centre Daily Times. “... When things are going good, they’re really good, I knew that. But when we hit a bump in the road, I didn’t know how drastic it was in terms of the social life, with going to class, social media. The social media part was a huge thing that I’d never really realized before how much it can impact you.”

Any external pressure he felt last season will only ramp up heading into year two as a starter. Yes, expectations were high last year, but now they’re even higher. The College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams may not help any program more than it helps Penn State — which consistently would have made a 12-team playoff in recent years. But that also means the playoff is no longer the goal, it is the expectation.

Allar is tasked with doing what hasn’t been done at Penn State in the playoff era — earning a berth and winning once they get there. And he’ll be doing it armed with the experience of 2023 and an offensive coordinator in Andy Kotelnicki who will try to help him take the next step as a quarterback.

Becoming a leader

The young quarterback will be at the forefront for the Nittany Lions this year. Yes, he was successful in year one from a statistical standpoint — head coach James Franklin has frequently pointed to Allar’s 25 touchdowns and only two interceptions to make that point — but as Allar discussed, there’s much more to playing quarterback than just on-field performance.

The emotional toll of being, ostensibly, the face of the university, can be difficult to handle. That’s something Franklin tried to aide his young signal caller with early on, but even he acknowledged there’s only so much you can do.

“I think that relationship between the head coach and the quarterback is really important,” Franklin told the CDT. “... At a place like Penn State, where football is so important to this community and to this university, the quarterback and the head coach are going to get way too much credit when things go well and a ton of the blame when things don’t go well.

“And that’s one thing to do as a veteran, tenured head coach, it’s another thing to do as a first year starting quarterback. ... I wish there was a way that I could insulate them from the nonsense that goes on. ... But it’s one of those things, as much as you talk and try to be supportive and explain, until you go through it, it’s hard to really understand it.”

Allar dealt with plenty in his first year of starting, from the usual — stares on the way to class and people wanting pictures — to the highly unusual, like his phone number getting leaked prior to the team’s matchup with Ohio State.

He handled those moments when they came and tried to move forward, but acknowledged the difficulty in preparing for being at the forefront of a football program like Penn State’s. Inevitably, that led to growth and maturity for the now-20-year-old, but there’s still work to do.

Allar is now making strides as a leader, not just of the offense, but of the entire team.

“I’ve always been more of a lead by example kind of guy,” he said. “Really since the winter I’ve made it a point for me to be more of a vocal leader. And I think I’ve done a really good job of that. ... I wanted to take more ownership of the offense and have more say in it and just give my opinions more often to the coaches. I think it’s been really good, and I’ve been able to relay their messages to the players really effectively.”

Building a partnership

The growth will have to happen on the field for Allar, too. His newfound leadership is great but there is an expectation to make the playoff. For myriad reasons, last season’s offense was unable to do enough to reach the promised land. Some of it was on the wide receivers, some of it was on the offensive coordinator, and yes, some of it was on Allar.

But now Kotelnicki is in charge of the offense with the opportunity to make the requisite changes to a unit that has held the program back when it’s had elite defenses in recent years.

Allar was already seeing some of that necessary growth this spring.

“I love being around Coach K,” he said. “He’s a great leader for our room, quarterbacks and offensively. Really this whole spring the offense played with a certain swagger. ... Us and the defense really competed throughout this whole spring. It really hasn’t been like that since I’ve been here, in all honesty. The defense would probably get the better of us eight out of 10 practices. But this year, it was like every other period we’re coming down to the last rep.”

None of that will matter if it doesn’t translate to the fall, but it’s an important first step. Allar having the right people around him will matter, and it’s apparent that Kotelnicki could be the right coordinator for him to take the next step.

At times in 2023, Allar was on an island. He was the one who sat in the visiting media room in Ohio Stadium last year with tears in his eyes, answering for the mistakes the offense made. He was the one who felt the brunt of the backlash from fans.

The offensive missteps ultimately led to offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich facing the music too . Yurchich lost his job over the problems, but Allar took more than his fair share of heat for the way the unit performed.

Kotelnicki wants to assure Allar that — even if people blame him for any problems — they’re really blaming the coordinator.

“The biggest thing that I want to convey to him is that it’s a partnership,” Kotelnicki told the CDT. “If people are going to be critical of him or anybody, they’re being critical of me. When our kids screw up, I don’t blame them right away. My first thought is, I should have practiced that more, or I shouldn’t have called that play, or I shouldn’t have had that kid run that route. ... When you can start there, then it’s a hell of a lot easier to be partnered with, specifically, your quarterback. My job is to make sure I’m putting him in a position to succeed.”

In an ideal world for both, there won’t be any blame to share. Instead there will be triumphs and goals that the program has yet to achieve under Franklin.

Because, as much as fans want the program to succeed at the highest levels, Allar wants it more.

He is entering his third year at Penn State, with the possibility of the 2025 NFL Draft looming, depending on how the year goes. He wasn’t ready to comment too much on what will come next for him after this year, but he does know what he wants for the team — the thing he’s wanted since he got to Penn State.

“I came here to win a Big Ten Championship and a national championship,” Allar said. “It would be a dream come true. ... To see how close we were last year was eye opening in a sense, because people think we’re super far away. But in reality, we’re not.”