Penn State coach Terry Smith admitted that the Penn State offense may not have been built for Drew Allar.
If the offense for Drew Allar looked disconnected at times and overall inefficient, it was.
On Monday, longtime Penn State coach Terry Smith admitted that the offense at Penn State during Drew Allar's time might not have been built for him. He commented on a radio hit that "unfairly to Drew, our offense wasn't built for him."
As most fan bases would do, many of the Nittany Lions fans have taken this and run with the clip, and rightfully so. Coming out of high school, Drew Allar was one of the purest throwers in all of college football. He made his name not only by being 6'5" tall, but also by throwing the football 60 times per game.
Now, that is overall unrealistic to do in College Football today, but what happened to Allar over his four years is really a bummer. He got progressively worse through his years, both by the eye test and statistically.
2023 was his best season, where he finished with a 59.9 percent completion rate for 2,631 yards for 25 touchdowns and just two interceptions over 13 games. He was averaging just 202 yards per game and 1.9 touchdowns per contest.
For reference, this is a guy who threw for 4,444 yards and 48 touchdowns as a senior in high school. He had a massive arm and was consistently let down at Penn State.
Smith continued in his clip to say that the decision-making in the offense was taken out of his hands, and he was tied down from that perspective. This, in my opinion, is a mistake at both the micro and macro levels of his development.
If you have a player who is over Allar's caliber, then he needs to develop into a player who becomes a coach on the field, simple as that. That's a player who needs to have the ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage and get his offense in the best play to succeed.
His not having the ability to do that not only stunts his growth as a college quarterback, but it also totally hinders his development as he prepares for the next level.
Not only was the system not built for Allar, but the personnel never matched his skillset. Penn State never invested in the receiver position well enough to give him the weapons necessary to succeed.
For three straight years, his number one weapon was a tight end, and while that is not altogether bad, it isn't the best when they were trying to compete with Ohio State, Oregon, and the others in college football.
Penn State wasted Drew Allar's four years in Happy Valley. Here's to hoping the new regime can learn from past mistakes.
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