By Kyle Golik
I have seen this Drew Allar before. The bright lights and expectations hit a critical crescendo and Allar’s performance disappoints worse than paying money to see a virtuoso tenor’s voice crack on an apex. Allar’s cracks against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff at the Orange Bowl is what cost the Nittany Lions the game.
Despite Allar passing 12 for 22 for 135 yards up to the critical interception that doomed Penn State, Allar had been flirting with disaster a few times throughout the game being saved by Notre Dame penalties that kept those interceptions off the stat sheet. Without those penalties that wiped two interceptions off the board and adding in Christian Gray’s at the Penn State 42-yard line with 33 seconds to go, a play that channeled the ghosts of Trace McSorley’s 2017 Rose Bowl interception that doomed Penn State against Southern California, Allar was mistake-prone all game.
“Yeah, I mean, I was going through my progression, got to the backside, and honestly I was just trying to throw it at his feet but I should have just thrown it away,” Allar said with tears and emotions after his latest big game disappointment. “I felt the first two progressions not open just because of the situation we were in, but I was just trying to throw it at Omari’s feet, but just didn’t execute what I was trying to do.”
Allar’s first College Football Playoff interception capped a postseason where in big games Allar’s accuracy was not there. During four postseason games, from the Big Ten Championship and three College Football Playoffs, Allar completed 58 of 109 (53.2%) of his attempts, while throwing six touchdown passes and three interceptions.
This was an improvement over last season when Allar was in the three contests against Michigan, Ohio State, and Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, completing only 45.6% of his passes and did not complete over 50% in each of those games. Allar averaged 185.3 yards in those games and each of his four touchdown passes were in garbage time, when the game was already decided.
Penn State’s offensive problems were more than Drew Allar
While Allar will forever be the face of one of Penn State’s biggest postseason disappointments with the interception, Allar may need to visit Penn State Creamery and put pictures of his wide receivers on milk cartons because they were non-existent against Notre Dame. You the reader and me the writer had the same number of receptions against Notre Dame. You got that right, zero. Trey Wallace was targeted only three times, Omari Evans two, and Julian Fleming, not one time.
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Leading up to the Orange Bowl, I wrote a column about it being now or never for the Penn State wide receiving room. For the 2024 group, it will be never after a ghost act in the Orange Bowl as they joined service academies Navy and Air Force as the only college football teams in the FBS to have a game where they did not complete a pass to their wide receivers.
Franklin had been adamant for weeks that the wide receiving group had become a strength saying prior to the Orange Bowl, “There has not been enough stories written in my opinion about that because there sure was enough articles written about the opposite,” Franklin said. “They have been a huge part of our season, and our development, and again, at a time in college football and in society where maybe that’s hard to do in terms of every receiver wants 80 catches and a thousand yards.”
While I wasn’t looking for gaudy numbers for the much-maligned wide receiver group, is one catch asking too much?
When pressed about the wide receiver’s group effort tonight and getting them involved into the game, Franklin responded, “Yeah, we tried a couple early on in the game and weren’t able to convert them, tightly contested coverage. They’re a man coverage team. But yeah, that’s a storyline of the game. That’s one of the storylines. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. But early on we had some throws, tightly contested balls that we didn’t come down with. So again, give them some credit.”
Franklin is not going to get credit for the job his staff did of setting up Penn State to win. Instead, it will be viewed as another big game let down as Franklin’s record against Top 10 opponents drops to 4-20. Franklin really shouldn’t be blamed, was it his fault two defensive backs literally wiped out on Jaden Greathouse’s 54-yard touchdown to tie the game at 24 in the fourth quarter, or the many mistakes Allar committed?
At some point the onus has to be put on these players, who are now getting paid and want to be treated like professionals, that ultimately failed Franklin who had Penn State in position all game to win the game. Instead of Franklin being redeemed in college football’s penultimate game, it is their failures and mistakes that continue the big game failure label that continue to follow James Franklin.
The narrative is Penn State benefited on their road to the semifinal, and they did, against Southern Methodist and Boise State, but games aren’t guaranteed. Texas was pushed to the brink against Arizona State, another game many thought it was all but a lock for the Longhorns. Penn State took care of business and were once again in position to win the game.
Penn State’s failures were once again the bright lights shining too bright on Allar whose big game miscues were too late and fatal to overcome.
Penn State’s failure at wide receiver, yes Franklin has to own that to not have developed or have gotten them ready for the big stage.
Despite the wide receiver group’s inadequacies, Penn State was in a position to win this game, that is where Franklin deserves credit. The ultimate failure of this 2024 Penn State team was their inability to deliver the big-game redemption for Franklin.
