Pushing Penn State depth development, status quo remains at quarterback during Wednesday practice
Penn State head coach James Franklin said Tuesday that the program had not yet talked about its strategy for involving backup quarterback Drew Allar this week. Set to host Northwestern on Saturday afternoon, the Nittany Lions would “love to be able to do that again” with the true freshman signal-caller, just as they’ve done in every other game during the 2022 season.
As of Wednesday evening at Penn State’s practice, however, Franklin and the Nittany Lions were not tipping their hand as to how that plan might look.
Once again, sixth-year senior Sean Clifford appeared as the first quarterback taking reps in the limited open window session for the media. Allar followed second, with Christian Veilleux and Beau Pribula third and fourth, respectively.
Penn State’s quarterback situation
In four games this season, Clifford has completed 75 of his 117 pass attempts for 890 yards and eight touchdowns while throwing just one interception.
Meanwhile, first stepping in for a cramping Clifford in the second half at Purdue, then enjoying reps with large leads against Ohio, Auburn, and Central Michigan, Allar has steadily built up an in-game portfolio. He’s completed 12 of 19 passes for 163 yards, throwing two touchdowns while so far avoiding any interceptions.
On the overall rep chart, Clifford has 232 this season to Allar’s 47. According to Franklin, though, every one of those opportunities has been critical to Allar’s development at this stage in his Penn State career.
“The more experience that we can gain and allow those guys to get, the better we are,” Franklin said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “Fortunately, Sean Clifford and the offense, and the coaches, and the defense have allowed us to be in a situation where we’ve been able to get them time in every game. And not just Drew, but CV, as well. There’s a ton of value in that.”
Next steps
Noting on Tuesday that the Penn State coaching staff or players hadn’t yet discussed the plan of attack for involving Allar or Veilleux, Franklin did push the bottom line of the team’s quest for developing depth this season.
“We have not talked about our strategy about that this week yet,” Franklin said. “We always will do that as a coaching staff first and then obviously talk to the players about what our approach would be before I would make any announcements in the public with the media.”
Also acknowledging Penn State’s respect for Northwestern and its desire to win the game, Franklin said deciding on the approach to take is something of a balancing act in today’s college football.
“We’re getting the guys in the game a little bit earlier than maybe we had in the past, and that is really putting a priority on creating depth,” Franklin said. “That is based on previous experiences. That is what I think we need to do in 2022 with making sure that as many guys in the locker room feel like they’re getting opportunities. It’s all of that.”
