Penn State preseason analysis: Breaking down the Nittany Lion quarterbacks before camp
Penn State enters the 2024 season with hopes of making the 12-team College Football Playoff. Quarterback play will play a big role in whether it ultimately does or doesn’t. For this year’s Blue-White Illustrated preview magazine (order here), our team of writers took a deep dive on each position group before the pads come back on. We start our online series that features that content with the quarterbacks.
Penn State preseason analysis: Quarterback
We used a star system to grade each subsection: ***** National Title; **** Top 10; *** Top 25 ** Too Unproven; * Major Concern. Here’s our breakdown:
Starter grade: ***
If you looked at just the overall numbers alone from 2023, you’d probably add a star to junior Drew Allar’s resume heading into his second season as the Penn State starter. But, if you break out his statistics from the Lions’ biggest games last year, it becomes a much tougher argument to make. The Ohio native threw for just one touchdown a piece in losses to Ohio State and Michigan, had completion percentages under 44 percent in both contests, and mustered just 70 passing yards at home against the Wolverines. Those are ugly marks from what was otherwise a fine season that saw Allar complete nearly 60 percent of his passes for 2,631 yards and an oft-discussed 25-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio. New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki must both improve Allar and make the pieces around him better and more effective for Allar to be a top 10 passer by season’s end.
PSU experience grade: ***
Penn State enters 2024 with two quarterbacks who have plenty of in-game experience. Allar has more than classmate Beau Pribula, of course. But, each is capable of navigating the ship if needed. How Kotelnicki schemes ways to use both this fall is of utmost interest to many Nittany Lion fans, and with good reason. They have skill sets that compliment each other and he used two quarterbacks at once during past stops. After the top two, the experience level drops off as we’ll detail below, but that’s true for just about every program.
Penn State quarterback depth grade *
Penn State redshirt freshman quarterback Jaxon Smolik will miss “significant time” this season due to an undisclosed injury. He has not been ruled out for the season. But, it’s also unclear when he will be back in the mix for the Nittany Lions.
The only other scholarship passer on the roster is January enrollee Ethan Grunkemeyer. The fact that he arrived in January is a boon. And, his meteoric rise from relatively unknown recruit to four-star top-10 passer in the On3 Industry Rankings for the Class of 2024 indicates how talented he is. But, he still hasn’t experienced a preseason camp, let alone a Big Ten road trip or even a game day at the college level. As we noted above, most teams would be stuck in a bind no matter who their third-string quarterback is if they have to put him into a game. But, some would have more experience than others, and Penn State could not say that is the case if it is forced to turn to Grunkemeyer.
Overall PSU QB Grade ***
The arrival of Kotelnicki in State College offers great hope for Penn State and its fans that a more consistently explosive and productive offense will be put on the field in 2024. Will that end up being the case? There are reasons to believe that and reasons not to. Allar was a superstar recruit who now has a year of experience under his belt.
Not all of the faults with the offense last year were his alone. But, Kotelnicki is also going to be tasked with fixing some of his warts and helping Allar help those around him. Then he’ll have to do the same for the quarterback. It would not surprise us any if Allar and the offense are so good this fall that the quarterback is considering among the top 10 in college football. But, after last season, we’re at a seeing-is-believing stage with the passer, and thus, time will tell if he’s capable of taking a big step forward this fall.
By the numbers
0.5 … The percent of Allar’s passes that were intercepted last season. It was the best mark in all of college football. The quarterback’s ability to take care of the football was one of the highlights of his first season as a starter.
25 … Number of touchdown tosses Allar had in 2023. The number tied Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa for the most in the Big Ten. However, as noted above, few of them came in the biggest games of the season.
1,001 … Rushing yards for new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s quarterbacks over the last two seasons at Kansas. The new play caller will ensure that backup Beau Pribula has a role as a runner and Drew Allar will be asked to both pass and use his feet, as well.
Who is the Penn State QB position coach?
Danny O’Brien: Penn State has a first in 2024: A graduate assistant who serves as the operator of a position room. O’Brien has long been connected to James Franklin. He joined his staff as an analyst a few years back and then moved into a GA role last season so he could have a hands-on approach with the Nittany Lion quarterbacks. To be clear, he is not one of the team’s 10 full-time assistant coaches. But, he is running the meetings for Allar and co., on a day-to-day basis with input from Kotelnicki and head coach James Franklin. By and large, though, Penn State wants O’Brien to act like he is one of the 10, and the Lions want current players and recruits to feel that way, too.
“The biggest difference now is just running the room on a day-to-day basis by myself,” O’Brien told The Athletic in March. “It’s something that I’ve been working hard to be ready for whenever that time came. It’s been really fun and a really good challenge. Having a bigger voice in the staff room and being able to voice things from a quarterback’s perspective has been really fun. Coach K is so great at letting everyone share ideas and getting to the best thing collectively. I’ve learned a ton.”
More: Buzzworthy: How Penn State landed on Washington for its White Out game
O’Brien, 33, is a Minnesota native. He learned under Franklin at Maryland from 2009-2011 before the coach left for the top job at Maryland. In Feb., 2012, O’Brien left Maryland. He considered Penn State but ultimately chose Wisconsin. There, his time as the starter was brief. He was the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2010 and won a Grey Cup with the Ottawa Redblacks of the CFL in 2016. He started coaching on the league’s BC Lions’ staff as an analyst in 2020 before taking a similar role at Penn State in 2021. Now, he’s the man at the top of the quarterbacks room in State College.
“He’s meant a ton (to me),” Allar said in Dec. 2023 “He brings a lot of value to our quarterback room because he’s played it in college and in the CFL. He has a lot of experience. Since he’s on the younger side of coaching, he’s able to relate to us real easily and he knows how we feel as quarterbacks. I think we all see the game the same way.”
PSU personnel: Quarterback
DREW ALLAR
Jr. | 6-5 | 241
–Threw for 2,631 yards in 2023 while completing 59.9 percent of his passes. His 25-to-2 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio was among the best in college football. Also rushed for 210 yards and scored four times. –Completed 35 of 60 passes (58 percent) for 344 yards, with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions, while playing in 10 games as a true freshman in 2022.–Was named Ohio’s Mr. Football for his performance as a senior at Medina High in 2021.–Rated among the best prospects in the class of 2022 according to the On3 Consensus, finishing as the No. 29 overall player, and No. 4 quarterback in the cycle.–Led Medina to a 13-1 record as a senior, completing 305 of 511 passes for 4,444 yards and 48 touchdowns.
BEAU PRIBULA
R-So. | 6-2 | 205
–Completed 11 of 21 passes (52.38 percent) for 149 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. Mostly utilized in the run game from the quarterback position. Rushed for 329 yards and six touchdowns. –Played for both teams in the Blue-White Game this past April, combining to complete 10 of 27 passes for 92 yards, with no touchdowns and 1 interception.–Did not see game action during the 2022 season, preserving his freshman eligibility. –Finished as the 25th-ranked quarterback in the class of 2022 according to the On3 Consensus and was No. 13 among all senior prospects in Pennsylvania.–Won first-team all-state honors following his junior and senior seasons at Central York High School.–Named the Pennsylvania State Player of the Year in both 2020 and ’21.
More: Penn State’s new-look offensive line coming together this offseason
JAXON SMOLIK
So. | 6-1 | 205
–Appeared in one game in 2023 while preserving his redshirt. Is expected to miss “significant time” in 2024 due to an undisclosed injury suffered this spring.–Enrolled in January and made his Penn State debut in the Blue-White Game, attempting 1 pass (an incompletion) while carrying once for an 11-yard loss.–Was a three-star prospect in the On3 Industry Ranking, as well as the No. 36 quarterback in the cycle and No. 7 prospect in Iowa.–Led Dowling Catholic in Van Meter, Iowa, to a 10-2 record as a senior, completing 64 percent of his passing attempts for 1,967 yards and 19 touchdowns. –Earned Class 5A all-state honors as a senior and served as a team captain.
ETHAN GRUNKEMEYERFr. | 6-2 | 202
–Enrolled in January and made his Penn State debut in the Blue-White Game, attempting 4 passes for eight yards while throwing an interception.–Was a four-star prospect in the On3 Industry Ranking, as well as the No. 108 overall player, No. 9 quarterback, and No. 4 prospect in Ohio.–Led Olentangy High in Lewis Center, Ohio, to a 11-2 record as a senior, completing 66 percent of his passing attempts for 3,517 yards and 39 touchdowns. –Was a team captain in 2023. Competed at the Elite 11 Finals before his senior season. Named Ohio’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year in 2023.
The post Penn State preseason analysis: Breaking down the Nittany Lion quarterbacks before camp appeared first on On3.
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