Quarterback is one of the most temperamental and transitory positions in college football, even at the top. Take, for instance, Ohio State, which has had seven different starting quarterbacks since 2014, including five who were single-year starters.
Now contrast that with Penn State, where coach James Franklin has never had a one-year starter. Entering his 12th season with the Nittany Lions, Franklin is working with just his fourth full-time starter, all of whom have held the offensive reins for at least two years.
Franklin loves stability, and he certainly has it at quarterback, where Drew Allar enters his third season as the starter for perhaps Franklin’s best-case contender for a national championship. The Nittany Lions closed spring practice atop several top-25 lists, and Allar is a primary reason.
The quarterback looms over not only Penn State’s 2025 season but also the 2026 NFL Draft, where he is a consensus first-round prospect. But first, Allar seeks to become the third straight quarterback to lead a Big Ten team to the national title, following Michigan’s JJ McCarthy and Ohio State’s Will Howard.
That’s where the Sporting News’ Bill Bender has turned his attention in ranking the Big Ten’s quarterbacks for next season. The conference has experience (Illinois’ Luke Altmeyer has made 23 career starts), intriguing newcomers (Julian Sayin at Ohio State, Dante Moore at Oregon and Bryce Underwood at Michigan) and a pricey transfer (Nico Iamaleava at UCLA). But Allar ranks above them all as the Big Ten’s top preseason quarterback, according to Bender.
“Allar — a three-year starter — received some draft buzz while leading the Nittany Lions to the CFP semifinals,” Bender writes. “He returned to school, and there should not be too many complaints.”
Bender also noted that Penn State upgraded its receivers room with three inbound transfers, so “the talent is there” alongside Allar. For a comprehensive scouting report of Allar, let’s turn to Sports Illustrated’s recent look at the nation’s top college quarterbacks.
Sports Illustrated rated Allar as the No. 2 quarterback prospect for the 2026 NFL Draft, behind only Garrett Nussmeier of LSU. Allar begins his senior season as a buy stock for many reasons but still gives scouts pause when assessing some corners of his game. As Sports Illustrated notes, “When Allar is in sync, he glows with starter-level tools.”
“The 6′ 5″, 236-pounder is a traditional big-bodied pocket passer who generates terrific velocity on his throws and has an elastic arm capable of producing different throwing angles,” according to Sports Illustrated. “He’s impressive working inside of structure, can get through full-field reads and has a solid feel for managing the pocket.
“Allar is an average athlete who can escape immediate pressure and be a factor in the option game, but he’s not the type of runner teams form their game plan around. Allar has sporadic accuracy — he has too many uncompetitive misses, and his ball placement is too often late, low or behind his receiver.
“Penn State’s offense didn’t task Allar with pushing throws downfield. His arm is strong enough to challenge defenses vertically, but much of his work is in the short and intermediate game, though he can hit all quadrants of the field. He threw six more interceptions in 2024 than ’23 despite tossing only five more passes. Allar’s size, arm strength and glimpses of accuracy create an intriguing upside — he just needs to blend it together more frequently.”
That conclusion underscores Allar’s season as well as his draft future. When asked where Allar needs to improve, Franklin cast a wide net. “It’s all of it,” the head coach said.
“He needs to take another step this year, which we think he’s done every year he’s been here,” Franklin said. “He needs to take another step when it comes to his mobility. He needs to take another step when it comes to his leadership. He needs to take another step in it terms of his completion percentage. Needs to take another step in terms of his touchdown-interception ratio. It’s really all of it.
“There are some things we’ve had some conversations with [quarterbacks coach] Danny O’Brien that those conversations will stay between us, but I would say just being transparent, I will say I don’t think it’s one necessarily specific thing. It’s all of it. The thing that’s exciting about Drew. You guys see him. He may be 6-5, 235, but he has a lot of growth and development [ahead].”
Penn State opens the 2025 season Aug. 30 against Nevada at Beaver Stadium. Allar and the Nittany Lions play three non-conference games before hosting Oregon in the Big Ten opener Sept. 27.
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