Penn State (3-3 straight up, 0-6 against the spread) senior quarterback Drew Allar sustained a season-ending lower-body injury in Saturday’s stunning 22-21 loss to Northwestern as a 21-point home favorite. The Wildcats hooked up money-line supporters with a lucrative +900 payout.
With its third straight loss, James Franklin’s team saw its hopes of returning to the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons dashed. Even worse, the Nittany Lions most likely saw one of the program’s best all-time players play his final collegiate snap.
The 21-year-old Allar has started 35 games in a row for Penn St. since the start of the 2023 campaign. The Nittany Lions have posted a 26-9 record in his 35 career starts.
They went 13-3 SU and 8-8 ATS last season, losing 45-37 to Oregon as 3.5-point underdogs in the Big Ten Championship Game. However, Franklin’s team recovered to blast SMU 38-10 as an eight-point home ‘chalk’ in the opening round of the CFP.
PSU advanced to the CFP semifinals by downing Boise St. 31-14 as an 11-point favorite at the Fiesta Bowl. Allar completed 13-of-25 passes for 171 yards and three touchdowns without an interception against the Broncos.
Penn St. faced Notre Dame next at the Orange Bowl. The Fighting Irish pulled into a 24-24 tie with 4:38 remaining on Riley Leonard’s 54-yard TD pass to Jaden Greathouse.
After both teams traded punts, Allar and Co. took over at its own 15 with 38 seconds remaining. On first down, RB Nicholas Singleton ran 13 yards on a play that only chewed up five seconds.
Therefore, Franklin decided to get aggressive. There was time to get into field-goal range with 33 ticks left. But on the next play, Allar’s pass was intercepted by Christian Gray at PSU’s 42.
Notre Dame advanced 19 yards in six play to set up Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard, game-winning field goal with seven seconds remaining.
Allar completed 12-of-23 throws for 135 yards with the costly interception.
Allar and his teammates spent the offseason stewing on the heartbreaking loss to the Fighting Irish. They were looking for redemption in 2025.
But it’s all unraveled over the last three weeks with losses at home vs. Oregon, at UCLA and at home to Northwestern. Allar went down with the injury on a one-yard run in a third-and-four situation.
One play later, backup QB Ethan Grunkemeyer was stopped for no gain on fourth and three. From there, Northwestern ran out the clock with an eight-play drive.
In what was likely Allar’s last game at Beaver Stadium, he connected on 13-of-20 throws for 137 yards with an interception. He added 25 rushing yards and one TD on six attempts.
In six games this season, Allar has completed 103-of-159 passes for 1,100 yards with an 8/3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He has 172 rushing yards, one TD and a 4.8 yards-per-carry average.
As a sophomore in 2023, Allar led PSU to a 10-3 SU record and a 9-4 ATS mark. He completed 59.9 percent of his passes for 2,631 yards with a stellar 25/2 TD-INT ratio. Allar added 210 rushing yards and four TDs.
In 2024, Allar connected on 66.5 percent of his throws for 3,327 yards with a 24/8 TD-INT ratio. The 2021 Mr. Football Winner in the state of Ohio had 302 rushing yards and six TDs.
For his career that spans 45 games, Allar has completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 7,402 yards with a 61/13 TD-INT ratio. He ranks #1 in program history in completion percentage, #3 in TD passes and #4 in career passing yards.
Allar also has 732 career rushing yards, 12 TDs and a 3.3 YPC average.
Penn St. will try to end its three-game slide Saturday at Iowa. As of early Monday afternoon, most books had the Hawkeyes installed as 3.5-point home favorites with a total of 39.5. The Nittany Lions were +140 on the money line.