UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — There’s no telling just how much Drew Allar’s injury in Saturday’s 27-6 win over Rutgers will impact the Penn State program, both in the short term and for the long haul.
Allar took off and ran up the middle on second-and-4 in the third quarter. When a quarterback does that, there’s always the risk that he’ll take a big hit. And boy, did Allar take a big hit.
“In that situation, he was just about to get down, and somebody flashed from behind another player and hit him just right,” James Franklin said.
Allar is a big young man — 6-foot-5, 242 pounds — and he’s shown he can take a hit. But he’s not a natural running quarterback by any stretch, and even though he’s gotten better at that in recent weeks, there has always been the danger that one hit on him could change things in a big way for Penn State.
That big hit came Saturday, knocking Allar out of the game with an apparent shoulder injury. He was seen on the sideline wincing in pain as he tried to lift his arm, which is never a good sign.
Now the Nittany Lions face some serious questions.
Will Allar be able to play in next week’s regular-season finale against Michigan State?
Will he play again this season?
If you want to let your imagination run a bit wild, you may even find yourself pondering this question: Will Allar ever play again for the Lions?
OK, OK, that last one might be taking things a bit far at this point, but anything and everything could conceivably be on the table.
Franklin doesn’t provide injury updates unless a player is going to miss the rest of the season. The coach did not seem to think that would be the case in his postgame press conference.
“I’m not going to get into the medical stuff,” Franklin said. “First of all, that wouldn’t be appropriate for Drew, and that wouldn’t be appropriate for his family. But I don’t see this being significant. But we’ll see.”
If it’s not significant, then Allar could play Friday against Michigan State in Detroit. If it’s a little significant, then there would be no reason to risk him playing in that game. Then he’d get to rest up for a month to see if he could play in the bowl game.
But if there’s any damage or lingering pain for Allar, both he and the program would be wise to shut it down if need be for as long as it takes. Bowl games nowadays don’t mean anywhere near as much as they used to, with lots of players opting out as they prepare for the pros, and so Allar’s camp could have a decision to make about that.
Lastly, under the worst-case scenario, there already were people wondering if Allar might test the market by entering the transfer portal after the season. We can get into all the particulars of that later — such as the offense possibly facing big obstacles next year — but you get the idea: If he cannot play again this season for health reasons, there’s just no telling if we’ll see Allar take the field again in a Penn State uniform.
“I haven’t checked on him after the game, but on the sideline I talked to him,” left tackle Olu Fashanu said. “You know with him, no matter how Drew feels during the game he’s always sort of the same guy. So, even though I checked on him, he was still the same guy. He was still encouraging the offense, and we told him that we have his back no matter what.”
Allar ran for the first down on second-and-4, and after getting the required yardage, he didn’t slide to get down. When he’s taken off and run a few times in recent weeks — successfully, mind you — he has not made a habit of getting down. In this situation, he took the big hit as he kept going for extra yardage.
Even though the hit looked rough — the kind where one might immediately wonder if he was OK — Allar didn’t stay on the ground and got right back up. But on the next play, he took a snap and looked very uncomfortable, so he just threw the ball out of bounds to his right.
Penn State’s offense has struggled this season, and this game was the first played after offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich was fired. Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle were the co-offensive coordinators and play callers for this game, and having Allar run in that spot did make sense, except for the fact that he ran right into the teeth of a tough Rutgers defense.
That’s the risk-reward of running your quarterback.
“Obviously we never want to put our players in a position where they’re going to get an injury, bumps, bruises, whatever it may be,” Franklin said. “At that point, he was leading us in I think average rush and I think was averaging like 10 yards per rush. And really what he had done the whole game or what he’s really done the whole season is get as many yards as he can and get down, and he’s done a really good job of managing that all season long.”
After throwing the ball out of bounds, Allar immediately ran off the field and was replaced by Beau Pribula. The backup had seen the hit and knew he would have to get ready ASAP.
“I’m always ready to go in the game no matter what,” Pribula said. “I saw it was kind of a rough hit. But he looked alright at first, and then I saw he was kind of dazed a litle but, and then he signaled to the sideline.
“I was ready to go immediately. I’m always trying to stay warmed up on the sideline, ready to go at all times.”
Allar went into the medical tent, and when he came out, he didn’t have his helmet on and was in some visible pain with the arm. It became pretty clear right away that his day was over, although Pribula said he wasn’t sure that he’d be in line to finish the game.