UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- We all couldn't wait to see Drew Allar in action for the first time in Saturday's Blue-White Game, and expectations were very high given that he was the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit.
Many Penn State fans even want Allar to have a chance to be the starting quarterback this fall, thinking he would be an immediate upgrade over Sean Clifford.
But let's slow down here. I've been saying that for months, and the Blue-White Game showed why.
Now look, the annual spring scrimmage is just one practice. It's always just been one practice -- nothing more -- and that was especially true Saturday with most remnants of real football stripped away from the Blue-White Game.
So, in short, let's take all of it with a grain of salt.
That said, this much was clear about Allar on Saturday: He was nervous. And it showed.
The talented true freshman did not play well, throwing several errant passes with two of them getting picked off. He finished 6-of-14 for 61 yards.
The stats don't mean a whole lot from all this, of course. And it's perfectly understandable how Allar might have had butterflies that caused many of his passes to misfire.
Who wouldn't be nervous in that situation?
And that's precisely the point. Precisely why Allar has no chance to be the starting quarterback to open the season and why it was important for Penn State to have a veteran signal caller for this year. Now, I would have preferred someone else coming in from the transfer portal who is better than Clifford, but Clifford will fill that role nonetheless.
Penn State opens at Purdue. Does anyone really want to see a true freshman quarterback lead the team in that spot, regardless of how heralded he was as a recruit?
The Nittany Lions go to Auburn in week three. Again, does anyone think Allar would be ready for that environment?
No.
The same nerves we saw Saturday during his first experience on the field in front of a big crowd would certainly be expected to show up again in big games this fall.
But you know who won't be nervous for those games?
Sean Clifford.
I'll admit, I wanted to see Allar light it up Saturday, regardless of the format, with something like a 22-of-24 showing for 250 yards and three touchdowns. We didn't see anything close to that.
Again, it doesn't mean a whole heck of lot, and I'm sure that now Allar has gotten that experience, he will be better off for it.
Still, first impressions do matter in life, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. In that regard, Allar's performance Saturday left a lot to be desired.
QB comparison
How did Penn State split up the quarterback reps this spring between Clifford, Allar, Christian Veilleux and Beau Pribula? James Franklin gave us the numbers.
"Clifford was able to get 201 reps this spring, and that's attempts; I'm not talking about just overall reps," Franklin said. "Veilleux had 183, Drew Allar had 134, and Pribula had 132.
"Don't over read into the two-rep difference, which I know somebody will make a big deal out of that, but I thought that was good."
Clifford completed 4-of-7 passes for 41 yards and one touchdown Saturday. Veilleux was 5-of-14 for 75 yards. And Pribula, another true freshman, was 2-of-3 for 7 yards.
My take on QB situation
Clifford will be the starter this year, no doubt. I have felt all along that Veilleux would be the backup to start the season, since he's been around and got game experience last year.
Allar will be third string and Pribula fourth string, to start at least.
Now, will Allar get a chance to play as the season goes on? Well, that depends on whether the Lions are winning. As I've written before, Clifford will remain the guy as long as the team is winning, but if say the Lions start 3-3, then I can certainly see Franklin making a change.
If -- and this is a big IF -- all of that happens, would Veilleux or Allar be the quarterback to replace Clifford at some point? That's the question Franklin will have to wrestle with a great deal, because the reality is that if he doesn't give Allar a shot at the first possible chance, then the coach would run the risk of alienating the prized recruit and forcing him to think about the transfer portal.
Ahhhh, the transfer portal. We just can't have any college athletics discussions any longer without bringing that up.
The RB situation
Keyvone Lee led all Penn State rushers Saturday with 32 yards on eight carries. Freshman Kaytron Allen had 29 yards and a TD on eight carries, while Devyn Ford had 28 yards on five carries.
Prized freshman Nick Singleton carried just four times for minus-1 yard.
As much as everyone wants to see Singleton this fall, I have a lot of faith in Lee and believe he can be a good lead tailback. He showed a lot as a freshman two years ago, then struggled -- as all backs did -- behind the terrible offensive line last season.
Do not sleep on Ford, though. Remember, he was a 4-star recruit and the No. 5 running back recruit in the country a few years ago, and I think he has a lot of upside.
I'll predict Lee and Ford will be 1-2 on the depth chart at tailback to open the season.
Names to know
Linebacker Dominic DeLuca had a memorable day, picking off Allar and getting a sack.
Linebacker Bobby Walchack had the other interception off Allar.
Jaden Dottin led the receivers with 45 yards on three catches, with a long of 19. KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Kaden Saunders also had three catches.
The score
For whatever it's worth, the Defense beat the Offense, 17-13. That's probably the least important note about the scrimmage, given how there really wasn't a whole lot of real football and they used an alternate scoring format.
Franklin on the spring
The coach started off by saying he was appreciative to have 60,000 fans at the spring game.
"For the most part, we stayed healthy, got a ton of reps, managed a challenging situation with our offensive line based on numbers," he said of spring drills. "I know today wasn't exactly what the fans or the media wanted, but it was the best thing to do for our program and then still maximize the opportunity that we had.
"We answered some questions this spring, but we still have some questions going into fall camp. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done between now and fall camp, and then before you know it, I'll be talking to you guys on a Wednesday, and we'll be going to Purdue.
"I'm pleased with our progress," he added. "(New defensive coordinator) Manny Diaz being able to get here, being able to watch bowl practice and then get 15 practices of spring ball was very, very important. Year two under (offensive coordinator) Mike Yurcich was very, very important. Getting a veteran quarterback like Sean Clifford, with the same offensive coordinator for two years and being able to mentor two, really three, talented underclass quarterbacks. All these things gain value.
Praising the freshmen
Penn State had the No. 6 recruiting class in the country, led by Allar and Singleton, and those players were introduced before the game.
"The last thing I would say is we probably have more guys in this recruiting class -- and I'm not really talking about rankings, because as we know, those things are nice -- but at the end of the day, it's about what really shows up on your campus from a production standpoint," Franklin said. "And we probably have more new guys showing up on campus that have a chance to impact the roster as freshmen than maybe we've ever had. Maybe one other class that did that, so I'm excited about that.
"Where I think this class may be different is, obviously we've all seen the increase in mid-semester grads. We're getting more guys that are graduating early and coming in, learning the system and then going into summer with a chance to truly compete."
Four things to work on
Franklin singled out these things to concentrate on between now and the start of the season.
* "The things that jump out in my mind is who's going to be the punter," he said. "You know after losing maybe the best specialist in the country (Jordan Stout), that's a big question. Is it Barney (Amor), is it Gabe (Nwosu) or is it Mitch (Groh)? Or is it a really talented guy coming in, in(Alex) Bacchetta."
* "Offensive line, who's going to replace the guys that left? And can we take a step where you guys ask about the offensive line. I say something and then we back it up on the offensive line, which has been a question."
* I think the other question is linebacker. We lost some horsepower at the linebacker position. I think we got a pretty good idea who the two outside linebackers are, and we had great competition as mike linebacker between Elsdon and Kobe.
* "And then obviously hiring a new defensive coordinator. How is he going to fit and match after we have had so much stability at that position for a long time. But that's been good so far."
End of an era?
OK, so will we ever really get to see a good Blue-White Scrimmage again? And I mean four -- or close to four -- good quarters of an actual scrimmage between the offense and defense and with a real score being kept?
Like I said earlier, the Blue-White Game has always just been one practice, but at the same time, there was still some semblance of real football being played -- just not the full version with any kind of open playbook.
Penn State didn't have enough offensive line depth to play a real scrimmage Saturday, and there were some other injuries to deal with that limited numbers.
But in the modern era, where safety is always the big concern, and now transfer portal and NIL stuff to contend with, is there really any incentive for Penn State or any team to play a real football scrimmage?
I hope so, because I do like to see some level of football, and that just wasn't on display much Saturday.
But my hunch is now that coaches have so much to deal with and have to be concerned about every little thing with regards to player safety, there will be a growing consensus around the country to just show up at the spring game and give fans a show by doing drills, some contests, some specialty stuff and sprinkle in just a little bit of football.
Sort of like we saw Saturday.
Franklin, though, did offer up this good news.
"I would prefer it to be the spring game, because number one like I mentioned when you step into the stadium and you got 60,000 fans, I want to know which young players can handle that. Some rise for the moment and play better than they did in the 14 other practices. Some are nervous and they're dropping balls they haven't dropped all spring or missing assignments or whatever it is.
"I think there's also a part of it, let's be honest, I want the fan base excited going into the next year that there's a buzz and they're talking about it. I want you guys writing nice columns please. All these types of things. I think there's value in it. I get it. Like anything, you know, there's a cost benefit ratio to everything. For us, we've done a pretty good job. You saw today some of the periods were thuds. Some of them were live. I can see us even in a future in a spring game setting doing both. The live wok, this is still a game where you better block, you better tackle, you better be able to break tackles. So, it is needed I think in the overall evaluation of our program to know where we're heading. And maybe I'm old school. I'm still a believer that this game is built on toughness. And I want to know who's taught when it matters most."
Beautiful day
Man, it was gorgeous Saturday, and tens of thousands of fans showed up inside the stadium. There also were probably at least 10,000 or more fans that never made it into the stadium, choosing instead to enjoy their tailgate with family and friends instead of going in and watching the practice.
Hey, who can blame them? Those folks probably had more fun anyway than the people inside the stadium watching the practice.
