Drew Allar, Penn State WR take shape: Sunday notebook
Penn State football squeezed every ounce from its season-opening Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Welcoming a huge crowd for the day, the Nittany Lions parlayed a frenzied energy into a 38-15 win over West Virginia.
And within it, a series of storylines took shape.
Drew Allar began his career as a Penn State starting quarterback in earnest. Producing a showing inspiring confidence for Allar, his coaching staff, teammates, and fans – all in an in-game environment – optimism remains extremely high.
Beyond him, Penn State had key contributions across the receiving room. The vaunted defense showed strengths and cracks against a talented quarterback and a strong WVU offensive line. And special teams were inconsistent.
With a much-needed night of rest, and another viewing of the night’s scrap in the books, here’s a Sunday review of the Nittany Lions’ win:
Penn State football Sunday notebook
KeAndre Lambert-Smith makes it a trend
James Franklin will continually seek out improvement from KeAndre Lambert-Smith. He’s done it every year of the fourth-year receiver’s career, and he’s set a standard asking for more again leading into the 2023 campaign.
But, it’s hard to deny a trend, even if it’s taken place over the past 10 months.
Saturday night, Lambert-Smith backed up all of the offseason talk about his maturation and development with another sterling performance. Save for a drop on an off-target pass from Allar that might have gone the distance, Lambert-Smith looked every bit the part of the leading receiver Penn State hopes him to be this season. That took shape as a stadium-rattling 72-yard touchdown reception to open the scoring, then three more receptions and another TD. In all, the four catches went for a team-high 123 yards and two scores.
Along with his five catches for 83 yards and a score against Michigan State last November and another three catches for 124 yards and a touchdown against Utah in the Rose Bowl, Lambert-Smith is stringing together success. He’s also doing what Franklin values most from the position, generating explosive plays.
A few more words on Penn State football’s receivers
Sticking with the receiver position, a few other points need to be discussed.
The first is essentially an echo of what Franklin said in his postgame press conference. Constantly seeking clarification for who might be solidifying a place as a steady third receiver, Franklin reiterated the point he’s held all preseason.
Effectively, it’s Lambert-Smith and Harrison Wallace at the top. They’ve proven that and did again on Saturday night, with Wallace’s seven catches for 17 yards and two explosive plays.
But, beyond them, a lack of a clear No. 3 isn’t the same thing as having a dearth of talent. With four others in the room catching passes, and expected contributor Omari Evans listed as questionable before the game and not taking any offensive snaps, Penn State might just have five other receivers it can and will use. And with them, Penn State might give opposing defensive coordinators headaches and lost time scouting.
Talking to Wallace in postgame, he expressed that Penn State came out of the game with a room that could feel good moving forward.
“It helps everybody with their confidence. Because, if the whole room is getting the ball, it’s kind of hard to defend everybody. So somebody’s gonna be open,” he said. “I feel like everybody getting catches today is gonna have us more prepared for the season, because it won’t be like everyone’s first time getting a pass.”
The PFF initial scout charged Penn State’s receivers with three drops afterward. Lambert-Smith on the potential back-breaker, and back-to-backs between Dante Cephas and Wallace in the red zone later in the game. That might just be the cost of doing business for this group this season, but one the Nittany Lions will live with if the upside matches the potential shown on Saturday night.
One last caveat here: Internal sentiment toward Malik McClain was trending upward before his game last night. With four catches for 58 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown, his spot in the pecking order will be worth watching.
Sander Sahaydak blessed by crossroads without consequence
The drama wasn’t Sander Sahaydak missing both of his field goal attempts on Saturday night. Lining up from 38 and 34 yards late in the first half, the redshirt sophomore barely missed right each time.
That he did prompted Franklin to make a change for PATs and a fourth-quarter try, this time going to Alex Felkins, who hit a 25-yarder.
Discussing the competitiveness of the placekicking battle after the game, Franklin was noncommital about what Penn State would do moving forward. Except, of course, for the bedrock principle of the program that the competition will remain intact, from which they’ll make decisions.
This leads back to the real drama of Sahaydak’s situation. Missing out twice in a game Penn State won comfortably makes his response the point of intrigue.
A scholarship kicker with boundless, obvious leg talent, Sahaydak has lacked maturity to his approach in his two prior seasons at Penn State. The program always hopes to instill confidence in its scholarship specialists with an example set by an outgoing senior, leading to continuity of performance after a first year.
That hasn’t fully sunk in for Sahaydak to date, though Franklin demonstrated his encouragement by the improvement he’d shown, thanks to the competition with Felkins, this preseason.
Can he correct it for the future in moments more consequential than anything he’d faced Saturday? This is the moment to find out, potentially to Penn State’s benefit if the necessary reaction takes hold.
Drew Allar isn’t done
Sal Wormley is one of the more gregarious characters on Penn State’s offensive line. The same might be true of the entire team, for that matter.
So, when asked late Saturday night about how he knew Allar would produce the type of performance he did in his starting debut, Wormley’s response was unequivocal and fast.
“We just had a month of camp with him. And the guy didn’t throw a pick until I think three weeks into camp,” Wormley said incredulously. “So, we all know what Drew can do. Now it’s just time for the world to find out.”
The world did find out. It took shape as 21 completions on 29 attempts for 325 yards and three touchdowns. Within the stat line, Allar completed nine explosive passing plays of 15 or more yards. Two of them went for touchdowns.
His most favored target of the night, targeted eight times, Wallace explained succinctly what makes Allar unique. Effectively, that is the reality that Allar can make any throw he wants.
“If are the whole way across the field, he can get the ball to you because of his arm strength. It is great because if I’m to the field and he’s to the boundary, I know that he has the arm strength to get the ball to me on the other side of the field,” Wallace said. “I feel like with his arm strength, it just opens up and spreads out the defense because they know that he can get the ball wherever he wants it.”
Dinged by Franklin for throwing a couple of balls that were worthy of interceptions, Allar has room to grow. And, with that improvement, already demonstrated between last year and the start of this, that’s what makes his talent so tantalizing.
If this is just the beginning, what might he look like in, say, the seventh game of the season?
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