Drew Allar Practicing with First-Team Offense, Will He Start vs. Northwestern?

Is it Drew Allar time for Penn State Football?

Rumors have been swirling all week on message boards, and social media, about the possibility of Allar starting for the Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon against Northwestern.

The rumor is that Sean Clifford sprained his knee in practice this week, and that Allar would start this week so that he would have two weeks to heal before Michigan.

Dani Dennis-Sutton posted on his Instagram story earlier in the week with a picture of Allar starting QB1.

However, some debunked this quickly, stating that everyone in the 2022 recruiting class used QB1 as a nickname for Allar.

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Everything is speculative now, as we all know how close to the vest James Franklin and Penn State Football keep injuries.

During Wednesday’s practice, Ben Jones recorded a video that saw Clifford making throws and jogging around. The catch, Drew Allar was running plays with the first string.

Sean Clifford running around. pic.twitter.com/fsAGuslRa7

— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) September 28, 2022

There are two possibilities for this occurrence.

It could just be that Allar is just filling in getting some more first team reps so that there isn’t a repeat occurrence of last year’s Iowa game. The other possibility is that Clifford is hurt, and that Allar gives Penn State Football the best chance to win this week and allows Clifford to rest and get healthy.

If Drew Allar does start, it would be interesting to see how he does against a starting Big Ten defense for a full game.

On top of everything else, the remnants of hurricane Ian will be causing some rain showers during the game so it could also give Penn State Football fans an opportunity to see how Allar and the team handle bad weather for the first time this season.

If the young quarterback plays average, or poorly, it would certainly slow down the bench Clifford movement. However, if Allar lights it up and Penn State wins big many fans will want him to start the rest of the season.

If Clifford is truly injured, then he should not play.

The last thing this team needs is another Illinois type performance where Clifford plays injured, and the team loses to a bad Northwestern team. Allar’s presence on the roster could change the calculus for the coaching staff in this scenario, significantly.

This could all be rumors and there is a good chance that it is, but at least there is some more buzz around this otherwise underwhelming matchup.