Film Study - Inside the Mind of Drew Allar

[CaliLION79]

DREW ALLAR FILM STUDY

See link above. Video covers Allar's ability to cycle through progressions, read defenses, timing, mechanics, willingness to pass up low-hanging fruit in favor of bigger plays, and other fun stuff.

1st half of Video: Positive plays. 2nd half: Negative plays. A ton to unpack in this one. Lots of tangents - some oft-repeated on this board, some I'd never heard discussed before with plenty of different examples illustrating why the 2023 passing game was the way it was and why Allar's end-of-year statistics were so confusing and even polarizing.

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

DREW ALLAR FILM STUDY

See link above. Video covers Allar's ability to cycle through progressions, read defenses, timing, mechanics, willingness to pass up low-hanging fruit in favor of bigger plays, and other fun stuff.

1st half of Video: Positive plays. 2nd half: Negative plays. A ton to unpack in this one. Lots of tangents - some oft-repeated on this board, some I'd never heard discussed before with plenty of different examples illustrating why the 2023 passing game was the way it was and why Allar's end-of-year statistics were so confusing and even polarizing.

It looks more like a white out in a blizzard to me. 😂

 

[bdroc]

DREW ALLAR FILM STUDY

See link above. Video covers Allar's ability to cycle through progressions, read defenses, timing, mechanics, willingness to pass up low-hanging fruit in favor of bigger plays, and other fun stuff.

1st half of Video: Positive plays. 2nd half: Negative plays. A ton to unpack in this one. Lots of tangents - some oft-repeated on this board, some I'd never heard discussed before with plenty of different examples illustrating why the 2023 passing game was the way it was and why Allar's end-of-year statistics were so confusing and even polarizing.

The plays take too long to develop and he freaks out.

 

[Obliviax]

DREW ALLAR FILM STUDY

See link above. Video covers Allar's ability to cycle through progressions, read defenses, timing, mechanics, willingness to pass up low-hanging fruit in favor of bigger plays, and other fun stuff.

1st half of Video: Positive plays. 2nd half: Negative plays. A ton to unpack in this one. Lots of tangents - some oft-repeated on this board, some I'd never heard discussed before with plenty of different examples illustrating why the 2023 passing game was the way it was and why Allar's end-of-year statistics were so confusing and even polarizing.

Thanks for this. Another great review.

Two thoughts.

the first is that Allar was what you'd expect from a true soph QB with marginal receiver talent. He was told to manage games. Not to lose games. And without playmakers at the WR spot, the passes naturally went to shorter routes (TE and RB). I lost count at how many times DA and the WR were on different plays and that is only when DA threw to a spot where there was no WR in the zip code. We don't know how many times DA looked and saw a WR in a totally different place than what he expected so he pulled the ball down ran or passed underneath. In the bowl game, you could see the WRs being totally exasperated. I knew, when they came off the field, half wouldn't be back. And, of course, there is a reason why the OC was fired.

the second is that DA either is not or has been told to not be a difference-maker. He was uber-conservative. There is an argument to be made that only having one INT in the regular season isn't enough. I recall working for a small software company that went public. A new board member asked us how many lawsuits we had. We proudly said "Zero!". We were then admonished for not being aggressive enough. Case in point is that DA really was able to coast us to victories against every team except UM and tOSU. One can make a good argument that UM and tOSU were the two best teams in the nation last year. To beat them, we needed a QB who was a difference maker and not a game manager. The role the staff put him into was that of a game manager. So given the other issues with our offense, DA couldn't or didn't have the ability to be a difference maker.

Matt Millen pointed this out on several occasions. He also suggested that DA will be tasked with being a leader under AK instead of a game manager. Will he take the bit? There is a world of difference between being a true sophomore, first-year starter and being a true Jr with a full year of experience under your belt.

 

[CaliLION79]

Thanks for this. Another great review.

Two thoughts.

the first is that Allar was what you'd expect from a true soph QB with marginal receiver talent. He was told to manage games. Not to lose games. And without playmakers at the WR spot, the passes naturally went to shorter routes (TE and RB). I lost count at how many times DA and the WR were on different plays and that is only when DA threw to a spot where there was no WR in the zip code. We don't know how many times DA looked and saw a WR in a totally different place than what he expected so he pulled the ball down ran or passed underneath. In the bowl game, you could see the WRs being totally exasperated. I knew, when they came off the field, half wouldn't be back. And, of course, there is a reason why the OC was fired.

the second is that DA either is not or has been told to not be a difference-maker. He was uber-conservative. There is an argument to be made that only having one INT in the regular season isn't enough. I recall working for a small software company that went public. A new board member asked us how many lawsuits we had. We proudly said "Zero!". We were then admonished for not being aggressive enough. Case in point is that DA really was able to coast us to victories against every team except UM and tOSU. One can make a good argument that UM and tOSU were the two best teams in the nation last year. To beat them, we needed a QB who was a difference maker and not a game manager. The role the staff put him into was that of a game manager. So given the other issues with our offense, DA couldn't or didn't have the ability to be a difference maker.

Matt Millen pointed this out on several occasions. He also suggested that DA will be tasked with being a leader under AK instead of a game manager. Will he take the bit? There is a world of difference between being a true sophomore, first-year starter and being a true Jr with a full year of experience under your belt.

Spot on. Thought the philosophical choice of, "Don't make mistakes and let our generational defense win for us," was the wrong approach when you have a talent like Allar at QB. If anything, with that good of a defense, you could argue a 180 philosophy would have made more sense - push the envelope, take chances, our D will bail you out. It was just naive to think we were going to beat Michigan and/or Ohio State with an offense/QB not comfortable taking a few shots.

 

[Obliviax]

Spot on. Thought the philosophical choice of, "Don't make mistakes and let our generational defense win for us," was the wrong approach when you have a talent like Allar at QB. If anything, with that good of a defense, you could argue a 180 philosophy would have made more sense - push the envelope, take chances, our D will bail you out. It was just naive to think we were going to beat Michigan and/or Ohio State with an offense/QB not comfortable taking a few shots.

Agreed. it aligns with a "play to not lose" attitude. A two-loss season was acceptable.

We don't have, what they call, "swagger". UM and tOSU play to win...every single game. We, as a program, hope we belong. Every championship team has a kick-ass, Mo-Fo in the lead. We don't have that. We have nice kids and a nice coach. We need a championship attitude. I don't think one is going to fall in our laps, especially in the playoff era.

We can't just switch on a killer instinct when we play the elits. And now, we have more of them in the B1G. It starts with AK and Allar as we cannot reinvent CJF.

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

Thanks for this. Another great review.

Two thoughts.

the first is that Allar was what you'd expect from a true soph QB with marginal receiver talent. He was told to manage games. Not to lose games. And without playmakers at the WR spot, the passes naturally went to shorter routes (TE and RB). I lost count at how many times DA and the WR were on different plays and that is only when DA threw to a spot where there was no WR in the zip code. We don't know how many times DA looked and saw a WR in a totally different place than what he expected so he pulled the ball down ran or passed underneath. In the bowl game, you could see the WRs being totally exasperated. I knew, when they came off the field, half wouldn't be back. And, of course, there is a reason why the OC was fired.

the second is that DA either is not or has been told to not be a difference-maker. He was uber-conservative. There is an argument to be made that only having one INT in the regular season isn't enough. I recall working for a small software company that went public. A new board member asked us how many lawsuits we had. We proudly said "Zero!". We were then admonished for not being aggressive enough. Case in point is that DA really was able to coast us to victories against every team except UM and tOSU. One can make a good argument that UM and tOSU were the two best teams in the nation last year. To beat them, we needed a QB who was a difference maker and not a game manager. The role the staff put him into was that of a game manager. So given the other issues with our offense, DA couldn't or didn't have the ability to be a difference maker.

Matt Millen pointed this out on several occasions. He also suggested that DA will be tasked with being a leader under AK instead of a game manager. Will he take the bit? There is a world of difference between being a true sophomore, first-year starter and being a true Jr with a full year of experience under your belt.

Agree but would add the 'soft play actions' were a major detriment to the passing game and poorly executed by the running backs, the OL and Allar. DA was held too long with his back to the field and came out of the pocket sideways and confused in a collapsing pocket (who wouldn't ). I think this hurt our RBs effectiveness as well as hurt DA and the WRs performance.

 

[wilbury]

I thought this was a good review. I particularly liked the discussion of how we ran the same concepts over and over and the lack of variety was an issue.

I thought our offense was a mess all year. Play calling, schemes, etc. just didn't make sense.

I think it's a little hard to look at individual plays and make any kind of assessment. In general, the clips shown had receivers running good routes and Allar either hitting them or completely missing the fact that they were open. Also, the pass blocking shown in the videos was all pretty good.

Unfortunately, when you look at the big picture, we struggled to run the ball at times, blocking wasn't always great, receivers struggled to get open, dropped passes, didn't block, etc. So I think all of it led to Allar losing confidence with things because there wasn't any consistency.

So I guess like most things, it's a combination of about a dozen different issues. Change any one or two of them and things might be different.

 

[Obliviax]

I thought this was a good review. I particularly liked the discussion of how we ran the same concepts over and over and the lack of variety was an issue.

I thought our offense was a mess all year. Play calling, schemes, etc. just didn't make sense.

I think it's a little hard to look at individual plays and make any kind of assessment. In general, the clips shown had receivers running good routes and Allar either hitting them or completely missing the fact that they were open. Also, the pass blocking shown in the videos was all pretty good.

Unfortunately, when you look at the big picture, we struggled to run the ball at times, blocking wasn't always great, receivers struggled to get open, dropped passes, didn't block, etc. So I think all of it led to Allar losing confidence with things because there wasn't any consistency.

So I guess like most things, it's a combination of about a dozen different issues. Change any one or two of them and things might be different.

Agreed. Every position struggled in comparison to expectations on offense with, perhaps, the exception being TE. What is the common denominator? The OC and scheme. And that is why we made a change. I expect improvement on offense and hope to stay the same on Defense (which was one of the best on all of college football)

 

[SLion]

Agreed. Every position struggled in comparison to expectations on offense with, perhaps, the exception being TE. What is the common denominator? The OC and scheme. And that is why we made a change. I expect improvement on offense and hope to stay the same on Defense (which was one of the best on all of college football)

The common dominator after 4 OCs in 6 years is Franklin. AK will get his hands tied in big games too.

 

[Obliviax]

The common dominator after 4 OCs in 6 years is Franklin. AK will get his hands tied in big games too.

i can't argue with that but...

• Donovan came from Vandy and got fired in the midst of the sanctions
• Moorehead came on and left with a coveted HC spot at a good school
• Rahne came on and decided to take a HC position with a smaller school
• Ciarroca was very unfortunate when COVID hit and the state didn't allow them to practice for quite some time and the state also enacted some draconian issues that hurt PA worse than other states
• Yurcic was a total bust last year. I get the feeling that there were personality clashes as I don't recall PSU firing a coordinator in mid-season

 

[jjw165]

The common dominator after 4 OCs in 6 years is Franklin. AK will get his hands tied in big games too.

 

[SLion]

i can't argue with that but...

• Donovan came from Vandy and got fired in the midst of the sanctions
• Moorehead came on and left with a coveted HC spot at a good school
• Rahne came on and decided to take a HC position with a smaller school
• Ciarroca was very unfortunate when COVID hit and the state didn't allow them to practice for quite some time and the state also enacted some draconian issues that hurt PA worse than other states
• Yurcic was a total bust last year. I get the feeling that there were personality clashes as I don't recall PSU firing a coordinator in mid-season

You can't argue with Moorhead. He was the only one to win some big time games in 2016. 2017 was heartbreaking with defensive collapse against OSU late and that shite weather delay game at MSU which screwed chances for CFP. Rahne was average hire at best. 2018 was crap and 2019 was a struggle on O until Rahne was completely exposed against Fleck. Terrible red zone mind. KC was when you could see that CJF was problem. Flippant hire and zero loyalty. The MY hire was icing on cake. CJF creaming his shorts thinking he got the man to bring us to glory. He has been desperate to keep job ever since that hire..and his O plays desperate when it matters most. AK won't change that.