Welcome to Glass Slipper! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all just want to see Mike Trout healthy again; please enjoy the show.

- Jacob Rhee

It’s been the same story at Penn State for a long time now. The Nittany Lions look like giants against weak opponents, then fade when sharing the field with Ohio State or Michigan. James Franklin took over in Happy Valley at the start of the College Football Playoff era a decade ago, and his program has still yet to make an appearance in the bracket. The fan base is restless, and national conversations are beginning to exclude Penn State entirely.

All of that has to change this year. Ever since Drew Allar blossomed into a five-star recruit, Nittany Lions fans have been repeating the same warning to anyone that would listen. Just wait until Allar’s here. That kid is the one.

I totally understood the excitement; Penn State folks have seen it all at the quarterback position through the years. Christian Hackenberg was one of the biggest commitments in school history, then showed no real signs of being good at football during his tenure. Franklin handed the keys to a middling prospect named Trace McSorley, and the team randomly stumbled into three years of contention when he exploded into a star. Sean Clifford strolled in and slotted himself right between those two guys; he was a game manager, who played a whole lot of nothing-ball for four consecutive seasons.

Allar was supposed to be a sure thing. The high school highlights show a big, athletic, confident kid with a special arm. He ate up tough competition in Ohio’s top division, and made it look easy. The flurry of comparisons to Josh Allen didn’t seem all that outlandish.

With that said, I don’t really know what we do with Allar’s 2023 campaign. He set an FBS record, throwing 311 straight passes without an interception to open his collegiate career. But that was a direct byproduct of his reluctance to push the ball downfield, or into tight windows. Allar dinked and dunked his way into some decent numbers and a 10-win season, yet simultaneously looked rattled in big moments and failed the eye test.

Fortunately for him, the supporting cast should be excellent this year. The Nittany Lions boast an elite duo at running back, and the defense will be nasty again. In addition, Penn State was handed about as friendly of a schedule as it could’ve asked for in the new Big Ten.

The Ohio State game is at home. Michigan and Oregon are nowhere to be found. There’s no reason for this to be anything worse than 11-1 and a trip to the playoff.

Major changes could be on the way if things go awry in State College this year. All of the potential excuses have been stripped away; it’s now or never for the Nittany Lions.

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