Drew Allar is in the NFL now, but Penn State is still very much on his mind.
The former Nittany Lions quarterback, who led the program to its deepest postseason run and highest point in recent memory, said he wants the new era under Matt Campbell to push even farther. Allar never played for Campbell, but the two Ohio natives crossed paths during the recruiting process, and Allar said that connection left an impression.
“Coach Campbell recruited me a little bit when I was coming out of high school,” Allar told PennLive. “I always had a really good amount of respect for him.”
Allar’s Penn State run ended with a trip to the 2024 College Football Playoff semifinals against Notre Dame, the high-water mark of his time in blue and white. Now a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, he’s still tracking the program closely through its early-season turbulence, including last week’s 24-20 loss to Wisconsin after Penn State blew a 17-0 lead.
“One loss, especially now in college football, really doesn’t define your season, which is the nice part,” Allar said.
What he’s hearing from around the program has him believing Penn State is still in decent shape despite the setback.
“From everything I’ve heard, they really respect that coaching staff, and that doesn’t really surprise me at all,” Allar told said. “Now it’s going to be a challenging game that they go on the road against Northwestern this week on a Friday night where they’re opening their new stadium. But it’s a great opportunity for them to just bounce back and have a really good game.”
Allar’s attention isn’t limited to State College. He’s also watching Virginia Tech, where his former coach James Franklin has the Hokies off to a 4-0 start after last year’s 3-9 finish under former Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry. Virginia Tech heads to Acrisure Stadium to face 4-0 Pitt, in a matchup that marks the first time two unranked power conference teams with perfect records have met.
“I’m hoping they [Penn State] can take the next step, and then same with Virginia Tech,” Allar said. “Putting Virginia Tech back on the map as a true blue blood program would be really cool to see. I think that’d be great for college football in general.”
He said Franklin’s quick turnaround in Blacksburg fits the coach’s résumé.
“He has a great track record of that going back to his Vanderbilt days,” Allar said. “Kind of turning around Vanderbilt for for the first time in Vanderbilt history and then coming to Penn State at a pretty rough time, like with all the stuff that was going around at Penn State, and again getting us to you know a spot that we were at really the last probably six years, getting us to like the the height of college football.”
And with Penn State and Virginia Tech in different conferences, Allar said there’s no real conflict in following both.
“It’s not really hard at all to do just because one is in the ACC, the other Big Ten, so that makes it definitely easier,” Allar said.
Still, he knows where his biggest footprint will be measured, and he wants that legacy to be surpassed soon.
“I definitely want to see both programs - especially Penn State get better than what we were when I was there,” Allar said. “That was always the thing that I tried to take pride in - trying to leave it better than I found it. I felt like, for the most part, we did a good job of that.”
In Other News...
Steelers Finally Moved On From Joey Porter Jr For A Reason
Joey Porter Jr. is officially on the move, and the Steelers turned the page by dealing the cornerback to the Cowboys for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-rounder. For Pittsburgh, it was a striking end to a run that never really got back on track once Porter was sidelined in 2026, when a back injury and conditioning issues kept him out of game action all season.
Dallas is taking a measured approach with the former Steeler, and there is no immediate plan to extend his contract before seeing how he performs in a new setting. For Pittsburgh, the trade brings back future draft capital and closes the book on a player whose recent absence had become as much a part of the story as his talent. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Coach Just Added Fuel To Steelers' Latest AFC North Grudge Match
Todd Monken has been around the AFC North long enough to know how quickly a passing comment can sharpen a rivalry, and his latest one did exactly that. The Browns head coach, who has seen the Steelers from both Cleveland and Baltimore, took a shot at Pittsburghs veteran defensive core by suggesting it might be time for players like T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward to retire, a remark that lands with extra weight given how many bruising games those names have already created in this division.
For the Steelers, it is the kind of chatter that usually gets remembered long after the pregame noise fades. Watt and Heyward have been central figures in Pittsburghs identity for years, and Monkens familiarity with them only adds another layer to what is already set up as another hard-edged meeting between the Browns and Steelers, with the usual AFC North tension waiting for the first hit to bring it to the surface. [Read more 🡒]
LeVeon Bell Just Turned A Steelers Move Into A Bigger Debate
The Steelers decision to move on from Joey Porter Jr. has already sparked plenty of discussion, but the conversation widened quickly once LeVeon Bell weighed in on social media. Pittsburgh sent the cornerback to Dallas for future draft picks after a contract dispute and a back injury kept him from playing this season, a transaction that would have been debated on its own even before Bell added his criticism.
Bells comments pushed the story beyond football and into a much more familiar kind of scrutiny around the franchise. He alleged unequal treatment of black and white players, a charge that lands differently in light of the Steelers recent extensions for Cam Heyward, Jalen Ramsey and DK Metcalf, and it leaves the team facing a broader question about how this latest move is being interpreted around the league. [Read more 🡒]