Penn State’s Drew Allar reacts to brutal performance in crushing loss to Notre Dame

As recently as early Thursday evening, noteworthy members of the football community suggested that quarterback Drew Allar could and should reverse course and enter the 2025 NFL Draft if he produced stellar performances en route to guiding the Penn State Nittany Lions to a national championship. 

Allar then had a nightmare outing that included throwing a brutal late interception in what became a 27-24 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl.

Following Thursday’s heartbreaking defeat, a tearful Allar addressed what could go down as a career-defining contest. 

“We didn’t win the game, so it wasn’t good enough, I think it’s plain and simple,” Allar acknowledged, as shared by Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. “So I’ll learn from it, just do everything in my power to get better from it and just grow from it.”

Ahead of Thursday’s game, Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports wrote that Allar “should” change his mind about returning to Penn State for another college season because he “would instantly be the most physically gifted quarterback in the (2025 draft) class” even though it’s widely believed Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado signal-caller Shedeur Sanders will be the first two picks of the upcoming player-selection process. 

However, Allar then completed just 12 of 23 pass attempts for 135 yards with no touchdowns and the previously mentioned pick. Those numbers only tell part of the story regarding how poorly he played. He missed what should’ve been an easy touchdown throw early into the second quarter, had two interceptions taken off the board because of penalties and shockingly completed zero passes to wide receivers.

The pick he tossed with under 40 seconds remaining in regulation that gifted Notre Dame an opportunity to get into range for what became a game-winning field goal occurred after he made both a bad decision and an awful throw. 

“I was going through my progression, got to the backside, and honestly, I was just trying to dirt it at his feet,” Allar said about that play. “I should have just thrown it away when I felt the first two progressions not open, because of the situation we were in.”

The Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and New Orleans Saints are the clubs that hold top-10 draft picks that could realistically take a quarterback this spring. Any one of them could still view Allar as a project for the future worth grabbing, as any player can have a bad night. 

Nevertheless, the moment looked too big for Allar on Thursday. He’ll now need to put this game out of his memory by September, assuming he stays at Penn State for another year, to bolster his draft stock by the time 2026 rolls around.