STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- In the predawn darkness, Drew Allar pulls his SUV into the Penn State football facility every Monday around 5:45 a.m. He beats many of the coaches into the building and often starts his day by slugging down a blueberry lemonade flavored G.O.A.T. Fuel.
The drink is consumed for the caffeine jolt, not the inspiration. But as Allar enters his fourth and final season as Penn State's quarterback, he remains locked in on finding the elusive edges that will allow the collision of his talent and development to lead to a breakthrough for the program, his coach and his own promising career.
Allar, 21, is a throwback quarterback who has come of age in perhaps the flashiest era in college football history. Allar bloomed so late that he didn't start at Medina High School until four games remained in his sophomore year. He is appreciative of waiting his turn to start at Penn State behind Sean Clifford, and multiple coaches pointed out that he still dates his high school sweetheart.
After 26 wins as a starter the past three seasons, and possessing the raw potential at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds to be the top quarterback picked in the 2026 NFL draft, Allar knows what's next will determine both his Penn State legacy and professional trajectory. And he knows exactly how he'll do it.
"I think it's kind of my story," Allar told ESPN recently. "It's about the process, and not really the end result. So just immersing yourself in the hard work, the unseen work."
The last time we saw Allar on a national stage, he trudged off the field in the wake of perhaps the most punitive interception thrown during the 2024 season. Allar's interception in the final minute led directly to Notre Dame's game-winning field goal with 7 seconds left in a College Football Playoff semifinal.
Allar responded by immediately returning to campus and resuming his predawn routines, flanked by a roster, program, coaching staff and administration that Franklin says is the best he has had in his dozen years in State College.
"You look at a lot of teams that have gone on and had special years, they had some type of experience the year before that helped them, that equipped them for that next season and that next moment," Franklin told ESPN this summer. "Some of those challenges are going to harden us."
Penn State began the season No. 2 in the AP Poll -- the school's highest ranking since 1997. One NFL team put 11 draftable grades on Penn State players in the preseason. (The school record for a draft is 10 back in 1996.)
With No. 6 Oregon in town on Saturday for No. 3 Penn State's first challenge this season (7:30 p.m., NBC) and Franklin's 4-20 record against Top 10 teams looming, Allar's final mission hits an inflection point: How will he lead Penn State on the final steps from great to elite, perhaps the trickiest terrain in sports?
The answer can be found in an emoji, which offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki projects to the unit at the start of each meeting -- a thumb and forefinger about an inch apart from pinching together.
Fittingly, he calls it "The Difference."
"It's The Difference" he has said on repeat this offseason, "between winning or losing."
Kotelnicki challenged his staff members to flip on the tape to find The Difference in three close losses last season, and they found 17 plays against Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame that weren't executed well enough. A majority of those 17 plays came down to something that needed to be coached more and repped more.
"We always talk about how planes don't crash because of one big thing," Allar said. "They crash up because of a bunch of small things that add up, and over time becoming big things."
Allar's own physical appearance embodies The Difference, as he's developed a newfound affinity for tank tops after completing a physical overhaul this offseason that includes Popeye-like biceps.
"No shirt is safe around him now," Penn State strength coach Chuck Losey jokes. "As soon as he gets a new shirt, there's no sleeves and half the traps are coming off of it."
Can Penn State muscle through the final steps and rewrite its tortured high-end history? The cosmic collision of talent, callus and opportunity have Allar and his teammates ready to, well, flex.
THE DEFINING PLAY of Penn State's 13-3 season in 2024 came in the final 47 seconds of the fourth quarter of the College Football Playoff semifinals against Notre Dame.
With the game tied at 24 and two timeouts remaining, Penn State went all-in on winning in regulation and exhuming its recent big-game demons. On the second play, Allar couldn't find star tight end Tyler Warren on a buzz flat. So he went through his progressions and forced a ball across the field to Omari Evans.
Notre Dame corner Christian Gray dove ahead of Evans and secured an interception -- a play as clutch as it was impressive -- with 33 seconds remaining.
"In that moment, I obviously can't put that ball [there], especially on that side of the field," Allar told ESPN this summer. "I'm trying to put it where it's either going to be [Evans] or an incompletion. And I definitely put it where I wanted to somewhat, and I put it low, but I put it too far out."
Nothing epitomizes the fragility of The Difference more than Allar's final moment of a promising season, one that came crashing down short of a chance to play for the national title.
Suddenly, even after two CFP wins, all those Penn State ghosts snarled again. After surging into NFL first-round pick conversations late in the year, Allar instead delivered a painful moment that now prompts a powerful hypothetical: If Drew Allar hadn't thrown the most punitive interception in modern Penn State football history, would the Nittany Lions still be so well positioned to win a title in 2025?
The question is likely to remain rhetorical. Both Allar and Franklin call it a "good question." Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki calls it a "hell of a question."
Allar chews on the topic for a while sitting in a Penn State meeting room back in June. Prior to the CFP, he'd put out a somewhat tepid statement signaling a return to Penn State, saying on Dec. 16 he looks "forward to making more memories with my teammates this year and beyond."
He starts his answer in June by saying it would have depended on "how the next game went."
He added: "But honestly, the more I thought about that decision, I was thinking I haven't really had time to plan out where I trained, where I'd be at or what I'd be doing.
"And the more I thought about it, the more I thought for my future, specifically, the better it would be for me to come back."
Allar's roommate and close friend Dominic Rulli made a fascinating prediction on what Allar would have done if Penn State had won the season's final game: "I think he would've left, which would've put Penn State in a little bit of a pickle."
INSTEAD OF A pickle, generational opportunity looms. And as Allar returns as the face of a loaded roster, there's a roll call of demons for the Nittany Lions to slay on the other side of The Difference.
There's been no league title at Penn State since Franklin's 2016, long enough ago that that team's quarterback, Trace McSorley, is now a Penn State staffer.
There's been no national title at Penn State since 1986, which is nearly three decades before Allar was born in 2004.
There's been no Penn State quarterback drafted in the first round of the NFL draft since Kerry Collins in 1995, a streak of 15 different Nittany Lion starters from Wally Richardson to Sean Clifford.
In James Franklin's 12-year tenure, Penn State is 104-42 but just 4-18 against Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon.
So what can be The Difference from Penn State going 37-8 since 2022 to winning championships?
It's easy to start with the coordinator who has endlessly preached The Difference, as he's also played a big role in making it.
The case for high-end Penn State optimism in 2025 is rooted in its coordinator pairing, as Kotelnicki enters his second season calling plays. The Nittany Lions lured new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles away from national champion Ohio State with a record three-year deal that averages a record $3.1 million per season.
That pairing will be tested for the first time this Saturday. Penn State is 3-0 and still shrouded in mystery after winning by a combined 132-17 over Nevada, FIU and Villanova.
With Kotelnicki calling plays in 2024, Penn State's offense soared in his first season there. Per ESPN Research, Penn State improved in explosive play percentage to 15.3%, the second-highest rate in the Big Ten behind Ohio State. That's up from 10.5% in 2023, a season that saw them finish seventh in the league in that category.
Penn State's offense has reason for optimism beyond Allar, starting with the productive tailback tandem of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton. There's also an offensive line anchored by guard Vega Ioane and left tackle Drew Shelton, with Ioane perhaps the country's top interior line prospect.
"Legitimately, we have the chance to be the best offensive line in college football," Kotelnicki told ESPN.
Until the arrival of offensive line coach Phil Trautwein in 2020, Penn State's Achilles' heel had been the offensive line. That program stigma has shifted to the wide receivers, where Penn State brought in three high-profile transfers this offseason -- Trebor Pena (Syracuse), Kyron Hudson (USC) and Devonte Ross (Troy). The referendum on the caliber of that upgrade will come against the Ducks' defense.
The Difference comes down to execution and technique on small plays, but Franklin is also quick to point toward the hiring of Kotelnicki ($1.7 million this year) and paying Knowles as much as some power conference coaches. The willingness of athletic director Pat Kraft to spend at the sport's highest level has rippled to the field.
"To be honest with you, everybody's focused on Jim Knowles," Franklin said. "I'm going to be honest with you. The year before, we wouldn't have got Andy Kotelnicki under the old administration."
So when asked if this is the best Penn State roster he's seen, Franklin goes broad.
"When you ask that question, it's not just the quarterback -- it's all of it," Franklin said. "I look at it holistically."
He rattles off everyone from Allar and varied position groups to athletic director Pat Kraft to president Neeli Bendapudi to board chair David Kleppinger to donor B.J. Werzyn spearheading the naming rights for the field at Beaver Stadium.
He then nods to the thin margins of The Difference for a program: "It's all of that, right?"
WHEN PENN STATE trailed USC 20-6 at halftime in the Coliseum last year, Allar didn't hesitate to vocalize to the coaching staff a clear path to victory.
Despite a first half when Penn State failed to score a touchdown and Allar threw a bad pick, he delivered a blunt message to Franklin: "They're not stopping the pass, and we really have everything we want in the throw game. Just put the ball in my hands, and I promise I'll make it work."
On a sun-splashed afternoon, Allar came of age by calling his shot and authoring a comeback victory, 33-30 in overtime. And he developed a swagger that remains key for Penn State achieving its biggest goals.
Franklin loved Allar's moxie at halftime, the type of bravado that he'll need to channel for Penn State to reach its generational goals.
"There was just so much confidence and there was no sense of panic," Franklin said. "I don't think there was a doubt, a moment or an ounce of doubt that we weren't going to go win the game."
He threw for 258 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the second half alone, and converted a fourth-and-7 and fourth-and-10 on the game-tying drive. There's no doubt from the staff that they saw The Difference from that day on.
"That was a turning point game for him, I think as a player in his career," Penn State quarterback coach Danny O'Brien said. "From there, you could just see it was a little bit different with him. Confidence wise, that was that game for him."
There's an expectation for highly ranked prospects like Allar to sprint through their careers. He came to Penn State as ESPN's No. 2 pocket passing recruit, and that label can often become a burden as inherent moments of adversity arise.
One thing Allar has worked hard to transform is his athleticism. While coaches joke he'll never be mistaken for Lamar Jackson, he has turned himself into a capable athlete. There's an oversized picture of him stiff-arming a West Virginia linebacker near Kotelnicki's office in the football facility that serves as a daily reminder of his athleticism.
"He's got to be a robust athlete on the field who can endure a 16-game season," said Losey, Penn State's assistant AD for performance since January of 2022. "When I first got here, he just wasn't that."
The up-before-dawn consistency that has defined his time has flashed in the weight room, as Rulli jokes that Allar's dedication to routine puts him in the weight room easily an hour before anyone else in his lifting group.
Losey personally works out the quarterbacks, an interesting and sensible nuance because the strength coach in college football is an extension of the head coach. It makes sense that he would be hands-on with the most important position.
Allar came to Penn State in the same class as Beau Pribula, now the starting quarterback at Missouri after transferring last December. And Losey can't help but link them. "When I think of Beau, I think of Drew," he said. "When I think of Drew, I think of Beau."
Allar came ready made to play from a preparation standpoint, but behind from a strength and speed standpoint. Pribula arrived physically more prepared, but behind on the field.
Allar arrived with body fat over 20%, and it's currently under 15. He put on 18 pounds of lean muscle and dropped 10 to 12 pounds of body fat, an intense overhaul reflected in Allar's wardrobe, now rivaling Pat McAfee's for tank tops.
Speed followed, as he arrived running a 5.1 40-yard dash and "in the 16s or 17s" on the Catapult GPS. Allar ran a 4.86 this spring in the 40 and has touched over 20 on the Catapult. "That's outstanding for someone who is 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds," Losey said.
It didn't happen overnight, but the finishing touches of the physical overhaul are viewed as the final step for Allar. His fidelity to routine has been The Difference.
Some of it can be attributed to an improved diet, although Allar's cooking is a bit of a running joke around the Penn State program.
He'll boil plain pasta in the kitchen and send out pictures, as Rulli jokes, "like Gordon Ramsey made it." Then there was the time he tried to mix red wine in a dish, and his inability to remove the cork ended with him spraying the white cabinets in their apartment like a misguided postgame locker room celebration.
The finishing touches of hard work and better eating have put Allar in position to fulfill Penn State's annual tradition of players crushing the NFL combine, a consistent trait from Franklin's program.
And as Rulli walks through campus and sees students wearing the No. 15 jersey on the way to class, he just chuckles and says to himself: "You have no idea what he's done and what he has to do and what it takes to do it."
NFL scouts have taken notice, but want to see the overhaul completed. He's clustered in the top tier of potential first-round quarterbacks, but some skepticism lingers.
There are two camps on Allar, the camp that sees the talent, athleticism and arm strength and needs more games like USC. And the camp that wonders if he'll take the next step: "Is he going to be a guy who teases you?" a veteran scout asks. A different veteran NFL scout says Allar "has a chance" to be the No. 1 overall pick, as he showed great strides last year until the Notre Dame game.
"He needs to play more instinctual," said another scout. "When he plays loose, he's better. I thought the Oregon game was a great microcosm -- big-time throws and scoring points. Then a couple of brain farts. The talent is all there. First-round talent. Good make-up. He's just not a swashbuckler type."
Amid the "whiteout" Saturday night, he'll get his first high-leverage chance to showcase how far he's come. Sun's down, guns out.
ALLAR GREW UP in a football family. His father, Kevin, played with Charlie Batch at Eastern Michigan. They grew up rooting for the Browns in northeast Ohio, with Joe Thomas his favorite player.
His mom, Dawn, explains the football obsession with a story, recalling how she told Drew what he'd learn while attending Parish School of Religion -- a Catholic education program for elementary school students. She told him he'd learn about God and Jesus and the saints.
Drew excitedly shot back: "I'm going to learn about Reggie Bush and Drew Brees."
Dawn laughs: "Not a proud mom moment; I'm going to have serious answers to give if I ever go to heaven."
There's a hokeyness to Allar's final chapter at Penn State that's authentic, as he cares deeply about the sport, the place and leaving a deep legacy.
He sees how close McSorley is to his teammates from the 2016 Big Ten title team, and he's envious of the brotherhood forged from a title run.
"I think for me that's something I want to do," Allar said. "I want to have our name up, I want to have our team picture up on the wall somewhere in this last facility where whenever I decide to come back when I'm done here, it's always something I can look back on and kind of spark memories."
Those are the old-school ideals that Franklin appreciates, as college football leaps into a new paradigm. He sees those ideals as key to The Difference.
"I am scratching, clawing and fighting to hold on to, in some ways, an old-school football program and a transformational experience and not transactional," Franklin said. "Well, it helps when your quarterback is approaching it the same way."
And on his last ride at Penn State, Allar takes his old-school approach to writing a new ending.
"This is now or never," Rulli told Allar after his decision to return. "We have the pieces."