Penn State football coach James Franklin said Monday that he expects quarterback Drew Allar to play against Michigan State Friday night at 7:30 (TV-NBC) at Ford Field in Detroit.
“It’s too early for me to say,” Franklin said during his weekly press conference. “We have not practiced yet since the (Rutgers) game. But (by) all indications, I would think we’re gonna be back to normal.”
The 6-5, 242-pound Allar left early in the third quarter of the Nittany Lions’ 27-6 victory over Rutgers last Saturday at Beaver Stadium. He was hit hard at the end of an 8-yard run by defensive back Flip Dixon and appeared to suffer an injury to his right shoulder or arm.
Beau Pribula replaced Allar with Penn State leading 10-6 and directed three scoring drives resulting in 17 points. He carried eight times for a career-high 71 yards, scored a touchdown and completed his only pass for 9 yards.
“Just like we planned last week, I still think both of those guys will have roles (against the Spartans),” Franklin said. “I think Beau will be ready to go. He didn’t flinch. The staff didn’t flinch. The players didn’t flinch. He went in and made plays like we expected him to make.”
The 6-2, 203-pound Pribula, a former All-State player at Central York, has rushed 52 times for 311 yards and five touchdowns. He’s completed just 8-of-18 passes for 90 yards and two TDs.
“We’ve had passes in (the game plan) for him every week,” Franklin said. “The majority of his reps have come in four-minute football when you’re trying to run the ball as much as you possibly can. By running the quarterback, you even the numbers out.
“Does the situation warrant that (Pribula passing)? As you can imagine, there’s more in his package than you’ve seen.”
Allar has started every game this season, completing 60% of his passes for 2,044 yards and 21 touchdowns with one interception. He’s increased his runs in the last several games and has picked up 177 yards and four touchdowns.
Before his injury, he was 6-for-13 passing for 79 yards against Rutgers.
“He’s been confident each week,” Franklin said, “and his numbers back that up. His numbers are really good. … The exciting thing to me is, I think there’s a ton of room for improvement with him and with us.”
Allar did not play well in Penn State’s losses to No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan. After the 24-15 loss to the Wolverines earlier this month, Franklin fired Mike Yurcich as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Franklin appointed running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider and tight ends coach Ty Howle as the play callers for the rest of the season. In their first game, the Lions rushed for 234 yards, passed for 88 and appeared to have no problems with getting the calls to the quarterbacks and making substitutions.
“I thought the collaboration and the environment that was created — everybody spoke up and had opinions — was really good,” Franklin said. “I thought when they got up in front of the team they did a really good job of explaining how we are going to play offense and how that’s going to put our team in the best position to be successful.
“I thought on game day, they did a really good job throughout the game of making them (the Knights) defend the whole field, putting people in conflict. When we had success with plays, they went back to them and forced the defense to adjust.”
Michigan State’s defense ranks in the lower half of the Big Ten in most categories: ninth in rushing yards allowed, 11th in points allowed and total yards allowed, 12th in passing yards allowed and 13th in pass defense efficiency. Only Indiana has allowed more touchdown passes than the Spartans in the conference.
“I think we’ll refine the process even more this week,” Franklin said. “That was one of the few weeks where we met our goals on third downs and explosive plays in the same week. I can’t remember a week when we had only one missed assignment.
“The game plan was smaller and tighter than it had been all year, but still enough to cause challenges to a really good defense.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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