The Drew Allar Era at Penn State starts now

So ends the before times.

We don’t need an official proclamation from the head coach to understand that the Drew Allar Era at Penn State starts now. The hopes and dreams and hype, replaced by game-to-game reality, starting Saturday night against West Virginia in Happy Valley.

The hopes are sky-high, on merit. Not just for Allar, for the whole group, for this season and beyond. If you combine a fantastic pair of running backs with a strong offensive line and a big-time defense, and the quarterback turns out to be special, the team has a chance to be special.

Allar has to live with those expectations, and embrace them. None of this is new. Heck, half the state last year said (or, in my case, wrote) that if Penn State fell out of Big Ten title and playoff consideration, James Franklin should switch to the future, switch from Sean Clifford to Allar.

If we’re going to nitpick Franklin, and he earns that as the state’s highest-paid public employee, we should also acknowledge when he gets the big calls right. I’ll argue that other than the national title itself, the best season-ending celebration a college football team can experience is after emerging victorious in the Rose Bowl.

I was on the field in Pasadena in January as it ended, Clifford racing around the field, a rose stem between his teeth. For all his downs, Clifford had big ups, too, and this was the biggest, Utah vanquished in the Granddaddy of Them All.

That doesn’t happen without Clifford, who has confirmed his own abilities this summer by grabbing the backup spot with the Green Bay Packers. We also have a reminder from last season that a QB alone isn’t elevating an overmatched team.

Last season, I was on the road one other game with the Nittany Lions, inside Michigan Stadium. The fourth quarter had just begun when there was an announcement in the press box, “Drew Allar has entered the game for Penn State.”

That change merely confirmed that no QB could save this day, when the Wolverines never even punted, eventually winning by 41-17. Allar couldn’t be judged at all on that fourth quarter since he was basically starring in a chase scene.

This season, the Wolverines remain a formidable obstacle, on paper the biggest one, coming to State College on Nov. 11. By that time, Penn State already will have visited Ohio State, the other Big Ten peak. We’ll then know a lot more regarding what this season is all about.

Most of all, we’ll know more about whether Allar’s big arm is ready to carry Penn State through the tougher times, whether his brain is ready to exploit defenses that attempt to disguise intentions.

If you think about it, when it comes to Penn State QBs, expectations are not always an accurate predictor of results. Did the outside world see Trace McSorley coming? Have there been other QBs who didn’t quite live up to their high school hype?

All signs highlight Allar’s upside. Penn State fans should be excited about the possibilities the sophomore presents. His teammates and coaches, the ones who see it all every day, aren’t backing off their own praise.

How it all translates to the big stage … bring it on. The before times are over. The Allar Era begins.