DANIA BEACH, Fla. -- When Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki meets with quarterback Drew Allar before Thursday's College Football Playoff semifinal game against Notre Dame, his message won't change.
"'You prepare your ass off for these kind of moments,'" Kotelnicki said of his pregame message to Allar, following the team's arrival Tuesday for the Capital One Orange Bowl. "'Go out there and have fun. Trust yourself.' Because he rehearses the plays like a pro. I know he wants to play pro football, and he rehearses the way a pro should, in terms of referencing calls, reads, getting players lined up the right way, all that kind of stuff, he does it at an extremely high level."
Allar has made obvious strides in his first season under Kotelnicki, completing 71.6% of his passes during the regular season. The junior's accuracy has dropped off in the postseason, though, as he completed 51.3% of his passes against Oregon in the Big Ten championship game loss and only 26 of 47 attempts in CFP wins against SMU and Boise State. He did throw three touchdown passes against both the Ducks and Broncos.
But Allar's value goes beyond passing efficiency. He has allowed Kotelnicki to implement more creative formations, personnel groupings and plays for Penn State's offense.
"We can we do all that stuff, because Drew allows us to do that stuff," Kotelnicki said. "He's got a big brain, and he loves football and all the things that are required to be the quarterback. But then his understanding of where the ball's going and why, his coachability has really started to take off. It's A to Z now. Before, it was just kind of A to M."
Allar, who saw his completion percentage increase from 59.9 in 2023 to 67.4 this season, announced in December that he intends to return to Penn State in 2025 rather than enter the NFL draft. He should enter the 2025 season as one of the top pro prospects at quarterback, although, like Penn State's team, he's still searching for signature wins. They will get an opportunity for one against No. 7 seed Notre Dame. Allar's only losses as Penn State's starter have come against Ohio State, Oregon and Ole Miss in the 2023 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
"Drew's coming into this game knowing that there's a lot of weight on his shoulders," Penn State tight end Khalil Dinkins told ESPN. "I'm sure it gets to him, being the quarterback and everything, a lot of pressure. But the thing is, our O-line, our tight ends, our receivers, our running backs, we'll do everything we can to keep that load off of him. I think he's going to come into the game with very much confidence in his abilities."
Allar did not meet with reporters Tuesday after the team arrived in Florida but said Saturday that a second season as a starter has helped shape his leadership and how much and when to display emotion during games. He spoke with Kotelnicki, head coach James Franklin and quarterbacks coach Danny O'Brien about returning to a "level-headed" place after an emotional high or low.
"I'm extremely competitive in everything that I do, and I want to win and I want to be perfect in everything that I do," Allar said. "So it kind of stems from that, but I also had to be intentional about it, because there's good times to show emotion like that, but there's also bad times to show it. Playing quarterback, you definitely have to be cool, calm, collected."