The CBS cameras caught an irate Drew Allar walking to the sideline at Huntington Bank Stadium last weekend. The Penn State offense was attempting a quick-kick to keep Minnesota off balance, but the quarterback and his center, Nick Dawkins, were struggling to communicate. It was a disjointed sequence that ended with tight end Tyler Warren punting the ball 16 yards.

Allar stomped to the sideline, where cameras captured coach James Franklin talking to the junior to calm him down. Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton and injured offensive lineman Anthony Donkoh were also offering encouragement to Allar. And in the end, Allar played a gutsy, efficient game to help Penn State stay in the postseason race with a 26-25 win.

Allar has displayed that side of himself for much of the season. It started in the season opener at West Virginia when he stiff-armed a defender and jawed in his face. He pointed at the scoreboard after taking a hit from a Washington defender earlier this month. Since he first stepped into the spotlight as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2022, Allar has always come across as genial and low-key. But this year, he’s allowed his competitive side to shine.

“I hate losing and I hate playing bad,” Allar said in a Zoom call Tuesday. “I show it in different ways. But for me, I think it’s just being comfortable in my own skin, and I think I’ve shown it through my time here, maybe not in a game setting, but through practice and stuff. I think I’ve done a better job of channeling it a little bit.

“And as far as this Saturday, I think I have to do a better job of controlling it. I think it’s good to have, for sure, because I’m just competitive by nature. I want to go out and dominate every time I step on the field, but it doesn’t always shake out like that. It’s just controlling it a little bit better, and I thought it was a great learning experience for me. I know how to handle it better or just handle it a little bit differently the next time, if that happens again.”

Allar displayed some good humor about the interactions, too, on Tuesday.

“Honestly, by the time I hit the bench, I was pretty cooled off — I think. Maybe [quarterbacks coach] Danny [O’Brien] would maybe beg to differ that one,” Allar quipped.

This side of Allar might be shining through on national television for the first time, but his teammates have remembered seeing it since his arrival in January 2022.

Dawkins remembered training camp before the 2022 season when Allar was leading the second-team offense and Dawkins was playing center in front of him. During a third-down period, star safety Ji’Ayir Brown moved up into the box and Allar made a check.

“Ji’Ayir was like, ‘That’s the wrong call!’ And Drew just pointed at him, like, ‘Watch this,'” Dawkins recalled Tuesday. “And usually you don’t see that too much, confidence like that out of a freshman, especially when an upperclassman, a leader and a captain like Tig [is] talking trash.

“But when you have a freshman that’s able to combat a senior like that and have confidence in their decision and their talk and be competitive, it’s always awesome to see. And we were like, ‘OK, yeah, this guy, he’s not gonna go like that. He’s a competitor, he’s a battler, he’s a warrior.'”

Warren saw it early in Allar’s time, too, even though he spent his freshman season as the backup quarterback to Sean Clifford. He got plenty of work in practice, and he got his feet wet during game action. That gave his Nittany Lions teammates a preview of what was to come when Allar took over the starting role.

“I think as soon as he got here, people kind of saw his competitive nature and how he works and what he’s about as a football player, and I think they responded well to that,” Warren said. “It got the defense fired up in practices and the offense is obviously going to rally around him. So I think it’s been really good for us. He’s got a lot of fire, and he plays with it, so that’s something that we can get behind as an offense.”

During his Monday news conference, Franklin offered some clarity about the root of Allar’s frustrations. The quarterback wasn’t frustrated with the play call or the decision. It was about the inability to communicate and get the snap off. Allar had said postgame that Minnesota had Penn State’s cadence and Dawkins couldn’t tell if it was Allar actually making the call.

And overall, Franklin was pleased with how the situation played out.

“I want him to be fiery,” Franklin said. “Obviously, like anything, you don’t want to live in the extremes. But I want him to be fiery. I want him to play with passion and emotion. And that was an opportunity for him to do that.

“What was great is we were able to have a conversation, and he gave me good feedback and I gave him good feedback and kind of went out and played really well, and then we had another conversation. I followed back up with him again because of just some things that I thought it was important for him to hear from my perspective.”

Allar has been a steady hand for Penn State during its 10-1 start this season, and he’s a significant reason why the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 4 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings and on track to host a home playoff game next month. Penn State can all but secure a spot with a victory over Maryland on Saturday (3:30 p.m., BTN).

He’s completing 72.2% of his passes and has thrown for 2,497 yards. He’s tossed 17 touchdowns to five interceptions, and he’s rushed for 202 yards and four touchdowns, thanks to his improved mobility.

While being a calm presence in certain situations, Allar also wants to be a tone-setter. He’s spoken this season about being the thermostat instead of the thermometer for the team. He doesn’t want to take the temperature of the team. He wants to set it. And that’s what he’s been doing for much of the year.

Allar’s teammates have responded, and everyone has lifted their play for the Nittany Lions this season.

“I expect there to be fire and I expect there to be emotion,” Franklin said Monday. “I’m totally OK with that. I encourage that. We work too hard, we sacrifice way too much. I think Drew’s a great example of that, and I’m glad he’s showing that side of his personality. We’ve seen it, but I don’t know if necessarily everybody else has seen it.”

Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for Lions247 and 247Sports. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Daniel on X at @danieljtgallen and Instagram at @bydanieljtgallen.