LINCOLN — Since joining the Big Ten in 2011, Nebraska has a spotless record against just one league team. Rutgers, which lost to NU in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024.
Its second-best league record, since 2011, might surprise you. It’s Penn State. The Huskers have won four — in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2020 — and lost just one, in the muck of 2017, literally and figuratively.
In all five games, NU faced what would be an eventual NFL quarterback, however brief their pro stints might have been. In the 2020 win, the Huskers faced two, Sean Clifford and Will Levis, who came on in relief and nearly rescued PSU from a 27-6 halftime deficit.
Barring injury, Nebraska will face another budding NFL QB when it visits Happy Valley in late November. Drew Allar might be the best of those Nittany Lion signal callers. He is, at least in the summer, the best quarterback NU’s expected to face in 2025.
One can apply caveats to that statement, especially blue-chip freshmen at Michigan and Maryland pan out, the talented USC and Michigan State quarterbacks take a leap or Nico Iamaleava elevates his passing game at UCLA.
But it’s most likely Allar — at a prototypical 6-foot-5, 234 pounds — who garners Heisman Trophy votes, particularly if Penn State, as expected, contends for the College Football Playoff title.
"He's got a big brain, and he loves football and all the things that are required to be the quarterback,” PSU offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said before the Nittany Lions’ CFP semifinal loss to Notre Dame, a game best remembered for Allar’s late interception than the thrilling back-and-forth between Penn State and ND before that throw.
Allar threw costly interceptions in the Big Ten title game loss to Oregon, too.
For all his gaudy career numbers — 63% completion rate, 6,302 passing yards, 53 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions — there’s a sense that Allar hasn’t quite reached his potential. Penn State coach James Franklin, a tough grader, hasn’t shied away from wanting to see Allar grow, either.
"He needs to take another step this year, which we think he's done every year he's been here," Franklin said in March to Penn State reporters. "He needs to take another step when it comes to his mobility. He needs to take another step when it comes to his leadership. He needs to take another step in terms of his completion percentage. Needs to take another step in terms of his touchdown-interception ratio. It's really all of it."
In a spring interview with reporters, Allar conceded leadership didn’t come naturally to him; he had to work at growing in vocal leadership. If it sounds like another No. 15, Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola, it perhaps should.
Although Allar is taller than Raiola, their five-star pedigree and their arm prowess track neatly, and each wears No. 15. Raiola was pressed into starting a year before Allar — that’s the difference between Penn State having Sean Clifford and Nebraska having Heinrich Haarberg — but they’re both routine-oriented, heady players who take losses on their shoulders.
“It comes down to, like, one or two plays a game,” Allar said this spring. “It’s a handful of plays throughout a game that can get us to the position that we want to be in. I think we saw it last year.”
Nebraska will see Allar and Co. up close in 2025. He headlines what could be a strong group of starting signal callers that we’ve broken into three groups:
Back in Business
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**Jayden Maiava, USC:** The Trojans set their hopes on a talented but still inexperienced starter who will get four very winnable games — Georgia Southern, Missouri State, Purdue and Michigan State — right out of the gate. Maiava makes splash plays, particularly on third-and-long, and splash mistakes, as he did with pick sixes vs. Nebraska and Notre Dame.
**Aidan Chiles, Michigan State:** He shares a quarterback trainer with rival Michigan QB Bryce Underwood, and Chiles’ game is similar, too. His standout performance vs. Iowa last season — 256 yards passing and 51 rushing in a 32-20 win — shows his ceiling. He, like Raiola, has to cut down on turnovers.
**Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati:** Streaky passer who can really run in a Scott Satterfield system that will use the same quarterback zone read schemes over and over again if a defense fails to adjust. NU had better watch that, and the playaction pass, on opening night in Arrowhead Stadium.
**Ben Finley, Akron:** The younger brother of former all-ACC quarterback Ryan Finley, Ben had a nice little breakout year for the Zips under embattled coach Joe Moorhead, who enters Year 4 on the hot seat, with also his best roster. Finley is a sixth-year senior with a lot of experience against high major teams. He won’t flinch in Memorial Stadium.
Rookies
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**Bryce Underwood, Michigan:** A highly-touted, much-anticipated prospect since his freshman year, Underwood will struggle to match the hype around him; anyone would. He throws end zone balls with uncommon touch and, at 6-4, 215, he’s a skill runner. He also spent his high school career in a shotgun spread offense against largely overmatched opponents. Michigan doesn’t run that, and Michigan won’t face those kinds of defenses.
**Malik Washington, Maryland:** The Terrapins have a few other options, but they’d vastly prefer Washington, a top-100 recruit in the 2025 class who picked his hometown school over Penn State, be a dual-threat star. He’s 6-4, 215, runs a 4.6 40 and can drop to a sidearm delivery for tight throws. Coach Mike Locksley is one of the better quarterback developers around.
**Drake Lindsey, Minnesota:** OK, so he’s a redshirt freshman instead of true frosh. But the same lessons still apply, and this 6-5, 230-pounder is not P.J. Fleck’s usual approach to the position; Fleck rarely goes this young with a starter, and he tends to prefer smaller, cagier guys. Lindsey will stand tall in a pocket and deliver downfield bombs. Fleck thinks he has his franchise for the next few years. We’ll see.
Portal Passers
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**Nico Iamaleava, UCLA:** The story of the spring portal still isn’t on the Bruins’ roster list — which seems a year behind — but, rest assured, he’ll be the centerpiece of new coordinator Tino Sunseri’s offense. Sunseri, from the Curt Cignetti coaching tree, likes to throw it around the yard, but Iamaleava’s best talent may be as a runner. Will UCLA have him tote the ball 10 or more times per game? If the Bruins want to win, they will.
**Mark Gronowski, Iowa:** The Hawkeyes have wandered through the quarterback wilderness since 2021, costing them a potential College Football Playoff berth in at least one of those years. Gronowski, fresh off a historic career at South Dakota State, appears to be an upgrade from the last four years, but Cade McNamara appeared to be that, too — until he got hurt multiple times. If Gronowski is above-average — say, Nate Stanley-level good — Iowa may finally punch its CFP ticket.
**Preston Stone, Northwestern:** The former SMU starter (in 2023) gives the Wildcats a fighting chance this season. Stone’s career completion rate of 59.3% is offset by 9.0 yards per attempt average. Northwestern needs a big-play passer to make up for its lack of run game.
**Maddox Kopp, Houston Christian:** The Huskies’ two primary starters in 2024 each transferred out, leaving Kopp — who transferred in after a cup of coffee at Miami (Ohio) — as a likely candidate to start. The Houston native is 6-5, 234 pounds, and probably in for it when HCU visits Memorial Stadium Sept. 13. If not Kopp, then one of Houston Christian’s other unproven signal callers.
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