Penn State football quarterback Drew Allar has been one of the most turnover-unfavorable quarterbacks in college football.

The junior has a 45-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his three seasons as a Nittany Lion. His five interceptions this season rank third among Big Ten starters.

“I think he’s played at a very high level for two years, and I think all the data supports that,” James Franklin said. “He’s getting better and better. He continues to refine his process.”

After a game in which he went 17-for-19 with 247 yards and three touchdowns on the road against Purdue, Allar faces a tougher challenge against Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers are tied for 10th in most turnovers forced (20), tied for seventh in turnover margin (+12), and tied for sixth in forced interceptions (16) in the nation this season . Eight different Golden Gophers have an interception, including true freshman safety Koi Perich, whose five picks rank second in the country.

“They do have some ball hawks in their secondary. They make plays when the plays come to them,” Allar said. “I can’t make unforced errors. I can’t just give them opportunities because they will take advantage of them.”

Minnesota’s turnover success comes from its zone defense. Instead of reading the opposing receivers in man coverage, the Gophers’ defensive backs sit back and read the quarterback, allowing them to make a play on the ball after it has been thrown.

“They’re a zone team, and when you play zone defense, the argument is you have the ability to get your eyes on the quarterback, which can usually lead to you being in a better position for interceptions,” Franklin said. . “When you play man coverage, you’re going to challenge more routes, but then you have to go from looking at the man you’re covering to losing eyes on him and trying to find the ball.”

But what makes this Minnesota defense so dangerous is not only the aggressive secondary, but also the pass rush. Although the rush has only brought down the opposing quarterback 19 times this season, 20 of the team’s 47 pass breakups have come among the front seven.

“A fair amount of their picks are actually forced by their D-line,” Allar said. “Whether it’s a batted or tipped pass that just falls into a linebacker, or the quarterback gets hit and the ball is obviously inaccurate when the quarterback gets hit, and it just finds a way into their hands.”

Preparing for a defense like Minnesota’s isn’t new to Allar. In 2023, he faced two top five teams for interception forcing in the country, in Michigan and Maryland. In those two games, Allar combined for 310 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and completed 62.5% of his passes.

“I think just my general preparation leads to me feeling comfortable with what the pre-snap snaps might look like with different blitzes, different coverages, and also what the post-snap snap is going to look like,” Allar said.

This year, with two regular season games remaining, Allar’s touchdown-to-interception ratio is 16-5. That’s down from last season’s 25-2 ratio.

While he has made more choices, especially coming off his three-interception game against USC, Allar’s mentality has remained the same: protect the football.

“We’ve always preached about ball security, no matter what happens, what we’re going against, and it’s definitely a topic of conversation for us every week,” Allar said. “So we’re going to be very proud of that, and we want to win the turnover battle every week, force turnovers on defense and limit turnovers on offense.”