Apologies for the short hiatus in this series, as I battled a cold that took my energy following Week 6 of college football. I’m almost back to 100% now, and we have a lot of storylines to touch on that occurred
in my absence, so I won’t waste any more time with the preamble. Let’s get right into it.
Pour one out for Drew Allar
Allar and Penn State have had a dizzying past few weeks. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Penn State was ranked No. 3 in the nation and took Oregon to double overtime and nearly came away victorious. While I wasn’t high on Allar’s performance up to that point in the season, and he did throw the interception that ended the Oregon game, I couldn’t have predicted what came next.
A loss to an incredibly awful UCLA team sunk the program even further, though it was arguably Allar’s best performance this season — 73.1% completion on 26 attempts for 200 yards, two touchdowns, and 89 rushing yards on 10 attempts.
The wheels finally came off last week, with Penn State trailing a middling Northwestern squad late in the fourth quarter. Allar’s ankle twisted wrong on an attempted scramble when a sprawling defender executed a shoestring tackle. Allar was able to limp off the field, but word quickly spread that the injury was a fractured ankle that would require season-ending surgery.
It’s a disappointing end to his season. We’ll never know how highly he would have been drafted if he had declared after last season’s college football playoffs, but it will loom as one of the biggest “what ifs” in recent memory. It was clear this year that Penn State had not helped him advance as a player, and arguably, he’d regressed. Would a transfer or rolling the dice in the draft have worked out better for his development? We’ll never have concrete answers, but now he’s got a medical red flag to go with a subpar 2025 performance if he were to declare following this season.
Allar’s best route now, at least in my opinion, is to get healthy and to pursue the graduate transfer route. A new environment, with some new coaching and guidance, might allow him to put out some new tape and show some growth in his game that he was unable to show this season. Perform well enough in 2026, and he’s got a chance at rehabilitating his draft stock. As of now, I think he ends up a Day 3 pick if he were to declare.
We wish Allar a speedy and healthy recovery.
A Red River rush job?
One of the more surprising developments as the college football calendar turned to Week 7 was the return of injured Sooner quarterback John Mateer. Mateer had been initially given a longer recovery timeline following an injury to his throwing hand that required surgery, but then word came out that he had responded to the surgery better than expected. Given the circumstances, it’s hard to blame the Sooners for rushing the early-season Heisman frontrunner back into action for their biggest annual rivalry game. Ranked No. 6 in the AP poll, Oklahoma was hoping to make a statement win.
Early on in the first quarter, it looked like the right call. Mateer hit a couple of big gainers, one with a rip down the seam and another while rolling to his right. The drive ultimately bogged down and resulted in a field goal, but it looked like the same version of Mateer that has generated so much excitement in his and Oklahoma’s potential.
However, the ugly parts of Mateer’s game would soon rear their head, and I don’t think we can blame it on injury.
With just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Mateer had two defenders in his face, and he faded away to his back foot and tossed up a floater that Longhorn cornerback Malik Muhammad was able to undercut to make a diving interception. Mateer’s progressions started on the right side of the field, and he seemed to lock in to those options, which was unfortunate with his receiver running wide open in the left seam.
For all of the heroics we have celebrated Mateeer for creating with his unconventional footwork and mechanics —he converted a third-and-seven with the same exact type of fadeaway throw on the Sooner’s next drive, for example — the flip side of the coin is that it will also occasionally lead to some unfortunate turnovers. Oklahoma ultimately didn’t pay for that turnover — Texas missed a field goal that clanked off the upright on the ensuing drive — but it was only the beginning of Mateer’s struggles on the day.
With time expiring in the first half, Mateer threw up a 40-yard, cross-body prayer that was also intercepted, and his receiver was running the opposite direction from where he placed it. With the Sooners out of timeouts, it didn’t cost them a field goal attempt or lead to points for the opposing team, but it gave a trailing Texas team confidence heading into the break and put another blemish mark on his tape.
Texas would take the lead by putting a long drive together coming out of the half. Mateer would then throw his third interception of the game by throwing into triple coverage near the sticks that diving Texas defender was able to come away with. From there, Texas had control the rest of the way, reeling off 20 unanswered points in the second half.
It was a gross, gross game from Mateer, the type that will give a pause to any discussion of him winning the Heisman or being a top-10 pick. I don’t ascribe to writing a prospect off after one bad game — especially after coming off a couple weeks of inactivity due to injury — but if we believe in accountability, we also have to acknowledge this was a lousy game for Mateer that spotlighted his flaws.
Right now, I still consider him a first-round pick, but more in line with a pick in the 20s, similar to where Jaxson Dart was selected in this year’s draft. That might be the range the Steelers end up picking in if they are able to hold on to the AFC North lead and make the playoffs.
Mateer was never a perfect prospect, and he can rebound if this is the worst performance of his season. He has plenty of SEC games coming to showcase his talents, and Oklahoma should still be in the thick of the playoff chase. Still, with this three-pick performance, he’s already just one short of the seven interceptions he threw in all of 2024. He’ll need to shake this off quickly.
And for those wondering, Arch Manning was fairly limited in this game, throwing a maddening amount of screens in this game and not being asked to do too much. He had 166 passing yards and one passing touchdown in this game. I still have him firmly in the “Go Back to School” category.
Mendoza outduels Moore
As someone raised in an Oregon Ducks household, this one stings a little. But as a fan of football and the draft process, this game was an epic one.
It wasn’t a statistical marvel for the ascending Mendoza, but Indiana played a gritty game that has catapulted them to No. 3 in the AP poll and earned head coach Curt Cignetti a fat contract extension that will pay him $11.6 million annually.
Mendoza, for his part, had his second-lowest totals this season in both yardage (215) and ADoT (8.2), but he and the Hoosiers’ running game kept the chains moving enough to not only hold a halftime lead but to finish the deal with a 30-20 victory.
And while the yardage numbers weren’t eye-popping, Mendoza showed great anticipation and made several NFL-level throws.
This was by far Moore’s worst game of the season. He threw his second and third interceptions of the season and had his lowest completion percentage (61.8%) and second-lowest yardage total (186) of the season. Entering the game, the Oregon signal caller had only been sacked once, but Indiana found a way to get home with their pass rush and sacked him six times.
Much like Mateer, I won’t dock Moore too much for one bad performance. He still throws one of the prettiest, most catchable balls in college football. But his footwork was uncharacteristically sloppy — at least for this season — and looked reminiscent of how poorly he managed pressure playing behind UCLA’s line in 2023.
As a Ducks fan, I hope this game plays out similarly to the Ohio State games played out last season: with a postseason rematch and reversal of fortunes. As a Steelers fan, I’m thinking neither of these guys will be available to the Steelers without management forking over a boatload of picks to trade up.
A new name emerges
There are 136 teams at the FBS level. That means there’s always potential that you might discover new prospects late in the process. With a shoutout to Nick Martin — who deserves a like and a follow and has been mentioning this quarterback for a while— this week we’re introducing a new name to follow: Duke redshirt sophomore Darian Mensah.
Let’s start with some of the basics. Mensah hails from Santa Maria, California, where he attended St. Joseph High School. As a high school recruit, 247 Sports had him ranked as the 112th quarterback prospect in the nation, and just the 216th-ranked prospect from California. He committed to Tulane, where he redshirted in 2023. He stands 6’3 and has a listed weight of 205 pounds.
In 2024, he was named the starter for the Green Wave, leading the team to a 9-4 record while completing 65.9% of his passes for 2,722 yards, 22 touchdowns against six interceptions, and an 11.3 ADoT. He added 250 yards on the ground with a score, but struggled some with fumbles (7).
This offseason, he transferred to Duke and a step up in competition in the ACC. His numbers in six games so far include: a 69.4% completion rate, 1,838 yards, 15 touchdowns against two interceptions, and an ADoT of 10.2 while leading the Blue Devils to a 4-2 record. He managed to speed up his processing as well. After a 3.24-second average time to throw in 2024, Mensah is averaging 2.89 seconds to throw this year.
I still need to dig deeper into his tape, but the cut-ups I’ve seen so far (like the one below) are encouraging and show a player who has a big arm, who throws his receivers open with anticipation, and who has great ball placement both on timing routes and when giving his playmakers an opportunity in contested catch opportunities. The low turnover rate is also something you like to see.
So, like Emperor/Senator Palpatine would say, I think it’s time we watch the rest of Mensah’s career with great interest.
Games to watch/review this weekend
- (14) Oklahoma (Mateer) @ South Carolina (LaNorris Sellers)
- (11) Tennessee (Joey Aguilar) @ (6) Alabama (Ty Simpson)
- Michigan State (Aidan Chiles) @ (3) Indiana (Mendoza)
- (12) Georgia Tech @ Duke (Mensah)
- (8) Oregon (Moore) @ Rutgers
- (4) Texas A&M @ Arkansas (Taylen Green)
- (20) USC (Jayden Maiava) @ (13) Notre Dame
- Baylor (Sawyer Robertson) @ TCU (Josh Hoover)
What do you think of these prospects? Have any of them moved up your big board? Let us know in the comments!
