The Penn State Nittany Lions are on the verge of a bona fide moment.

This isn’t exactly breaking news, of course. Penn State might have been the No. 6 seed in the super-sized College Football Playoff and perhaps even disregarded as cannon fodder for 3rd-seeded Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, but the Nittany Lions are legit – and trending toward their first national championship since 1986.

The reason we take virtual pen to virtual paper to deliver this ditty is because the Nittany Lions are on college football’s precipice with an offense that is disturbingly disregarded.

Don’t get it twisted. Tight end Tyler Warren is a future NFL superstar, a throwback force who leads his team with 98 catches and 1,158 receiving yards. Warren is a beast right now on Saturdays, and will be a beast on Sundays. He was an easy and deserving choice to the John Mackey Award.

But Penn State hasn’t gotten to 13-2 on Warren alone. After all, someone must get him the rock, right? That someone is junior quarterback Drew Allar – who has thrown for an efficient 3,192 yards and 24 touchdowns this season.

Odds are good that Allar won’t wow you tonight when the Nittany Lions take on No. 7 Notre Dame in tonight’s Orange Bowl/Playoff semifinals. That is largely by design, as Allar eschews flash for foundation, highlights for just getting the ball into the end zone. Allar’s 67.4% completion percentage means that he continually puts the ball in the correct place, and his 285 rushing yards on 90 carries and 30 total touchdowns means the Nittany Lions are able to utilized more creativity in formations and personnel groupings

“We can we do all that stuff, because Drew allows us to do that stuff,” Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki told reporters earlier this week. “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.”

Penn State also has a pair of 1,000-yard rushers who don’t get nearly enough love. Collectively, Juniors Kaytron Allen (1,026 yards) and Nicholas Singleton (1,015 yards) have provided 2,041 yards and 17 touchdowns.

There isn’t another team left standing in the Playoffs with a 3,000-yard passer and a pair of 1000-yard rushers. Texas can’t boast that. Notre Dame can’t boast that. Not even can Ohio State boast that (though the Buckeyes are close with the Will Howard/TreVeyon Henderson/Quinson Judkins combo).

In fact, only 5 FBS teams this season had a 3K quarterback/1K receiver/1K running back combination: Penn State, Miami, Texas Tech, Syracuse and Louisville. Notre Dame faced 1 of those teams – Louisville on Sept. 28 – and managed to win 31-24 despite allowing the Cardinals 395 yards of offense (the 2nd-most the Irish allowed all season).

So why isn’t the Nittany Lions’ offense getting more love?

Certainly part of the narrative is that Penn State seems destined to lose one of these big games eventually – and Notre Dame is well prepared to be the team to advance the Nittany Lions’ Cinderella clock to midnight. (The Irish are favored to win the Orange Bowl by 1.5 points, per DraftKings Sportsbook.) The knock on James Franklin for years has been his inability to win the big game (4-19 at Penn State against AP Top 10 teams), and there will only be 1 bigger game in the 2024 college football season than tonight’s Orange Bowl.

It is also certainly arguable that Penn State was awarded the easiest journey to the Playoff semifinals – getting a first-round home game against overmatched No. 11 SMU before thumping the Mountain West champion Boise State. But the air is thinner now, and Franklin’s lungs aren’t exactly used to this level of climbing – as he is just 1-14 against AP Top 5 teams.

Oof.

Notre Dame will certainly need to rely on its defense to get past Penn State. That’s a given. Sure, the Fighting Irish will need to plan for Warren – who can line up anywhere in the Nittany Lions’ offensive backfield. And has. The former high school quarterback has 24 rushes this season for 197 yards and 4 TDs. He’s also completed 3 passes, including 1 for a TD. But the Irish will also need a plan for Allar’s arm and the legs of Henderson and Judkins, a trio that has racked up stats and wins without nearly enough love from the media.

Can a defense possibly plan to squelch that much potential, especially one rolling into January on a potentially historic heater?