Penn State football quarterback Drew Allar has been one of the most turnover-adverse 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 are tied for third-least among Big Ten starters.

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

After a game where he went 17-for-19 passing with 247 yards and three touchdowns on the road against Purdue, Allar is faced with a tougher challenge against Minnesota.

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

“They do have some ball hawks in their secondary. They make plays when the plays come to them,” Allar said. “I can’t have any unforced errors. I can’t just give them opportunities because they’ll capitalize on it.”

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, helping them make a play on the ball after it’s thrown.

“They’re a zone team, and when you’re playing zone defense, the argument there is you have the ability to have your eyes on the quarterback, which typically can lead to you being in a better position for interceptions,” Franklin said. “Playing man coverage, you’re going to challenge more routes, but then you have to transition from eyes on the guy you’re covering to losing eyes on him and trying to find the ball.”

But what makes this Minnesota defense so dangerous isn’t just its aggressive secondary but also its pass rush. Although the rush has only brought down the opposing quarterback 19 times this season, 20 of the team’s 47 pass breakups belong to the front seven.

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

Preparing for a defense like Minnesota’s isn’t new to Allar. In 2023, he faced two top-five interception-forcing teams in the nation 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 overall preparation leads into being comfortable in what the pre-snap pictures can look like with different blitzes, different coverages, and then also what the post-snap picture is going to look like,” Allar said.

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

Although he has thrown more picks, mostly due to his three-interception game against USC, Allar’s mindset has remained the same: protect the football.

“We’ve always preached about ball security, no matter what, where we’re going against, and it’s definitely a talking point for us every week,” Allar said. “So we’re going to take great pride in that, and we want to win the turnover battle every week, forced turnovers on defense and limit turnovers on offense.”