If you were hoping Penn State’s quarterback competition was going to be resolved by James Franklin during his brief Wednesday afternoon Big Ten Media Day’s press conference then you left disappointed.
Then again you probably shouldn’t have been expecting it in the first place. As history indicates, Franklin is unlikely to name a starter without the benefit of at least a week or two of fall camp. Summer is often perceived as an evaluation period, but in reality between NCAA rules limiting a lot of play and coach interactions, recruiting and prospect camps there really isn’t much in the way of actual evaluations going on. Subsequently, if you were hoping the passage of time since spring practice was going to magically result in further clarity at various positions that’s likely not the case.
For those wanting to read between the lines, Franklin continued on his summer messaging program of saying very complimentary things about presumed starter Drew Allar and equally appreciative things about presumed backup Beau Pribula. For his part, Pribula might be the only potential backup quarterback in America driving a 2023 BMW for free. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
“Obviously there’s a lot of people talking about Drew and what he brings to the table,” Franklin said. “He was able to get a ton of experience last year, played in, I think, ten games. So I understand why the excitement is there, 6’5″, 242 pounds, can make all the throws, but Beau Pribula is a guy that everybody in the program has a ton of respect for as well. So that’s going to be an interesting competition throughout the entire camp.”
It’s fair to ask if Franklin’s seemingly obligatory slog through a quarterback competition [although he slyly noted on Wednesday that every year has had a quarterback competition] is simply a coach going through the motions or if Allar has somehow done something to legitimately loosen his grasp on a decision that has seemed obvious ever since he stepped foot on campus. It seems almost inconceivable that Allar — a former five-star prospect with a marketable boyish charm and all the physical tools to make scouts drool — would not end up starting when it’s all said and done.
Even if Allar doesn’t turn out to be quite what fans are hoping for, the notion that Penn State could land Allar, keep him on campus, go out of its way to get him playing time in 2022 and then not give him the starting job seems a bridge too far. The recruiting and development ramifications of that alone stand to take a hit if Allar doesn’t at least start the season as QB1. If absolutely nothing else, dragging things on long enough through the summer keeps the transfer portal from turning Penn State into a team with only two quarterbacks on the roster.
All told, even if Pribula were to have a phenomenal fall camp, it seems likely that Allar would have to play poorly in addition to Pribula putting a gap between his classmate for it to unfold in any sort of way that the impossible were to happen. But, gotta practice first.
“The sooner the better, but we’re not going to rush any of these decisions at these positions,” Franklin said when asked about a timeline. “We grade everything in every practice, so all the data will be there. Obviously you’re going to trust your gut and your instincts on that as well, but you have the data to back it up.”
“I think at any of these positions the sooner the better. It’s probably magnified at the quarterback position because you don’t rotate and play the same type of way that you do at some other positions, but it will be obviously watching how they move the offense, the conference that their teammates have in them, and then obviously a lot of the data and analytics that go in it as well to make sure that what your gut is telling you aligns with what the numbers say.”
And with the season opener almost a month away, none of us, Allar and Pribula included, will have to wait much longer.
