Make sure you’re sitting down for this, but Penn State is going to start things out this early spring with Drew Allar as the No. 1 quarterback.
“I think obviously, across the board, we would say that there is a clean slate to a degree,” Penn State coach James Franklin said on Tuesday. “But as you know, we’re going to have to put somebody out there first, based on how the season ended and Drew’s role last year, then that would be him. But we’re going to need both of those guys specifically… not only competing, but also taking on a significant leadership role. Again, no one cares that they’re young, they’re in that position. And a big part of that position is leadership. Sean [Clifford] did a great job with that. So you know for us I don’t want them to go from zero to 100, just start to work into that role and take responsibility and have a plan and be intentional like in everything else we do. But I think I think Drew and Beau are ready for that.”
It comes as no real surprise that Allar will get the nod in the early going as Penn State begins winter workouts —a lifting-centric and conditioning period — and beyond, the former five-star prospect spent all of last season as Penn State’s backup quarterback and saw significant playing time in comparison to some of his other true freshman counterparts across the country.
As for Pribula, Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich gave the sophomore his due on Twitter on Tuesday morning, saying he was the competitor of the day for his position group. As for true freshman quarterback Jaxon Smolik, he continues to get his footing within the program.
But with just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, it does bring up the question if the Nittany Lions will try and land another in the transfer portal this spring. The challenge of course is that Penn State’s current quarterback room is young and talented. If you’re trying to sell someone on the idea of playing quarterback at Penn State, it’s a hard sell when that could very likely not end up actually happening. Join the program? Sure. Play? To be determined.
“I think we’re talented in that room,” Franklin added. “I think the challenge of the transfer portal… there’s some options that we can look at and are still open but I wouldn’t say based on how that room looks that [it’s not attractive] to a lot of the quarterbacks out there that we would want to bring in. So we’ll see how that thing plays out but, but we’d be open obviously at every single position, to try to bring some guys in.”
