Best of brothers: How Beau and Cade Pribula teach others, still drive one another

MECHANICSBURG − The football brothers were back together, this time teaching on a Sunday morning for the love of the game and for giving back.

There was Beau Pribula, a rising sophomore quarterback at childhood favorite Penn State. And there was big brother, Cade, finally ready to become the college starting quarterback he's been working toward for years.

Their paths are so different now, so little time to be around each other anymore. But the record-setting Central York grads wanted to run a quarterback camp together to help the kind of high school kids they used to be − to take all the lessons they learned and provide a different camp experience, possibly even a more useful one.

Name, image and likeness guidelines for college athletes allowed them to do that and make some money along the way. But their three hours of tutoring 20 kids at Cumberland Valley High were about each other, too. Because, after all, they said one never would have done this without the other.

Younger brother, Beau, is taller and faster and only a break away from being a Big Ten starting QB at Penn State; older brother, Cade, is just trying to prove he can throw good enough again on any level after four shoulder surgeries.

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They remain each other's teachers and motivators and all-important measuring sticks.

The ones who can lift each other up and yet criticize, too, in ways even their Division I coaches may not always be able to reach.

They ran their own camp show on Sunday, from tag-teaming lectures on reading defenses and throwing mechanics to scrutinizing drills on nuances like foot stance, hip rotation and shoulder placement. There were no receivers or competitions, no college coaches or crowds.

Rather, they wanted to be able provide hands-on instruction and feedback to everyone who came out.

From those scrawny campers just entering high school, the ones who floated wobbly passes into a whipping wind. To older guys like current Central High quarterbacks Maddox Kopko, a junior in the fall, and Aiden Johnson, a senior-to-be. They talked of embracing the foundational drills, including the mental work of playing quarterback at a camp, for a change.

“They're (athletes) you can look up to, someone you can get notes from, get anything from them ...," Kopko said afterwards.

The Pribula brothers played off each other well. They always have, really. From the time Cade was a senior and breaking YAIAA records by throwing to his freshman brother at receiver.

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Cade went on to a scholarship at Delaware. Beau proceeded to top his brother in overall personal and team acclaim at Central, driving the Panthers to a state title game appearance and twice being named the top player in the state.

Since, Beau has enjoyed a steady and direct rise toward the starting QB chance at Penn State in just his second year on campus. While not expected to beat out former 5-star recruit and rifle-armed Drew Allar by September, Pribula has, by all accounts, performed well enough to lead a big-time college team through his demeanor, work ethic and on-field performance − even if the best judgments are only yet practices and Blue-White scrimmages.

A year later at Penn State?

Their father, Tad, a former Division II wide receiver, was asked about that difference on Sunday while watching his boys.

"Beau's physically stronger, ball comes off (his hand) a little hotter (now), little more spin rate. (But) he’s really the same. Always been driven. He’s always been driven, he’s all in."

He smiled and offered an example:

"When he's in (quarterback) meetings and they're on the 'white board,' and they're called out to draw a play, they all remark about the perfection of his drawings, of the defensive alignment, of the scheme of the play they’re running. It’s almost like an architect came in the room and did it. Just speaks to his attention to detail."

Cade, meanwhile, keeps pushing through a different, unexpected college journey. Only now does he finally appear primed to be the college leader he imagined four years ago. This comes after two surgeries on each of his shoulders and a transfer to Division I Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

"The resiliency is amazing," Beau Pribula said of his brother. "People have one shoulder surgery and they've quit. To see everything he went through, the way he’s throwing the football, it’s unbelievable, to be honest. He’s better than he’s ever been ... you can just see it. Not for one second did he (ever) give up. I probably would've given up if I were him."

They say they still find time to be there for each other. In those texts and talks and pouring over each other's playing film. And simply enough, when able, throwing the football to one another.

Even backyard practice throws are different, really, from one college quarterback to another.

"When you’re just throwing to receivers they’re like, 'Oh, good ball,'" Cade said. "But when we’re there we’re pushing each other, we’re stretching the distance out, stretching the velocity out, trying to be super accurate."

Said Beau: "It’s like having your own quarterback coach who’s also, basically, the same age as you, going through the same things as you."

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Helping each other as they prepare for their first, true, meaningful moments on a college field. Beau has not yet attempted his first college pass in a game; Cade threw in only one half of one game last year, his team hopelessly behind.

But they're always still there, they say, there to lift each other up and keep each other grounded − always, just to be brothers.

Like when they were asked on Sunday who throws the best ball, even now?

They both smiled big.

"There's no good answer," Cade said with a laugh. He then tried to explain ...

Beau cut him off: "It's me."

"That's crazy," Cade said, shaking his head. "There's no good answer."

And they both cracked up before leaving the Cumberland Valley gym.

They get a week together at the Jersey Shore before heading back to their separate football lives and another summer of preparing for big moments to come.

Never, they say, really too far apart.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on Twitter @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football: Beau and Cade Pribula, Central York to Big Ten