No starting quarterback named ahead of West Virginia game
There are thoughts that the quarterback competition that James Franklin kept propping up throughout the offseason was just a formality. However, on Tuesday during his press conference ahead of the season opener against West Virginia, a starting quarterback still hasn’t been named at Penn State.
Fans have been clamoring for the program’s keys to be turned over to the former five-star quarterback Drew Allar, who got live game reps last season. Still, the head coach is not ready to publicly declare who will start the game on Saturday.
“I’m not making any announcements at this time,” Franklin said on Tuesday during his regularly scheduled press conference with reporters. “I do think it’s been good competition. Not only has [Beau Pribula] done some nice things, Beau brings an element that maybe Drew doesn’t have. Maybe even factoring those things in, I think sometimes as a running quarterback, those things are hard to evaluate in practice because you don’t really see them.
Franklin continued his thought son Pribula by comparing him to one of his first quarterbacks at Penn State, Trace McSorley.
“He’s not out there breaking tackles in practice, which is his style,” Franklin said about Pribula. “He reminds me of Trace [McSorley]. And Jaxon Smolik has had a good camp too. We have three quarterbacks that have all shown signs that we can win with.”
That statement might leave fans wondering if Allar hasn’t performed well in the offseason to leave an opening for redshirt freshman Pribula to actually win the job.
According to the head coach, that has not been the case.
“Drew’s had a good camp, and a camp that has given himself and his teammates and coaches a bunch of confidence,” Franklin said.
Here’s what is probably going to happen. The coaching staff doesn’t want to announce who the starting quarterback will be because they want West Virginia to continue preparing for the different styles that Allar and Pribula bring to the game. Allar is going to start when the game starts, but there will be packages built into the offense for Pribula.
Both quarterbacks will make appearances in this game and it’s likely that the coaching staff will finally announce the starter for the season after they’re done playing West Virginia.
