All 105 is a Nittany Sports Now series profiling each Penn State football player. Here is a profile of redshirt freshman quarterback Christian Veilleux.
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 200 pounds
Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Before Penn State:
Veilleux’s senior season at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, never happened due to COVID-19. In his junior year, Veilleux threw for 29 touchdowns and more than 2,000 yards, becoming Interstate Athleric Conference Offensive Player of the Year helping his team to the Interstate Athletic Conference Championship Game.
Before playing in Potomac, Veilleux played his sophomore year at Canisius High School in Buffalo, throwing for nearly 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns as an underclassman. Veilleux played his freshman year in the Ottawa City League, training at the Gridiron Academy. He threw for 21 touchdowns and 1,514 yards as a freshman.
ESPN rated Veilleux as a four-star recruit, while 247Sports’s composite rankings had him as a three-star. He committed to Penn State in April of 2020.
2021: Like most true freshmen at any position, let alone quarterback, Veilleux didn’t play much.
But he made a name for himself in Penn State’s last home game.
Going into its senior day contest against Rutgers, many players, including starting quarterback Sean Clifford, were reeling from a campus-wide virus.
Clifford fought through illness to start the game, but didn’t last much further than the start of the second quarter.
Enter, Veilleux.
The Canadian lit a fire under Penn State, throwing for three touchdowns, no interceptions and going 16-26 to lead Penn State to a 28-0 win.
It might be the only game Veilleux ever starts for Penn State, but even if that’s the case, Nov. 19 was a day to remember for Veilleux and Penn State fans.
Where he stands:
There’s a few ways to look at Veilleux’s status.
On one hand, if the depth chart shakes out as expected, Veilleux will be a Sean Clifford injury/stretch of poor play away from being Penn State’s starting quarterback.
On the other hand, a man named Drew Allar is thought by many to be the savior of Penn State football, and happens to play quarterback as well.
Most Penn State fans see Clifford playing out his last season with Allar buried in the depth chart, perhaps redshirting his freshman year, and then taking the reigns in 2023.
If this is how it plays out and if Allar is the real deal, the only way Veilleux will be Penn State’s full-time starter is if Clifford is hurt or extremely ineffective, which is something no Penn State fan should want.
In short, it might be fair to envision Veilleux entering the transfer portal before his college career is done.
A quote about Veilleux:
“I think CV shows a lot of good traits,” Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich said at a coaches media availability last month. “Very good with his footwork; he puts the ball where it needs to be, has the right arm strength, the proper arm strength to get all the throws that we need to get done in this offense. He can make all those throws.”
