As expected, Christian Veilleux will be leaving the Penn State QB room and entering the transfer portal.
Now that we know Veilleux will be gone, here’s an early look at what Penn State’s QB room could look like next season.
DREW ALLAR
If Allar is healthy, there’s about as good a chance of Barry Bonds becoming the governor of Idaho than there is of anybody else starting at QB for Penn State come Week 1 next year. Sean Clifford will be gone, and Allar’s five-star potential is well-documented. He’s the obvious QB1.
BEAU PRIBULA
Pribula would have been the prized QB recruit of a lot of classes. Thanks to Allar, that wasn’t the case for him. But Pribula had an excellent high school career in his own right. At Central York, Pribula became the school’s first three-year captain and, as a junior, led it to the first district championship win and state championship appearance in school history. He earned Pennsylvania Player of the Year for his junior year and won co-player of the year for his senior season. He ended his career with 108 touchdowns, the most in county history.
Pribula is no slouch, and it looks like he could shoot up form QB4 as a true freshman to QB2 in Year 2.
JAXON SMOLIK
Unlike Pribula, Smolik is the No. 1 QB recruit of Penn State’s recruiting class. Could the three-star from Iowa recreate what Allar did and leapfrog a more established player to be QB2? It’s possible.
Smolik isn’t a five-star, and he hasn’t been in the Penn State QB room for a year the way Pribula has. But he has the same amount of game reps as Pribula does, so who knows what will happen?
THE PORTAL
Right now, Penn State’s two projected backups have a combined zero college snaps under their belts, so it might be wise to find somebody more polished in the transfer portal. It’s hard to say who Penn State’s realistic options are, considering whoever transfers in will be signing up to be a backup. But Pribula and Smolik are both young, and as good as Allar projects to be, he’s young as as well. It probably wouldn’t hurt to add another arm.
