Penn State coach James Franklin isn’t ready to name a starter between Drew Allar or Beau Pribula for Week 1 against West Virginia right now.
There’s a good chance a decision won’t be announced until we see one of the quarterbacks run on the field on that Saturday night of Labor Day weekend.
But nobody was in a hurry to talk about Pribula on Thursday inside Holuba Hall.
There might be an assumed starting quarterback with Allar amongst PSU fans, but Franklin insists there needs to be a competition.
“A lot of things can happen between now and the season,” Franklin said. “Even when Sean Clifford was here, he was competing for the starting job every single year. If he would have got beat out, that would have been his problem, not mine. We have competition every single year, and I think that’s the right thing to do.”
The last time Penn State was in the public eye was the Blue-White Game. There was nothing there that suggested Pribula could possibly be the starter over the heralded Allar. Allar threw for 202 yards in that game while completing 63 percent of his passes. Pribula had 92 yards passing.
But obviously what matters was Allar’s body of work when the games mattered the most. Franklin cited his first game as a college quarterback last year when he made a brief appearance for a banged up Clifford in the second half. He was 2-for-4 for 26 yards in that game, and the two incompletions weren’t a fault of his own.
Franklin said Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt was “drooling” at Allar’s brief showing in that game.
“When he got in the Purdue game as a true freshman, he was super poised,” Franklin said. “You can do all the drills you want with throwing, footwork, and run-game fundamentals. At the end of the day, it’s hard to teach the poise in the pocket, and he just seems to have that. There can be chaos all around him, and he’s efficient with his movement. And he’s able to make people defend the entire field because of his arm.”
It also helps that the QBs in the room have a position coach and offensive coordinator in Mike Yurcich that has a history of developing NFL talent, such as Texas’ Sam Ehlinger, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph.
“They’re good enough for us to recruit and to bring on our roster because we think they’re championship-level quarterbacks,” Yurcich said.
Franklin also mentioned how NFL-style quarterbacks have become the mobile type that are standing at 5-10, but Allar has a frame of what a NFL quarterback used to be at 6-5, 242 pounds. Although he has the size, he also has that mobility of a Fields or a Jalen Hurts.
“Mobility has become a huge deal in the NFL, and that really wasn’t the case in the past,” Franklin said. “He’s in year two in the same system. He’s got a body type that’s going to allow him to either withstand some hits, but I think he also has the mobility to step out of an arm tackle.
“He’s more of an old-school type of quarterback. He’s in a really good place.”
Johnson seen as a leader
Lions tight end Theo Johnson started nine games last season, but had an off-the-field issue in April when he was charged with two misdemeanors in April after allegedly punching a man in the face at a Penn State fraternity.
Franklin declined to shed any light on discipline for Johnson, but said discipline will always be part of the program.
“We’ll do our homework on any type of incident that happens and find out what really happened,” Franklin said. “I’m not ever going to be quick to react until we have all the details.”
All signs show that Johnson has been welcomed back to the team and has had qualities of a team leader in the upcoming season.
“Obviously having him back as a player is a ton of value,” said Franklin. “It’s very obvious to us right now as a staff and the players, it’s very important that Theo has a significant leadership role this year. You can see him try to take on that role. We’re happy to have him back.”
Johnson, along with fellow tight end Tyler Warren, linebacker Tyler Elson, and defensive tackle Coziah Izzard are all healthy and back at workouts after missing spring practice with injuries.
Trautwein never satisfied
Offensive line coach Phil Trautwein had quite the resume before being brought on at Penn State in 2020. He was a lineman at Florida when the Gators won two BCS National Championships and two SEC titles in 2006 and 2008, played four seasons in the NFL, and was a position coach for a first-round pick of the NFL Draft at Boston College.It’s clear that he takes a chip on his shoulder into making Penn State known as a haven for offensive linemen, much like it is for linebackers and running backs.
“It’s always been a tradition here,” Trautwein said. “It maybe went away, and it’s coming back. I know when Coach Franklin first got here, he only had four or five linemen on the roster. Being able to build that just takes time and years.
“I always want to be the best. In my mind, I don’t think we’ll ever be where we want to be. I always want to just keep working.”
Palko brought on staff
Successful WPIAl coach Bob Palko was named Penn State’s director of high school relations earlier this week. Palko had a career record of 248-84 as head coach in 28 seasons at West Allegheny and Mt. Lebanon.
Palko had retired from coaching after last season.
“Director of high school relations is a pretty common position,” said Franklin. “It’s kind of a position I’ve had on my wish list for a long time. Coach Palko is a guy I’ve known for a long time through recruiting. We started talking about this about four or five years ago if he’d have any interest in moving into college. I didn’t realize he had just retired. In a lot of ways, that worked out perfect. In some ways, it’s kind of a retirement job the way we have it structured.
“Heás a guy that understands the game. He understands young men. For me, whenever I went into his high school, I liked going into his high school. He was organized. He was fun. He loved the kids. He had passion for the sport. I’d walk out of there every time saying, ‘If we ever get the opportunity, I’d love to get that guy on our staff.”
