Opinion | Deceit to Defeat: False Promises of Pribula’s Prominence Hinders Penn State

Three days before the 2023 campaign kicked off, head coach James Franklin hesitated to give a definitive answer on which of his two second-year quarterbacks would lead the offense out onto the field against West Virginia.

The offseason-long battle between Drew Allar and Beau Pribula came to an end when Allar’s name was ceremoniously announced over the public address system on the first Saturday of September. A full seven games since that moment, Allar has taken all the first-team snaps, leaving Pribula on the sidelines until late in contests, completely writing off an offseason strategy plan.

“Making sure that Drew gets some reps with the twos and Beau gets some reps with the ones and vice versa,” Franklin said back in April. “Those things are important, but I think those two guys are both battling.”

While it wasn’t conceivable for the two signal callers to evenly share snaps throughout the season, all signs pointed to Pribula making his impact in different packages to help diversify a rather simple offensive scheme.

“I think there’s some things that we may want to do with Beau to take advantage of his skill set,” the 10th-year leader of the Nittany Lions said back in the spring. “Maybe they’ll create an opportunity for him to get some more experience, not only during spring ball but games next year as well.”

Maybe Franklin’s use of “maybe” was overlooked. Maybe Allar put himself way ahead throughout fall camp. Or maybe in Franklin’s gamesmanship he overlooked just how valuable Pribula could be for his team.

Pribula played each of the blue and white’s first six games before not appearing in the loss to Ohio State, still in a limited role. The redshirt freshman only trotted out the offense earlier than the fourth quarter once over those six games, which came in the 63-7 rout of Delaware when he took command with the Nittany Lions up 42-7 in the third quarter.

The York, Pennsylvania native made the most of those opportunities, bringing Penn State to the endzone on five occasions, twice through the air and thrice on the ground. Pribula has complemented the five touchdowns with turnover-free football, something that has earned Allar praise time and time again, while completing 6-of-13 passes for 75 yards and rushing 34 times for 225 yards, the third most on the team.

Between the blue and white’s fourth and fifth games, a 31-0 victory over Iowa and a 41-13 win on the road over Northwestern, Franklin talked about how the coaching staff felt that what Pribula had done to that point was only a fraction of his potential.

“Right now, he’s being used primarily as a runner. But we feel like we can run the whole offense with him,” Franklin said. “…We want to continue to develop that. And then there’s a place for getting him in situationally throughout the game, as well. Maybe it’s in the red zone or maybe on third down or maybe as a changeup.”

After that September 26th press conference, Pribula completed one pass, a 30-yard touchdown to Trey Potts, during the game against the Wildcats before reverting to his running ways with six rushes for 59 yards and a touchdown against UMass.

After those two contests, the former three-star prospect turned in his first “did not play” designation of the season as he watched from the sidelines as the offense led by the former five-star prospect, Allar, struggled to move the ball against Ohio State.

Allar himself went 18-of-42 passing for 191 yards with a late touchdown to Harrison Wallace III, while the offense as a whole gained 240 yards and scored 12 points, the lowest point total for the Nittany Lions dating back to the 2022 Outback Bowl against No. 21 Arkansas.

Franklin and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich did not need Pribula in the red zone down in Columbus, especially considering they only got there once, but needed a changeup and most certainly needed a different option on third down, which they converted a mere 1-of-16 opportunities.

“We’ve had a package every week for him, whether we use it late in the game if the score allows us to or whether it’s mixing it in….,” Franklin said when asked if there was an opportunity for Pribula against Ohio State. “I think our lack of production on third down limited a lot of things that we wanted to do.”

But there hasn’t been that mixing-it-in situation so far this season with all of Pribula’s snaps coming late in games as previously mentioned, plus the lack of third-down production against the scarlet and gray was in part due to a lack of innovativeness with the playbook.

Pribula’s skillset, which relies on his 6-foot-2, 203-pound frame for speed and agility along with his arm talent, allows for that ingenuity in the game plan. His dual-threat, college-style quarterback approach is something Allar’s 6-foot-5, 245-pound stature does not necessarily allow for.

In the second half alone, several late-down, short-yardage situations favored a changeup on the offense end. A handoff to Nicholas Singleton on third-and-2 went three yards backward, a third-and-1 pass to Singleton went down as incomplete, and a third-and-4 pass to Theo Johnson was broken up at the line of scrimmage by Josh Proctor. Right after that incompletion in the direction of Johnson, Penn State went for it on fourth-and-4 on their own 43-yard line, which ended in another incompletion toward the tight end.

It would’ve been tough for Pribula’s first meaningful snaps to come on the road against the No. 3 team in the country, which comes from failed execution and deployment of Pribula’s weekly package in other games, but it would’ve been something different, something that dynamized the offense, something to keep Ryan Day’s coaching staff guessing.

Wins are at a premium in this day and age of College Football. He doesn’t need to start, but Pribula’s too valuable to have stored away on the bench until the fourth quarter.

Justin Ciavolella is a third-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jtc5751@psu.edu or justinciavolella@gmail.com.