news

Beau Pribula or Drew Allar: What each QB brings to Penn State’s offense

Vaseline October 31, 2024

Michael Cohen

College football and college basketball writer

Footage from just after halftime of Penn State’s game against Wisconsin last Saturday night showed quarterback Drew Allar throwing a pass and then shaking his head. Allar, who left in the second quarter, reappeared from the dressing room with a brace on his left knee but never looked comfortable during an accelerated warm-up before the second-half kick-off. He threw a pass, turned to a member of the Nittany Lions coaching staff and shook his head in frustration. No matter how many times Allar bent his knee on the sideline, desperately trying to work out the kinks, the discomfort refused to go away.

With Allar unable to play, the offense was entrusted to backup quarterback Beau Pribula, a redshirt sophomore entering the most crowded environment of his career. Not only had Pribula never logged more than 22 snaps in a game against a power conference opponent — and he hadn’t logged more than eight snaps against Big Ten opposition this season — but the Nittany Lions also trailed 10-7 in a difficult period. road environment at Camp Randall Stadium. They couldn’t afford a loss to an unranked opponent the week before they hosted No. 4 Ohio State in a game that will likely have significant College Football Playoff implications.

Pribula performed by completing 11 of 13 passes for 98 yards and one score while leading Penn State to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives. That became the central storyline in a comeback victory that extended the Nittany Lions’ unblemished record to 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten ahead of the Buckeyes’ highly anticipated visit on Saturday (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app). And with Allar’s status for the weekend still uncertain after head coach James Franklin described it as a playing time decision during both of his regularly scheduled media appearances, there’s a chance Pribula fills the role of key player in Penn State’s biggest game of the season.

It would be Pribula’s first start since his senior year at York Central York High School in York, Pennsylvania, and he would look to replace former Michigan State quarterback Tyler O’Connor as the final signal caller to beat Ohio State in his first career start. starts, a milestone that has stood since 2015.

“He’s smart and mature, and he’s extremely competitive,” Franklin said of Pribula earlier this week. “He attacks it in every area: the weight room, the classroom, on the court. His teammates love him. He just did everything the right way. I think what everyone is probably talking about is his ability to to play with him.” his legs. I don’t think there’s anyone in our program who doesn’t believe he can do it with his arm.”

Ohio State Buckeyes

O.S.U

Penn State Nittany Lions

PSU

A three-star recruit and the No. 29 quarterback in the 2022 recruiting cycle, Pribula comes from a family of football players. His brother was a quarterback at Delaware and Sacred Heart. His father played at Shippensburg University. His uncle was a quarterback at USC. His grandfather was an All-American at West Chester. Pribula himself became the first player in Central York history to serve as a three-year captain and led the Panthers to consecutive undefeated regular seasons as a junior and senior, earning Pennsylvania Player of the Year honors both times. He threw for 2,676 yards and 33 touchdowns as a senior, while also rushing for 420 yards and nine additional scores. Rivals rated him as the sixth-ranked dual-threat quarterback prospect in the country behind Connor Weigman (Texas A&M), Gunner Stockton (Georgia), MJ Morris (North Carolina State), Nick Evers (Oklahoma) and Jacurri Brown (Miami, Florida) . .).

After becoming a true freshman in 2022, Pribula earned the backup job last season during Allar’s first year atop the depth chart. He played a role as the more mobile, tempo-changing option who could execute designed quarterback runs and read-option plays under former offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, who was ultimately fired last November.

Pribula averaged 12 snaps per game in 11 appearances last season and had the ball more than 39% of the time, finishing the year with 329 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 56 attempts (5.9 yards per carry). When he threw — which never happened more than four times in a game against Big Ten opponents — Pribula completed 11 of 21 passes (52.4%) for 149 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, though most of the air production came into mop. applies when the outcomes of certain matches have already been decided.

He has filled a similar role in 2024 under new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, formerly of Kansas, who had given Pribula nine goals per game against power conference opponents prior to Saturday’s win over Wisconsin, some of which had two quarterbacks on the field at the same time had standing. Pribula has completed 18 of 23 passes (78.3%) for 200 yards, three touchdowns and one interception with 133 rushing yards and one additional score on the ground this season.

“I think when you prepare for Drew and (opponents know that) Beau is going to have his few plays that we sprinkle in there per quarter, that’s tough,” Franklin said. “When the game plan flips, and Beau is there (after Allar got injured), it changes dramatically, I think, for the defense. That’s tough. Most people aren’t built that way, right? You quarterbacks are all the same type, ours are very different in many ways.”

Ohio State vs. Penn State: Which coach will get this win?

Differences include both physical and stylistic contrasts between Allar and Pribula, with the former standing at a statuesque 6-foot-4, while the latter is considerably smaller and leaner at 6-2, 206 pounds – a gap that reflects the Pribula’s superior agility. There have been times in the past, Franklin said, when Penn State offensive coordinators would call plays for Pribula as if Allar was still in the game, a paradox he said improved Pribula’s pocket presence and passing. But against the Badgers last weekend, when the coaching staff knew Allar would not return to the lineup, Franklin instructed Kotelnicki to tailor the remaining play calls to Pribula’s strengths rather than sticking to the original game plan built around a different kind of quarterback.

Still, the 13 passes Pribula attempted eclipsed his career-high of nine and offered more insight into what the Nittany Lions offense could look like this weekend if Allar is unable to play. Only three of Pribula’s throws came more than 30 feet down the field against a talented Wisconsin secondary, according to Pro Football Focus, which felt like a marked departure from the uptick in vertical shots Penn State had been making while Kotelnicki was running the offense.

Allar, meanwhile, had launched seven of his 18 passes from more than 10 yards downfield in less than two quarters of play, completing four of them for 57 yards and a touchdown. Pribula finished 1 of 3 for 40 yards on similar vertical throws, though he was much more willing than Allar to fire short and intermediate passes into traffic, at least two of which could have been intercepted.

How much Penn State’s passing attack could change if the coaching staff has a full week to build the game plan around Pribula remains unclear. Franklin said a decision on Allar’s participation likely won’t be made until kickoff at Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon. That saddles Ohio State with the unenviable challenge of preparing for two drastically different quarterbacks.

“We’ll prepare to have both guys healthy and ready to go,” Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day said earlier this week. “They both bring different things to the table. They’re both very effective at what they do. We’re going based on what we’ve seen and what’s on film. But yeah, we need to know who’s in the game.” “

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him up @Michael_Cohen13.

TO FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience