James Franklin explains why he hasn't named Penn State's starting QB
Going into the 2023 season, sophomore quarterback Drew Allar is the presumed starter at Penn State. However, James Franklin hasn’t named a starting quarterback yet, which has given the impression of a tighter quarterback battle than many people expected.
The issue, it now appears, isn’t that Franklin doesn’t know who Penn State’s starting quarterback is going to be. Instead, he feels there isn’t any value in sharing who the starters are going to be ahead of the season.
“We’ve got a pretty good idea of who we’re starting pretty much everywhere,” James Franklin said. “As you guys know, like I’ve told you before, when we practice, we send some guys out with the first team, we send some guys out with the second team, we send some guys out with the third team, and most of the depth chart and roster is set. But I think more times than not, we try not to put that information out there because I don’t necessarily see the value in it.”
Drew Allar came to Penn State in the Class of 2022. According to the On3 Industry Rankings, he was a five-star recruit and the third-ranked quarterback overall in that class. He backed up Sean Clifford as a freshman, playing in 10 games, completing 58.3 percent of passes for 344 yards and four touchdowns. Along with Allar, Beau Pribula and Jaxon Smolik are competing to start for Penn State.
Ultimately, naming a starter now isn’t important to James Franklin.
“For me, the most important thing is the guys in our locker room, whether it’s from a leadership or a chemistry standpoint, and we’ve got that. So, all the other stuff out there in the universe or in the internet or wherever else, I don’t think that has a huge factor for us,” Franklin said.
“So that’s why we typically try not to do it.”
There’s only so much time before Penn State’s starting quarterback is going to be revealed, with the Nittany Lions hosting West Virginia to open the season on Saturday.
Neal Brown on preparing for Drew Allar
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown has a difficult task ahead of him. He has to prepare for a team without knowing its quarterback. The presumption is that it will be Drew Allar. Still, there is limited film on Allar.
“You go back, watch a lot of high school, and then he played. Like I said, he played a lot of fourth quarters last year. And when he played, they let him play. It wasn’t like he was just handing off. So, you’ve got some video. He’s super talented. You know, he’s a big kid, he’s more athletic than people give him credit for, he can run — he’s good at scrambling and making plays downfield. You saw that last year, you saw that in high school. He’s got a huge arm. He can make all the throws,” Brown said.
“Whoever starts is gonna be making their first start ever, and there’s some pressure that goes along with that. So, we’ve got to make it tough on him. We’ve got to disguise some things. We’ve got to give him some different looks. But he’s really talented.”