James Franklin states Beau Pribula 'did not want to leave our program' early

One of the most high-profile transfers of the offseason came at Penn State, where quarterback Beau Pribula recently announced his decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

The Nittany Lions have an excellent starting quarterback returning in Drew Allar, but what makes the Pribula move so fascinating is the timing, as much as anything else.

That timing has been a crucial point of debate in the sport since Pribula’s announcement. Coach James Franklin provided the setup on Tuesday at a press conference.

“In my opinion, he’s a man’s man,” Franklin said of Beau Pribula. “Like came into my office, had multiple conversations with me about this process. We talked last week, had no intentions of leaving, but we’ve got problems in college football.

“And I can give you my word: Beau Pribula did not want to leave our program. And he did not want to leave our program until the end of the season. But the way the portal is, and the timing of it, and the way our team is playing, and when you play the position of quarterback and there’s only one spot and those spots are filling up, he felt like he was put in a no-win situation. And I agree with him.”

The choice for Pribula was simple. Either enter the portal now and be comfortable about finding an ideal landing spot where he can play major snaps right away or wait until most programs had already secured a quarterback and try to go from there.

The latter obviously isn’t a very attractive proposition.

“I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the student-athlete,” Franklin said. “I don’t think it’s in the best interest of college football. But I think that’s our challenge right now, right? Who is really running college football and making the best decisions for the student-athletes and for our sport as a whole?”

With those questions up in the air a bit, Beau Pribula simply did what he felt was best.

Ultimately that was to leave a College Football Playoff team before the postseason wraps up, so that he can lock down a new destination and begin to get settled in for the spring semester.

Franklin, though, argues that the whole thing is out of whack.

“Beau should not be put in this position,” Franklin said. “Whether we don’t play as many games during the season, whether we don’t play conference championship games, which could actually equal things out to some of the teams that aren’t playing them anyway, finish the season so it aligns more with the academic calendar for most institutions, because that’s part of this pressure, as well. To have a transfer portal slash free agency going on right in the middle of the playoffs, there’s just a lot of things that don’t really make sense.”