Leadership, grit and the 'It' factor of Beau Pribula
When Gerry Yonchiuk took the head coaching job at Central York High School, he got an early look at his future quarterback.
But not on the football field.
“That year before I got the job he was a sophomore,” Yonchiuk said of his first time seeing Beau Pribula. “He’s playing varsity basketball and had a really good team. And twice, I was in the front row, like with end zone seating in the gym, he had two 180 dunks where he dunked behind his head as a sophomore. I’m thinking, ‘That’s a special cat out there.’”
Yonchiuk took the job and became Pribula’s head football coach in February 2020. But once March came around, restrictions went into place. Yonchuik wasn’t allowed to hold or design summer workouts.
Luckily, he was taking over a team that had a born leader at the helm.
“He ended up running 7-on-7,” Yonchiuk said. “This is a number I’ll never forget, he ran 17 seven-on-seven interactions at the local elementary schools in our district. He ran them because he wanted our guys to just get better and better and learn the new offense.”
Leadership
Yonchiuk couldn’t run the workouts or organize activities in the summer of 2020, but Pribula knew there was an opportunity for the team to be elite in the fall and he wasn’t going to waste it.
Yonchiuk said there were expectations going into the fall of 2020 the football team could be the best in the school’s history, but building on the potential would take some serious work.
And Pribula was willing to hold his teammates accountable.
“We had a really good running back, and the kid’s laying on the floor watching film and he’s on his cell phone,” Yonchiuk said. “And Beau sprung up, came over, grabbed that cell phone, put it on my desk and said, ‘Coach, we’re here to win the state championship, not be on a phone.’ The kid, who was a really tough inner-city kid, teared up, he said … he felt like he let Beau down. I thought, ‘Man, that takes a hell of a lot of respect from one young man to understand who’s the leader of the football team.’”
Yonchiuk said that leadership has carried into Pribula’s college career. Pribula hasn’t been the starting quarterback, but he’s always been willing to put the work in and wait his turn to be the guy taking the helm.
Skillset
Missouri Tiger fans have heard about Pribula’s ability as a runner after he was mostly used as a gadget option at Penn State the past two seasons.
But in high school, Yonchiuk had him run the air raid.
Yonchiuk said Pribula’s usage with the Nittany Lions didn’t just leave some of his ability on the sidelines, but created a misconception of Pribula nationally.
“It actually made me angry because he gets this knock of being just a runner,” Yonchiuk said. “And that’s what Penn State did with him, so I get that. … But his junior year, I didn’t run him at all until we got in the playoffs. I wanted to keep him healthy and he can throw the heck out of the football. He’s extremely accurate.”
His ability to run comes in part because of just how explosive an athlete Pribula is, shown by those behind-the-head dunks Yonchiuk saw as well as Pribula’s work in the weight room. But his former coach believes Missouri fans should get ready to see a lot more out of him.
“He truly is a quarterback first,” Yonchiuk said. “And then that’s just the extra parts that go with it. You know, it’s like buying a new Cadillac, but it’s got all the extra things.”
Recruitment
After growing up just a couple of hours away from Penn State, there was really only one spot Pribula was interested in attending after high school.
“There was a picture he has when he’s five years old in a Penn State Helmet, Penn State uniform,” Yonchiuk said. “And it was always his dream to go there. He had other options, … I thought maybe he’d go to West Virginia, they were really hot on him. … Syracuse would call me like every day. … But he was set to go to Penn State and what he did do, which I thought shows just the opposite of most kids now, I’m not here to berate anyone that’s been at two schools, three schools, five, whatever. But when he was there, both Beau and his dad said, ‘Coach, he won’t go anywhere until he has that Penn State degree first.”
Pribula got his advertising and public relations degree from Penn State in December. And with his degree in hand, he decided to take the next step in his football career.
Warrior mentality
Pribula was the Pennsylvania Player of the Year two seasons in a row. And Pennsylvania had some good players in those years.
Syracuse’s Kyle McCord, who is now on roster with the Philadelphia Eagles, went up against Pribula in the state championship.
And that championship matchup showed something about Pribula that might be familiar to Missouri fans.
Yonchiuk said Pribula lofted a pass that he could usually hit every time, then took a scramble up the middle and slid.
“He came over and I said, ‘What’s wrong?’” Yonchiuk said, knowing there had to be an issue. “He said, ‘Coach, I can’t feel my left foot.”
Pribula broke a bone in the foot getting tackled on a punt, Yonchiuk said.
“He wouldn’t come out, like, he wouldn’t come out of the game,” Yonchiuk said. “… There’s Marvin Harrison playing for the other team, and Kyle McCord and Jeremiah Trotter and our guy that we wanted to be able to do everything he could is trying to play through and cut it with a broken foot. And he also played defense in that game.”
Excitement about Mizzou
Yonchiuk said Beau’s brother, Cade Pribula, ran most of Beau’s transfer portal needs. But Yonchiuk and Pribula were still in contact.
“I was the very first person he called when he committed to Missouri,” Yonchiuk said. “He said, ‘Coach, I want you to know first.’ And then he shared with me the process with the other schools.”
Yonchiuk said Pribula was intrigued by the other schools he visited, but had only good words about Missouri and Eliah Drinkwitz’s staff.
“I think that speaks volumes of the head guy,” Yonchiuk said of Drinkwitz. “I reached out to him to introduce myself and just said, ‘I just want to tell you I was Beau’s high school coach.’ And he got right back to me. We probably talked for an hour on the phone. That was pretty neat. … I’m sure he’ll love what Beau brings to the table in terms of his leadership.”
And along with the coaching staff, Yonchiuk said the receiving core especially excited Pribula.
Penn State had an elite tight end and excellent running backs, the receiving core left a little to be desired, he said.
“He said, ‘Coach, there’s some receivers here that are big-time players,” Yonchiu said. “Guys that’ll be NFL guys.’ And I think that really excited him.”
Comparisons
Along with his position as head coach, Yonchuik has spent decades as a quarterback coach. He has helped run multiple camps, written six books about different offenses and has been the head coach at multiple programs across 30 years.
“Coaching quarterbacks over my 42 years, in the first 41, he’s had the most special qualities,” Yonchiuk said. “It’s hard to explain it, but he just does. It’s that ‘It’ factor that makes him so fun to watch and easy to cheer for.”
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