James Franklin explains why it's in the best interest of Beau Pribula and Penn State to not have him participate in College Football Playoff
News broke Sunday night that Penn State is set to be without a key member of its team for the College Football Playoff, as backup quarterback Beau Pribula announced that he’s be entering the transfer portal after what he called an ‘impossible decision.’
Of course, Penn State’s first-round opponent, SMU, saw its backup quarterback, Preston Stone, also enter the portal last week. However, unlike Pribula, Stone said he plans to stay with the team throughout its run, leaving many Nittany Lion fans wondering why Pribula wouldn’t do the same.
On Monday, head coach James Franklin provided his thoughts on that situation.
“We have a standard operating procedure,” Franklin said. “The way we operate is, if you go into the transfer portal, at that point, you’ve made a decision to move on. They’re moving on and we’re moving on.
“But as you also know, we’re not going to have a standard rule for how we operate dictate everything. There’s got to be flexibility within everything to put the program in the best position to be successful.”
Losing Pribula, who played nearly 200 snaps in all 13 games for Penn State this season, represented an opportunity for flexibility. However, Franklin went on to add that it’s not as cut and dry as it may appear publicly.
Link: Beau Pribula transfer from Penn State again brings system’s failings into focus
“We talked through a ton of different scenarios, and I think the more we talked about it and the more we went through it, a couple of things [emerged],” Franklin said. “I think, number one, Beau felt like he was going to have a hard time finishing school, finding a place that he wanted to go to and still preparing like the starter like he’d been doing all year long. And then, the other thing was, he was getting pressure to go on visits and go see these places.
“Like a lot of things, in theory, that sounds good, but when you actually talk through how it’s actually going to work, it’s hard to do that. It’s hard to say you’re preparing to be the starter, and when I say the starter, you guys understand our approach at every position; starters and backups approach it that way. At the end of the day, I don’t feel like Beau felt like he could do those things to the level he needed to. He was out at practice yesterday and I can tell he was distracted by all of this.”
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Link: Who will Penn State’s backup QB vs. SMU in the College Football Playoff?
Franklin said he also spoke with some of Penn State’s other players and members of the staff about the decision.
“I talked to some other players on the team, got their feedback as well,” he said. “Because, I think you also realize [that] you make a decision for one, and it doesn’t just stay to that one. There’s a trickle-down effect to everything you do. You’re setting a precedent, one way or another. So, all those things factored in.”
Earlier in Franklin’s press conference, he pointed to the recruiting calendar as a major issue that forced both Pribula and Penn State’s football program into a difficult situation.
“I can give you my word: Beau Pribula did not want to leave our program,” Franklin said. “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.”
