What did James Franklin say about Drew Allar returning to Penn State and Beau Pribula leaving the Lions?

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State is less than a week away from hosting SMU in a first round College Football Playoff matchup at Beaver Stadium. However, at his first news conference of game week on Monday, the Dec. 21 contest between the No. 6 Nittany Lions and No. 11 Mustangs was hardly the main focus. That’s because starting quarterback Drew Allar is returning to the team for the 2025 while backup Beau Pribula is leaving via the transfer portal before the Playoff game.

“This season has been the most fun I’ve had in my entire life playing football and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team,” Allar posted on social media Monday morning. “I know there’s still more work to do which is why I look forward to making more memories with my teammates this year and beyond. But right now we are solely focused on the opportunity we have as a team in front of us.”

On Sunday, Pribula shared his news via social media, as well.

“Growing up in Pennsylvania, it has always been a dream of mine to play football for Penn State,” Pribula wrote. “Wearing the blue & white these last 3 years has brought me some of the greatest moments or my life. The current NCAA post-season model creates a challenge for student-athletes. The overlapping CFB playoff & transfer portal timeline has forced me into an impossible decision.

“After speaking at length with my family and coaches, it is with a heavy heart that l announce my intentions to enter the transfer portal and depart from the team to explore opportunities elsewhere. I want to thank the coaches, my teammates, the fanbase, and everyone else who has supported me along this journey. For the rest of my life, I stand proud as a Penn State graduate and letterman.”

What did Penn State coach James Franklin say Pribula leaving?

He was asked about both on Monday afternoon.

“Obviously those are two massive questions that I could talk about for the entire press conference. Let me first talk about Beau. Beau Pribula has been a phenomenal teammate, a big reason why we are where we are right now. Parents, awesome. High school coach, awesome. Being a backup quarterback is never easy to do. Had so much confidence on our team based on how he went about his business and prepared like a starter, again, which is something we talked about all the time. But it’s easier said than done. He also, in my opinion, he’s a man’s man. Had multiple conversations with me about this process. We talked last week, had no intentions of leaving. But we have problems in college football.

“We 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.

“And I number one, I hate for it, number one, most importantly, for Beau Pribula. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the student athlete. 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? Beau should not be put in this position. You know, 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/free agency going on right in the middle of the playoffs.

More: Live updates: James Franklin CFP press conference

“There’s just a lot of things that don’t really make sense. And I know there’s been a lot of discussions about maybe a commissioner of college football. I think it’s pretty obvious we need that. We need somebody running college football. We need somebody that is not biased based on a conference, and that is out of the financial impacts of it as well.

“Because if you just, if you’re just making the decisions which which are in the best interest of the student athletes in college football, then I think you can do it. But if you’re biased by a specific conference, or if you’re impacted by making all your decisions based on revenue and earnings, then we’re never going to get to a good place. So, you know, I’m concerned for college football right now, in general, to be honest with you. And, I think a lot of people are. And you know, I really wanted this answer to be about Beau Pribula, who is a wonderful young man, and knowing everything I know right now, I’d go back and recruit the heck out of Beau.

“Beau grew up wanting to come to Penn State his whole life. This is his dream school, and had a phenomenal career here, and I just want everybody to understand that most importantly. And why have we created a system where this guy couldn’t finish this season with his team? And there’s going to be people say, ‘Well, he could have.’ In any situation that I’m in, personally, professionally, I always try to take a deep breath and look at things from both perspectives and in my mind, as the head coach of Penn State, obviously, I have a responsibility for Penn State and our football program, but I also feel like I also have a responsibility to Beau Pribula.

What did Franklin say about Allar returning to Penn State?

“Obviously, Drew, announcing he’s coming back is an awesome thing,” he said. “And we couldn’t be more excited about that. As you can imagine, that also factored into [Pribula’s] decision, right?

“Drew has been phenomenal. Mom and Dad have been phenomenal. Had a ton of conversations. ANd obviously he’s doing a ton of really good things, and he’s developing, and he’s getting better, and he’s playing great. He’s leading. And I think there’s a lot of excitement, because I think they believe, and we believe there’s still a lot of room for growth and development. We want to be a part of that, and I think they trust us in that. And obviously there’s been a ton of conversations with NFL GMs and scouts to be able to provide NFL reports and information to our players of where they’re at and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are and how do we take that information, make a decision and then spend once the season is over, time, attacking those things that people consider weaknesses.”