James Franklin: Beau Pribula ‘did not want to leave’ Penn State football program

Penn State football is facing a much different reality under center than the last time James Franklin spoke to the media a week ago. Heading into the most important game of the season, the Nittany Lions quarterback room was reshuffled on Sunday evening when longtime backup Beau Pribula announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Depth at the position being a strength of the Nittany Lions roster for the last two seasons, Penn State football now has a combined one passing attempt of experience behind starter Drew Allar.

But beyond the logistical challenges that could potentially impact an impending playoff run, Pribula’s departure revealed the ugly realities of modern college football. In a lengthy diatribe on Monday afternoon, James Franklin described the “no-win situation” that faced the redshirt sophomore quarterback and the Nittany Lions program.

“Beau Pribula has been a phenomenal teammate, has been a big reason why we are where we are right now,” Franklin said in his weekly press conference. “Parents, awesome. High school coach, awesome.

“Being a backup quarterback is not an easy thing to do, and he never approached it that way. 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 talk about all the time, but is easier said than done.

“He also, in my opinion, he’s a man’s man. 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.

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“Number one, I hate for it. Number one, most importantly, for Beau Pribula. I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the student-athlete. I don’t think it’s in the best interests 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. Whether we don’t play as many games during the season, whether we don’t play conference championship games, which could equal things out for teams not playing them anyway, finish this 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, there’s just a lot of things that don’t really make sense.”

Franklin: I have a responsibility to both Penn State football and Beau Pribula

A product of Central York, Beau Pribula grew up wanting to play quarterback at Penn State. But faced with an abridged timeline, Pribula felt forced to walk away from the Nittany Lions ahead of the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance.

“So I’m concerned for college football right now, in general, to be honest with you. And I think a lot of people are,” Franklin continued. “I really wanted this answer to be about Beau Pribula, who is a wonderful young man, and I would recruit him every year. 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.

“Why have we created a system where this guy couldn’t finish this season with his team? And there’s going to be people who said, well, he could have.

“In any situation that I’m in, personally and 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.

“So I hate it. I do. I hate it for him, and I hate it for Penn State, but I also don’t think it’s the right thing for college football.”

Why is Pribula not staying with the Nittany Lions for a postseason run?

© Chris Eutsler / Basic Blues Nation, 2024.

In the hours since Sunday’s announcement, many have questioned why Pribula did not remain with the Penn State football program until the 2024 season is completed. Indeed, even in Saturday’s first-round playoff matchup, SMU backup quarterback Preston Stone will suit up for the Mustangs after declaring his plan to enter the transfer portal.

Even though the program maintains a policy that doesn’t allow players to remain with the team after entering the portal, James Franklin explained that the Nittany Lions made a concerted effort to keep Pribula on the roster through the postseason. However, the decision to have a clean break was ultimately reached on Sunday.

“We have a standard operating procedure, SOP, that the way we operate is if you go into the transfer portal, at that point you’ve made a decision to move on and that we’re moving 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 and dictate everything. There’s got to be flexibility within everything to put the program in the best position to be successful.

“We talked through a ton of different scenarios. I think the more we talked about it and the more we went through it, a couple of things. I think, number one, I think 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 had been doing all year long.

“Then the other thing was, he was getting pressure to go on visits and go see these places. So I think it’s one of these things, 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—when I say the starter, you guys understand our approach at every position, starters and backups approaching it that way. I feel like 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 could tell he was distracted by all of this.

“So, yeah, do we have a rule and a policy? Yes. With every rule and policy, are there times where you have to revisit the policy and you have to, at times, make exceptions or be flexible to different solutions? We were open to different solutions and coming up with some scenarios that could work for everybody, and we just couldn’t get to a point where everybody felt like it was going to work out in everybody’s best interests.”

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