One of the most unique things about the Drew Allar situation is the fact James Franklin and his staff aren’t trying to hide the plan. For years — albeit due in large part to the longevity of Trace McSorley and Sean Clifford’s careers — there has been little in the way of real conversations about the so-called quarterback in waiting. If anything, the occasional questions about a potential quarterback competition have been rendered to meaningless offseason platitudes.
But with Allar, there’s really no disguising the plan. At some point Franklin will say there is an “open competition” and that Allar will “have to earn the job,” but if Allar isn’t Penn State’s starting quarterback in 2023, something seriously wrong will have happened. And everyone knows that, including backup quarterback Christian Veilleux.
That poses at least a partial problem for Franklin in regards to the challenges of roster management. Every year since 2018, Penn State’s backup quarterback has had to play meaningful snaps during meaningful games. If nothing else, the 2021 debacle at Iowa has only heightened the need to develop a backup quarterback that has the basic competency needed to run the offense. But if Veilleux can read the room, and believes in his abilities to play football at a high level, the transfer portal might come calling. That leaves Penn State in a bind, even if Allar is the guy.
“He’s been phenomenal. He really has,” Franklin said of Veilleux on Tuesday. “I think that whole quarterback room has been great. I think Sean has kind of set the tone for that whole room. But Christian has been phenomenal. Those are tough conversations and tough decisions that have to be made.
“It’s interesting because I’ve kind of used this with the players before. You look at some players that may play as a true freshman and play well, and another guy redshirts and they’re in the same class. And then you look three years down the road and the guy that redshirted ends up having what people would describe as maybe a better career. There’s a lot of twists and turns along these journeys, but I think Veilleux has been phenomenal. His attitude has been great. He’s been great in meetings. He’s totally engaged. We’ve been rotating those guys down to the scout team. They’ve been awesome down there.”
If Veilleux were to transfer, Penn State would find itself with just three quarterbacks on the roster as it stands today: Allar, fellow true freshman Beau Pribula and incoming freshman Jaxon Smolik. The next closest commitment comes in the form of 2024 prospect Jadyn Davis. In turn, Penn State is almost certainty going portal hunting for more help in the quarterback room, a solution that could be greatly aided or avoided if Veilleux stays to be Allar’s backup. But, of course, you have to convince him to stay in the first place.
“We’ll see how this all plays out, but I hope he stays at Penn State and continues to chase his dream and gets his degree and see how it all plays out,” Franklin added. “Because again, there’s a lot of twists and turns along these journeys.
“There’s part of me that it breaks my heart a little bit about the conversations and the things that you’re having now in college football that you didn’t used to have, but I also — as you guys know, I also understand this is where we’re at and kind of embrace it, and there’s… there’s good in both, right? There’s a lot of good things that I believe existed in the old model, and there’s a lot of good that exists in the new model. I don’t know if they’re necessarily the same things, though.”
