Penn State legend concerned with use of Beau Pribula in Nittany Lions offense

It’s the final gameday of the 2023 regular season for James Franklin and the Penn State football program. The Nittany Lions kick it off against the Michigan State Spartans tonight at 7:30 inside Detroit’s Ford Field. There are still some significant questions coming into this game for the Nittany Lions, the health of starting QB Drew Allar chief among them. And while Beau Pribula put together a strong second half in relief last week against Rutgers, Penn State legend Ki-Jana Carter is worried about the use of the backup QB in the offense moving forward.

Penn State legend Ki-Jana Carter expresses concern about use of Beau Pribula in the Nittany Lions offense

Last week, backup QB Beau Pribula set the tone for Penn State football after coming into the game in the third quarter for an injured Drew Allar. Pribula broke off a 39-yard run on his first play, part of a team-leading 71-yard performance in Penn State’s 27-6 win over Rutgers.

The Nittany Lions scored 17 unanswered points in the second half. Still, the offense was extremely one dimension over the final two quarters. Penn State threw the ball with Pribula one time, choosing instead to pound the ball on the ground.

While pleased with the play of Beau Pribula last week, Penn State legend Ki-Jana Carter also expressed concerns with his use in the offense moving forward.

“He [Pribula] looked kind of natural going out there and performing,” Carter explained to fellow Nittany Lion icon OJ McDuffie on a recent episode of the Ki and Juice podcast. “But I’ll be honest with you, I hope they don’t have him as a one-trick pony. Because if he does play again, people are going to say, ‘He can’t throw the ball; he’s only a running QB.’ So what are they going to do? Pack it in and try to get him to throw. So, I just hope sooner or later, we can do it and highlight his throwing ability.”

James Franklin explains play calls vs. Rutgers

While Drew Allar is expected to go Friday night against Michigan State, we don’t know to what extent Allar will be able to play through injury. With that in mind, it’s fair to wonder how Penn State football will utilize Beau Pribula moving forward.

When asked why Pribula didn’t throw the ball more last week against Rutgers, James Franklin explained that it was a situational decision.

“We’ve had passes in for him every week, but then you also get into a situation where the majority of his reps have come in four-minute football where you’re trying to run the ball as much as you possibly can,” Franklin said on Monday. “By running the QB, you even the numbers out.”

“It’s funny because I ran up to him on Saturday, and although there was a lot of time left in the game, we still wanted to milk the clock,” Franklin continued. “It’s funny, one of the chain gang guys was kind of upset because we were in the huddle too long early in the call. I’m like, we’re doing that on purpose.”

Later in the week, Franklin acknowledged that the game plan might be changed slightly if Penn State knew Pribula would have to start against Michigan State. But, for now at least, everything is status quo.

“If we were game-planning for Drew to be the primary QB, it would be a little bit different than if we were preparing for Beau to be the primary QB,” Franklin said. “We would emphasize different things… [But] our model and plan doesn’t need to change based on the information we have right now.”