Penn State Football: 6 Burning questions for Nittany Lions’ offseason
By Nick Kreiser
The college football offseason is always an interesting time filled with plenty of questions surrounding each team, and Penn State Football is no exception.
Penn State Football has a few position groups that will be interesting to keep an eye on throughout the offseason, as a mix of old and new crowd certain position rooms.
The coaching carousel seems to be done for Penn State Football this offseason, but for players, it could be a different story.
The Nittany Lions could certainly use some additions at key spots, and they are looking to potentially make those additions through the transfer portal.
On top of that, there are certainly some positions that could potentially lose a member or two in the transfer portal later in the spring.
Finally, what does the future hold for some former Nittany Lions that are pursuing their NFL dreams?
These are six of the biggest question marks surrounding Penn State Football this offseason.
Question #1 – How will Penn State Football split up quarterback reps?
At James Franklin’s press conference on National Signing Day, he was asked about Sean Clifford and the quarterback situation. This was his response.
Is James Franklin committed to QB Sean Clifford being his starter?
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) February 2, 2022
"Sean is our returning starter, there's no doubt about that. But there's competition at every position."
Being that Clifford, who has started for the past three seasons, is returning in 2022, it his job to lose, but it is not entirely his job.
He will probably be getting the highest share of first-team reps throughout spring practice, but that doesn’t mean that the others won’t be right behind him.
The more intriguing discussion is the three other scholarship quarterbacks. How will Christian Veilleux, Drew Allar, and Beau Pribula split reps at the beginning of spring practice? And how much of an opportunity will each one of them get to work with the starters?
Additionally, how much will the rep totals fluctuate throughout the course of the offseason, based on each individual’s performance.
If Drew Allar is what his high school recruiting ratings say he is, and he is able to close the gap between himself and Clifford by the time August rolls around, will he and Clifford essentially split the first-team reps at that point?
Do the two freshmen quarterbacks get a near equal number of reps at the beginning? And how will their reps align with those of Christian Veilleux?
We might get somewhat of an update on April 23rd at 2:00pm at the Blue-White Game, based on which quarterbacks are on which team, and which quarterbacks take the field first.
In the most recent rendition of the Blue-White Game, way back in 2019, the top three quarterbacks (Clifford, Tommy Stevens, and Will Levis), all played for the blue team, which primarily consists of starters and second-string players. Freshmen quarterbacks TaQuan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr were the signal callers for the white team that day.
The quarterbacks that suit up (in a white uniform), for the blue team will likely be the front-runners at that point, and whoever starts for the white team will be next in line.
Time will tell how this quarterback situation will work itself out, and although we probably will never get a full depth chart, it will be interesting to see how the dominos fall from now until September.