In 2024, James Franklin brought offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki to Happy Valley from Kansas to help Drew Allar take the next step after an underwhelming sophomore season. He did that, but his offense was clearly tailored to a mobile quarterback, which led to packages with Tyler Warren as wildcat QB and backup QB Beau Pribula taking snaps away from Allar.
Pribula, a Pennsylvania native who wore the same number and had a similar style to Trace McSorley, won over the hearts of many Penn State fans, but he could never win the starting job, and when it became clear Allar was returning for his senior year in 2025, he transferred away to Missouri.
Now, Pribula is in his fifth year at Virginia and got off to a great start in Week 0, and Penn State has a new QB in place, Rocco Becht, who followed his head coach, Matt Campbell, from Iowa State. And though Becht doesn’t have the same athletic deficiencies that plagued Allar as a big-bodied pocket passer, it sounds as though he’ll have his own Beau Pribula in Alex Manske.
Taylor Mouser will have a package of plays for Alex Manske
In Penn State’s first game week press conference of the season on Tuesday, ahead of the team’s Week 1 clash with Marshall on Saturday afternoon, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser told reporters, “We’re not going to be able to keep (Manske) off the field this year,” highlighting the redshirt freshman’s dual-threat abilities.
Last season, Manske appeared in two games, attempted five passes, and rushed the ball seven times for 33 yards and a touchdown. A 2025 four-star recruit from Algona, Iowa, Manske had open-heart surgery this offseason but is cleared for Week 1.
Early in the season, his role may be confined to mop-up duty as the Nittany Lions host Marshall, travel to Philadelphia to play Temple in Week 2, and then host Buffalo in Week 3. However, it sounds as though Manske’s role will extend beyond that in the regular season and will even take meaningful plays away from Becht, Campbell’s fourth-year starter and the most experienced quarterback in college football this year.
Campbell has spoken glowingly about Manske, whom he and his staff considered a top-four QB in the 2025 recruiting class, which included Bryce Underwood, Keelon Russell, Tavien St. Clair, and Husan Longstreet. If they think he can add value now, as Pribula did for Penn State’s offense in 2024, it seems they trust him to play, and Becht didn’t sound as though he minded when he was asked about it on Tuesday.
"In the future, when all the seniors are gone, and it's his team, he's going to be able to rock and roll,” Becht told reporters, highlighting the importance of Manske getting real game reps this season.
And that's the difference, really, between Pribula and Manske. There was no succession plan for Pribula, who arrived in the same recruiting class as Allar, a five-star and the program’s highest-rated QB recruit since Christian Hackenberg. Manske is the heir apparent in Happy Valley, so any excitement he generates this season won’t be short-lived.
Alex Manske’s game reps will be valuable for evaluating the next QB1
Everyone always loves the backup QB. But Penn State was right to keep Allar over Pribula, even if it didn’t work out. In this case, though, the program won’t have to make a choice between Becht or Manske. Instead, it’s Manske or the transfer portal.
After this season, Campbell and general manager Derek Hoodjer must decide whether to roll with Manske as next year’s QB1 or to bring in a more proven Becht replacement in the transfer portal.
They could also middle it and bring in competition for a QB battle, but neither of the latter two options has ever been Campbell’s style. He’s a developmentally minded head coach, and in his mind, he’s currently developing his next starting QB.
Still, the pressure to get it right at the position is different at Penn State than it was at Iowa State, so every look he gets and Manske in live action will be a valuable piece of information heading into the offseason. If he looks as good as Campbell and Mouser seem to think he will, Penn State fans will be happy they don’t have the same Pribula problem to deal with.
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