Penn State's most hated Big Ten rival still hasn't settled its offseason QB controversy

There aren’t many things that James Franklin has done better over his 10+ years as the head coach of Penn State than Ryan Day and his predecessor at Ohio State, Urban Meyer. Franklin has beaten the Buckeyes just once throughout his tenure, in 2016, but this offseason, Franklin at least has the upper hand when it comes to his handling of the quarterback position. 

Franklin hasn’t quite run a quarterback factory in Happy Valley like Day has had in Columbus, going from Dwayne Haskins to Justin Fields to CJ Stroud, but when Kyle McCord wasn’t the answer last season, Day panicked and even with one of the best rosters in the country heading into 2024, it could set his program back. 

Instead of jumping at the opportunity to nab Oklahoma transfer Dillon Gabriel out of the portal, Day waited to see what he had in 2022 four-star Devin Brown against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. Well, Brown, who had already lost a QB competition with McCord, who transferred to Syracuse after the year, went 4/6 for 20 yards before hurting his ankle and forcing Day to go to true freshman Lincoln Kienholz. 

At Big Ten Media Days, Gabriel told reporters that his conversations with Day were, “good” but that he didn’t want to wait. 

“Going through my third recruiting process, I know it’s a stressful time for anyone that’s transferred,” Gabriel, who is now on his third team at Oregon since he began his college football career in 2019 at UCF, “there’s just a lot that comes with it, so the faster that you can make a decision and feel good about it and be decisive, it allows you to act accordingly.”

With Gabriel now the Heisman trophy favorite for the No. 3 Ducks, Ohio State’s primary competitor for the Big Ten crown, Day had to turn to Kansas State transfer Will Howard, who like Gabriel with Jackson Arnold was pushed out of the program by up-and-coming sophomore Avery Johnson. 

Howard has started 27 games in his career and last season for the Wildcats he completed 61.3% of his passes for 2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. The athletic senior also added 351 yards with nine scores on the ground and even added a receiving touchdown. Yet, Howard still had to compete with Brown for the starting job and though important players on his roster have begun to pledge their allegiance to the incoming transfer, he’s yet to announce a starting quarterback for Ohio State’s Week 1 matchup against Akron. 

The Buckeyes begin the year with something of a preseason schedule, playing Akron, Western Michigan, and Marshall with a bye week mixed in before a Big Ten contest against Michigan State. Day essentially has an extra month to make a final decision on his starting QB, but when a five-star freshman receiver like Jeremiah Smith is saying things like this publicly, the battle has already been won. 

“Will has definitely made a big jump since the end of spring. I like his confidence. He's starting to talk more. He's starting to talk a lot of mess on the field. I like that about my quarterback.”

“My quarterback” being the most important phrase of course. Smith has decided, and if a freshman is willing to pronounce who ‘his quarterback’ is, then the rest of the locker room certainly has as well. Yet, Day, at least publicly, is still holding out hope for Brown, the player who made him miss out on Gabriel for a 14-3 loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. 

James Franklin doesn’t deserve a ton of credit for how he’s handled Drew Allar, because last year wasn’t pretty for the sophomore. However, Franklin did pluck Allar right out of Medina, Ohio, and hasn’t acquiesced to the perpetually unhappy portion of the fanbase calling for Beau Pribula to have a shot at the starting job. 

Penn State’s best chance to win is with Allar behind center, and while Day struggles to get a graph on his quarterback room after last year’s disaster with McCord, this year might also be Penn State’s best chance to finally knock off the Buckeyes. If Franklin and Allar can’t get it done now, it’ll only get tougher when 2024 four-star Air Noland, 2024 five-star Alabama transfer Julian Sayin, or 2025 five-star Taven St. Clair are ready to be the next first-round pick to come out of the QB factory in Columbus.

Elsewhere on the roster, Day's team has the advantage. Ohio State dominated the transfer portal, adding running back QuinShon Judkins from Ole Miss, safety Caleb Downs from Alabama, and maybe even more important is what the Buckeyes retained. Emeka Egbuka, Denzel Burke, Jack Sawyer, J.T. Tuimoloau, and TreVeyon Henderson all returned for another shot at a national title.

Comparatively, Franklin's biggest portal splash was Julian Fleming, who Ohio State was fine to watch walk out the door. It will by no means be easy for Penn State to beat Ohio State when they meet in Happy Valley this season, but with an advantage of quarterback and no offseason uncertainty at the most important position, it's starting to feel possible.