Naturally, James Franklin and Matt Campbell were immediately cast as adversaries, Franklin looking to bring the best talent from his 2025 roster and 2026 recruiting class to Blacksburg after becoming the head coach at Virginia Tech, and Campbell hoping to keep that talent in Happy Valley.
That competition has carried over to the 2027 recruiting cycle at the most important position. Franklin beat Penn State out for four-star QB Peter Bourque on Thursday as Campbell pivoted to three-star Will Wood, who committed to the program on Friday.
Though recruiting rankings aren’t particularly kind to Wood at this point in the cycle, there’s plenty of reason for optimism that Campbell and his staff can develop him into a quality college quarterback. Optimism that wouldn’t be there if Franklin were still at the helm.
Drew Allar’s stunted growth is a major indictment of James Franklin
James Franklin largely sustained his success at Penn State after dragging the program back to relevance in 2016. However, you can break up his years as a national contender into two different stints.
From 2016-19, the Nittany Lions competed for Big Ten titles with Trace McSorley and Sean Clifford, two cerebral ‘gamers’ at quarterback who didn’t have the physical tools to be viewed as legitimate NFL prospects, but who rode their toughness and moxie to significant college success.
He couldn’t break through, so naturally, he surmised that a five-star QB like Drew Allar might be the missing piece to raise the ceiling of the program. Allar defined the second era as a contender, but he’ll ultimately be remembered for his untapped potential.
Allar started 35 games in his college career, including three College Football Playoff games. Yet, he was viewed as a raw prospect with NFL tools in need of major refinement in the 2026 NFL Draft. The Pittsburgh Steelers, which selected the former five-star 76th overall in the third round, are “uninstalling everything he learned,” according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, who watched closely as new Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy worked with Allar at rookie minicamp last weekend.
That’s a major indictment of James Franklin and his staff. Terry Smith wasn’t much kinder when he told 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh that, “unfairly to Drew, our system wasn’t built for him. It wasn’t made for him.”
Can James Franklin be trusted to develop the QB position?
Bourque has undeniably better physical traits than Wood, and if Franklin were still at Penn State, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Massachusetts product and No. 7 QB in the 2027 class would almost certainly be heading there as well. But what faith could anyone have that he would develop correctly or that his NFL traits would be maximized?
Maybe Franklin would have learned his lesson. In an offseason interview with former Nittany Lion Adam Brenneman, he admitted to making hiring decisions that were outside of his comfort zone, and that may have included replacing Mike Yurcich with Andy Kotelnicki as his offensive coordinator in 2024. Kotelnicki was the architect of the offense that Smith admitted didn’t fit Allar’s skillset.
Had Franklin survived the disastrous 2025 season, that reflection may have come. He may have changed course and hired a more familiar offensive play-caller. At Virginia Tech, he has elevated former Penn State tight ends coach Ty Howle to that role. Even if that were the case, it still wouldn’t account for the mechanical issues that plagued Allar through his four years in Happy Valley and that McCarthy and his staff in Pittsburgh are currently working to undo.
So, can Franklin best be trusted to develop a QB? That question would be lingering over every quarterback addition he made at Penn State. That may not be the biggest reason Penn State needed to move on, but it’s absolutely a factor.
Bourque may be the more toolsy quarterback prospect than Wood, but faced with the proposition of Bourque and Franklin or Campbell and Wood, the answer for most Penn State fans is easy. Bourque's ceiling is higher than Wood's, but Campbell gives Wood a much better chance to reach his.
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