Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1430714
5 8 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A side from coach James Frank- lin and his long-term status at Penn State, there's been no hotter topic of conversation among Nittany Lion football fans this season than what's going on at the quarterback position. When fifth-year senior Sean Clifford got hurt at Iowa, missing the second half of that game and playing at what appeared to be far less than 100 percent two weeks later against Illinois, the quarterback position became a matter of even more intense scrutiny than usual. Clifford ap- peared to be much healthier against Ohio State, and he has a few more games to play at Penn State — maybe more than few if he opts to return in 2022. And if there's reason to feel good about what a healthy Clifford can accomplish in his remaining games, there's also rea- son to feel good about what comes next. That's because the Nittany Lions have two very good young quarterbacks set to enroll in January — Beau Pribula and Drew Allar. Allar has gotten a lot of attention dur- ing the past few months, all of it well earned, but Nittany Lion fans also need to start taking notice of what Pribula has accomplished during his senior season at Central York (Pa.) High. Following a 31-21 victory over Dallas- town on Oct. 22, Pribula was completing nearly 80 percent of his passes on the sea- son. He was up to 1,931 yards passing and 333 yards rushing, and he had compiled those numbers despite playing sparingly in the second halves of most games this year, due to Central York's dominant play. The Panthers were coming off an ap- pearance in the PIAA Class 6A champion- ship game in 2020, and Pribula has been one of the big reasons why they didn't miss a beat, despite graduating a number of top skill-position players. "Mentally, he's at a whole different level right now," Central York head coach Gerry Yonchiuk said. "Beau really improved at that aspect last year, especially in terms of understanding defenses. Now, he comes off the field and is seeing things that I re- ally believe many college quarterbacks don't see. He makes very few mistakes mentally. "In the past four or five weeks, he has about a 90 percent completion percent- age. The only incompletion he had this past week was a touchdown that unfor- tunately was dropped by our top receiver. So, his accuracy has been lights-out this year. "Also, we started running the jet sweep [against Dallastown] where he pitches it in front of him. We hadn't run that all season. So, while it did pad his stats for this one game, that hadn't been the case at all this season until now. He's up to 27 touchdowns and four picks. Two of those interceptions were tipped balls, and the other two were him just throwing it up at the end of the half to see if we can make a play. So, he really doesn't have any picks that are truly his fault." In a 53-7 victory over Northeastern on Oct. 15, Pribula completed all nine of his Pennsylvania Quarterback Turns Heads With Spectacular Senior Season RYA N S N Y D E R | S N Y D E R 4 2 0 8 8 @ G M A I L . C O M COMMITMENT PROFILE BEAU PRIBULA Pribula had guided Central York to an 11-0 record heading into the District 3 Class 6A semifinals while completing nearly 80 percent of his passes on the season. The quarterback prospect is set to enroll at Penn State in January. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER