Penn State football mailbag: QB situation, is 0-3 or 3-0 more likely, more

Just three days separate Penn State football from its first game of the season as the Nittany Lions will take on Wisconsin Saturday at Noon ET on FOX.

Head coach James Franklin has already held one news conference this week, but questions remain ahead of his final chat with reporters later today. Of course, we won't have all the answers prior to kickoff, but it makes now as good a time as any to unveil a new Blue-White Illustrated feature for the 2021 season: A weekly team mailbag.

BWI's Nate Bauer, Greg Pickel and Dave Eckert will answer the burning questions submitted via both Twitter and our Lions Den message board each and every Wednesday through the season.

As expected, this week's questions mostly focus on the long-term outlooks of both the team and a couple of key positions before the contests begin.

Let's get to it.

Bauer: One of the things that Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin has liked to say over the past year to two has been about the varying nature of the "journey" for football players at this level.

More often than not, Franklin brings up Saquon Barkley and the generational talent's ability to come into the program and immediately demonstrate himself as so impressive to warrant a feature role from the get-go. Other players, though, need more time, and as Franklin is won't to point out, that standard is true of the vast majority of players to come through the program.

All of which is to say, that Ta'Quan Roberson wasn't an obvious challenger to Sean Clifford or Will Levis last season, or Clifford alone this season, isn't necessarily an indictment on the now redshirt sophomore.

The bottom line though is that Penn State as a program, from Franklin to offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich to the quarterbacks themselves, all better come to a better understanding of Roberson's potential before the end of this season. Tuesday, Franklin pointed out the gap between Roberson's performances for plays he's comfortable with against those he's not.

At a position that demands complete command, especially under the direction of an OC best suited to exploit opponents with a full arsenal of options, it's up to Roberson and his coaches to bridge that gap through the course of this season. Otherwise, Penn State needs to see that immediate development from true freshman Christian Veilleux or go outside the program via the transfer portal.

Given the capable, ready talent throughout the rest of the offense, Franklin and company aren't going to leave the unit's future up to the possibility that either Beau Pribula or Drew Allar are going to be immediately prepped to step into a starter's role.

Pickel: Franklin has been pretty direct throughout both camp and spring practice that there is a clear and obvious gap between Sean Clifford and both Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux. The former is ahead of the latter in the backup quarterback race, where a similar gap seems to exist.

It's certainly fair to think that the Nittany Lions should create a big enough lead against Villanova to get the backups some snaps, but I would expect that almost, if not all, of them would go to Roberson if that ends up being the case. It's simply too valuable of an opportunity to split those precious game opportunities, even if throwing Veilleux in there for a series or two would undoubtedly be helpful.

As for Drew Allar, Ryan Snyder and I discussed this during this week's recruiting podcast, but let's not forget about Beau Pribula, either, and it should also be noted that, despite how good the two Class of 2022 commitments look, they'll still be working behind Roberson and Veilleux to start once they make it to campus and would have to earn a higher spot on the depth chart.

Ultimately, it's fun fodder, but we just don't have enough information to make concrete conclusions on the matter.

Eckert: Penn State's quarterback depth heading into this season is far from ideal, that's been well established. Franklin has said directly that he would prefer not to enter a season with only three scholarship quarterbacks, and he would also prefer to have a backup with some meaningful experience. Yet, here we are.

Franklin confirmed on Tuesday that Roberson is Penn State's backup quarterback, but it does not feel like a situation where we're going to see Roberson push Clifford for the job at any point. Penn State was looking around for a player who could do that this offseason and never landed one.

If I'm Penn State, and I have a 35 point lead against Villanova at halftime, I'm giving Roberson the third quarter and Veilleux the fourth. I don't think garbage time reps against FCS opposition are particularly instructive, but it would be nice to see how each of them reacts to the moment.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect Allar and Pribula to factor into the preseason discussion at quarterback, assuming Clifford leaves and Penn State does not land an exciting transfer. They're talented and the guys ahead of them have yet to take a meaningful snap at the collegiate level. Penn State can't really afford to close down that possibility, in my view.

Bauer: Someone clearly hasn't read my July 17 version of the 3-2-1, and frankly, I'm a little hurt by that.

Come on, Geoffrey.

I'm going to let it slide this once and just say that not only do I consider a 3-0 more likely than 0-3, I went so far as to predict a 4-0 start before the Nittany Lions resume their Big Ten schedule against Indiana to open the month of October at Beaver Stadium.

Wisconsin is obviously a major harbinger of what's to come, a loss having the potential to derail the program in the same vein as what happened in Bloomington last season. But my read remains the same today as it was seven weeks ago:

Penn State's potential for offensive firepower is higher than that of Wisconsin, and the game will remain within reach regardless of whatever sea-legs hiccups might occur with Yurcich and the Lions' offense. Get through that and Ball State at Beaver Stadium isn't nearly the boogeyman it was made to be this summer, followed by an Auburn program coming north after firing its head coach over the offseason.

Getting a little mojo from the jump will be important for this program this season but, in terms of pure potential and talent, none of September's opponents are so daunting as to dictate a disastrous start to the year.

Pickel: I've said multiple times now that I see Penn State blasting Ball State and easily covering the 21-point spread in that contest, so I have to side with 3-0. Think about it: Yes, the Wisconsin trip is very daunting, but if the Lions answer the bell there, the next two games are at home, and while Ball State and Auburn both have plenty of weapons and will be no pushovers, Penn State is already favored in those games for a reason.

How could they end up 0-3? Again, I don't see it, but the obvious answer is that a loss to the Badgers sends things rolling downhill in a bad way similar to what happened after the Indiana game last season, but I have a very difficult time seeing that being the case again this fall.

Eckert: Definitely 3-0. I agree with most of what Greg said above about Ball State, and I also think Penn State will beat Auburn without too much of a problem. They are a program in transition, coming off a difficult season, and we all know what kind of impact the White Out can have.

Wisconsin is the tricky part, to me. I think the most likely outcome is 2-1. 3-0 wouldn't totally shock me. 0-3 would.

Bauer: I'm a firm believer that the modern game is stacked against defenses. So, am I confident that Penn State's defense will get the necessary stops when needed?

No. Not really.

But I also don't think many of the opponents on the Nittany Lions' schedule this season are capable of putting the defense in that do-or-die situation as to make it relevant, especially in the context of what I'm ultimately expecting from Penn State's offense.

Genuinely, outside of Ohio State, what teams are going to finish the season with a scoring offense that averages more than 30 a game? (Last season, it was just the Buckeyes and Iowa - at 31 ppg - who did so.)

I know that's not what's necessarily being asked here, because I understand the disappointment that has been attached to some key late-game letdowns defensively in big games for this Penn State program over the last four or five seasons. But I also am fairly convinced that this group's best opportunity for success this season is going to be through a sustained, unrelenting offensive attack that regularly puts games in the 30s and 40s.

Pickel: To answer the first question, I feel good about where the secondary is entering the season. I think Anthony Poindexter coming aboard to coach the safeties will only help matters. But, I also think the defensive backs sometimes were drug through the mud last year when the issues that appeared to be their fault were really more about an inconsistent pass rush than anything else. Let me be clear that the last line of defense needs to be better, but they could use some help from the guys up front, too. Of course, after Arnold Ebiketie and PJ Mustipher, John Scott Jr.'s group is a bit of a question mark; we assume that Nick Tarburton, Smith Vilbert, Jesse Luketa, Derrick Tangelo, Hakeem Beamon, and so on are ready for big game day roles, but seeing will have to be believing on that front.

As for the second question, I'd say it's a mixture of both. Brent Pry is a really good defensive coordinator but it feels at times like he's asking his guys to do too much or be too creative. There has to be some of that in the game plan, of course, but more simplicity would probably go a long way toward making things look and perform better, too.

Eckert: I expect the dynamic with Penn State's defense to be a bit of a 180 from what we are typically accustomed to when we think of the Nittany Lions. I think the secondary is great. The depth there is really, really good, and Jaquan Brisker is one of the best safeties in the country. The front seven, especially after the injury to Adisa Isaac, has some questions to answer, for me. That's not to say that I don't think it will be good enough, I just think there are some things that need to go right for the Nittany Lions in order for this group — and the defense as a whole — to be reliable.

From a schematic perspective, I think Penn State struggled a little bit to replace Micah Parsons on short notice last season. He's a player that does so much for you in all phases of the game, so I really think that's understandable. Brent Pry is good at his job. I expect his defense to look far more organized this year after they had a full offseason to adjust.

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