Veilleux impresses in earliest stages of Penn State career

Without a senior season, a full assessment of Penn State Class of 2021 quarterback Christian Veilleux proved to be a challenge.

Having worked his way through the camp and 7-on-7 circuit leading into his junior year, Veilleux jumped his rankings into the Rivals250 and landed a four-star rating. But in the absence of those experiences last summer, limited to just the Elite 11 in which he produced a mixed-bag performance, his rankings and ratings both dipped.

According to Penn State head coach James Franklin this week, Veilleux’s arrival into the Nittany Lion program has offered a crystallized picture of his talents. And having participated in the program’s winter workout sessions for the past three weeks, that picture has been one much to Franklin’s liking.

“I have a little bit different of a perspective now on some of these guys because he was an early enrollee, so I've actually been able to watch him in the weight room and work out,” Franklin told Rivals national recruiting analyst, Mike Farrell, on Wednesday. “He's a lot more athletic. I knew he was athletic, but he's probably more athletic than I realized.”

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Now standing 6-foot-4, 197 pounds, up five pounds since his arrival, Veilleux has backed up the reputation he gained with his hand-timed 4.67-second 40-yard dash, or outstanding 4.25 shuttle, at Penn State’s summer camp in 2019.

“Watching him in the weight room and some of the running stuff, he's tested really well,” Franklin added. “I think he's got a chance to be, to me, what everybody's looking for now at the quarterback position, which is a guy that can obviously make the throws but also has the ability to create and extend plays as well.”

Fully immersed in the program already, a full five months ahead of a typical summer-enrollee, Veilleux’s opportunity to develop into that player is on an accelerated timeline.

Whether or not that translates to an immediate impact with the Nittany Lions during the 2021 season remains to be seen, with Sean Clifford returning from a lackluster redshirt junior season and Ta’Quan Roberson fresh off a redshirt freshman year in which he played a mere four snaps all season. But within a program that is now carrying only three scholarship quarterbacks, new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich acknowledged this week that Veilleux’s opportunity will be bolstered by his ability to participate in both winter workouts and spring practices.

“I think for any new quarterback coming in, it's nearly impossible to play as a freshman without an experience in his first spring of an early enrollee, which Christian will have. So it gives him a chance,” Yurcich said. “It'd be very hard to be a backup or even to be able to contribute as an early guy coming in without that first spring. So for him to come in early, it gives him a really good chance to get a leg up and to learn the offense, and to be well-versed to give him a chance to compete in the fall for the position of being a backup, or being able to make sure that he's maybe one snap away and can be a really good contributor for us, or maybe being the guy. So it's critical that guys come in early nowadays. And early enrollees, it just helps the process, especially when you're in a situation like we are with only three scholarship quarterbacks.”

Able to work in the strength and conditioning program, and start to meet with Yurcich and the Nittany Lions’ other signal-callers in the quarterbacks' room, and, in a matter of a month or so, participate in his first spring practice session in the program, the dividends are such that Veilleux, his teammates, and the Penn State coaching staff will all be able to get the accurate assessment of where he stands at this early stage in his career.

And, as Franklin detailed, the early returns are much more encouraging than even he might have anticipated.

“I know when he went to the Elite 11, the first day, my phone was blowing up that he killed it. Then when he got to all the other stuff that the quarterbacks that have been training with high-level quarterback gurus, all the off-balance throws and all that kind of stuff was all new to him and he didn't do as well with those,” Franklin said. “But I think he's got a very, very bright future, and we're excited about what we've been able to see so far from him.”

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