UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The primary goal is to win games. Obviously. But there's more to it than that when it comes to college football and decisions that must be made with who you want to win games with. And when.
Because if you don't let certain players play now, they could decide to bolt via the transfer portal, and thereby hurt your chances of winning in the future.
We'll get to specific players and scenarios in a second, but this was a good exchange the media had with offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich a couple weeks ago.
Yurcich rattled through a bunch of reasons why a young man would want to come play football at Penn State, and to stay at the school for the long haul.
"It's not just football, it's not just the Xs and Os," Yurcich said. "It's the strength and conditioning ... we know that's going to benefit if they can get in our culture and be leaders and grow as leaders and have the same messages and the same coaches coaching them year in and year out. That's going to benefit them. It's also going to benefit them from an educational standpoint, which is the most important thing. They get to graduate from Penn State. They can stay on schedule, they can learn from all of our professors here on campus and take the curriculum here at Penn State, which is tremendous, and it's a great opportunity to help them that work and further their careers after graduation."
All of that is so true. Penn State is a tremendous school, and a Penn State degree does go a long way in the real world.
But we're talking about the football world here. And about players who will have opportunities to go get a world-class education at other schools if they feel it's a better fit for their football careers.
So, this was my follow-up question to Yurcich:
"You just mentioned lots of reasons why a kid would want to stay at Penn State once they're here. How about from a football opportunity standpoint? Because the portal's out there? Is there more pressure on you or James (Franklin) or anybody else with this quarterback, this running back, this wide receiver, to give them a little more playing time? To give them more of an opportunity to make sure they're happy so that they will stay here?"
Yurcich gave the following answer, which on the surface sounds good.
"I think the most important thing is that you put the team first when it comes down to those decisions, (and) is whatever you're doing trying to help the team win football games. ... The most important question is are we helping ourselves win football games and win a Big 10 championship."
OK, but here's where the rubber meets the road on that statement from Yurcich. This was my next question:
"Right, so you're trying to win a game on this Saturday right now? But if you don't play a certain kid and he leaves, is that going to help you win football games two, three years from now? Does does that have to come into play at all with decisions?"
"It's like I said, is it helping our football team progress?" Yurcich replied. "And whatever decisions that you make, is it helping your football team to become the best football team and compete and winning -- winning on Saturday, winning down the road. All those things come into factor."
Alright, so let's put some names to this.
Say Penn State loses the opener at Purdue and falls in week three at Auburn. And what if it gets to 3-3 with a loss at Michigan in week six? Hey, nobody wants that to happen, but we have to at least consider the possibility.
At 3-3, is Sean Clifford still the starting quarterback? Even if he's playing pretty well, what would be the point of sticking with a sixth-year QB if the season goals are all pretty much shot?
Well, the reason still very much could be that Clifford would give the team the best chance to win each and every remaining game on the schedule. Because even if he's just his average self, that still may be better than what Christian Veilleux or true freshman Drew Allar can produce on any given Saturday in 2022.
So, the best chance to win RIGHT NOW still might be Clifford.
But at what cost?
There cannot be any guarantees that Allar, the No. 1 QB recruit in the country last year, will return to Penn State next season if he doesn't get much opportunity to play this year. If Clifford is playing great and the Lions are winning, then Allar would be forced to have to wait his turn and that would be that. But if the Lions have some losses and Clifford is simply ho-hum, then why not give Allar a chance to prove himself, gain experience and help the chances of keeping him from being enticed by the transfer portal?
And hey, that's if Allar is indeed the backup quarterback. There's no guarantee of that, because Veilleux certainly seems capable of winning that job. But -- and here's another thing about preparing for the future -- might Franklin be forced to make Allar the backup at some point simply to make sure the potential franchise QB feels like he's on the right track at Penn State?
If Veilleux, for instance, is the backup all year and gets to play some, what kind of message would that send to Allar? Veilleux would still have two more years of eligibility remaining, so would a prized recruit such as Allar want to stick around if that's the case? Quinn Ewers, the No. 1 QB recruit in the country two years ago, went to Ohio State but left after one year when it became clear that C.J. Stroud was the man there.
We could make the same case here with prized freshman running back Nick Singleton. One would think he'd be behind Keyvone Lee and perhaps Devyn Ford to start the season, but Singleton is still gonna want to get his opportunities this year.
It's a sad fact of life that, nowadays and going forward, the transfer portal can be a major factor in all of this and will play a big role in how coaches manage their rosters. Because if a kid isn't happy, there's simply nothing stopping him from leaving for any reason, whether the grass winds up being greener on the other side or not.
Here's what Franklin said when I asked him about the added pressure on coaches to give players more opportunities so they don't consider entering the portal.
"No, but you better be monitoring your roster," he said. "I think the old days of a freshman coming in and kind of having to pay his dues and those things are different. You better be monitoring your roster, you better be aware of your roster, you better be talking to the parents, you better be talking to the high school coaches, all those things. That's where consistency on your staff is important because those relationships are already built. But it's definitely something that you better be aware of."
You can bank on the fact that Franklin will be aware of all those factors this season. He gets it and understands how every decision could shape things in the future.
All of which will make it very, very interesting to see what decisions Franklin makes with regards to managing his roster this fall. Especially the quarterback position.
