ALTOONA, Pa. -- James Franklin not only answered the question, which was a surprise in itself, but his answer wound up being by far the biggest and most surprising news of the opening week for Penn State.
True freshman Drew Allar will be the Nittany Lions' backup quarterback Thursday at Purdue, Franklin told reporters Monday afternoon. Allar, the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the nation last year, has earned the nod over Christian Veilleux, who was widely assumed to be QB2, at least for early in the season.
Franklin was asked who would be the backup quarterback, and knowing the significance of the news, prefaced his answer by saying, "I know everybody will start texting right away and stop listening to me."
Then he actually answered, which was a surprise because 1) Penn State doesn't release a depth chart and 2) he didn't have to answer at all, and typically doesn't confirm that sort of thing.
"Drew Allar is our backup quarterback for week one," Franklin said. "That's not a set-in-stone thing for the entire year. That'll continue to be a competition and fluid, but Drew Allar is the backup quarterback."
Franklin then continued by joking with the media, "No other questions matter. Everybody's heads down, tweeting and texting."
A couple minutes later, Franklin was asked a follow-up question about why Allar was chosen to back up starter Sean Clifford.
"When we take all of the information, coaches' opinion based on their gut and experience, data from everything that we keep track of, we felt like Drew earned that opportunity in week one," Franklin said.
"But taking everything into consideration," he added, "the coaching staff felt like this was the right decision. Obviously, there are tough conversations to have. We sat down with everybody and did it with each one of the quarterbacks, met with them one-on-one and communicated how and why.”
Allar obviously came to Penn State with enormous expectations, so on one hand, him winning the backup job in his first season maybe shouldn't be a big surprise. After all, if he's truly as good as everyone said during the recruiting process, then hey, it's feasible to think he could step in and prove it right away.
The surprise part, though, comes when you consider how well Veilleux played when he got an opportunity last season against Rutgers, when Clifford started but couldn't continue because of the flu.
Veilleux was 15-of-24 for 235 yards and three TDs in that game. He's now a redshirt freshman and in his second year in the program.
Everyone has known that there would be an ongoing competition this season for the backup QB job, and that at some point Allar stood a very strong chance of taking over the spot.
But for it to come this soon shows that:
1. Either Allar looked so good in preseason camp that he just won the job, or
2. Veilleux maybe lost the job by struggling some, or
3. Both of the above
The competition, as Franklin noted, will indeed continue throughout the season. But for now, we could be getting a look at Allar much earlier than most expected, if something happens to Clifford.
There is one other thing to consider here, and it's all part of the "keeping young players happy" theme that will have to be a big part of coaches' decisions going forward in the transfer portal era.
If the competition between Allar and Veilleux was really close, and even if Veilleux might have been slightly ahead, it makes perfect sense to go with the prized recruit who has the most upside.
Whether that happened here at all probably will remain unknown.
But make no mistake, Franklin has made a decisive move regarding Allar's career trajectory here, a decision that certainly will keep the prized freshman happy and engaged during his first season at Penn State.
