Game Coverage

PSU point-counter: Giger — Give Pribula chance to throw

What should Lions focus on against Kent State?

Hopefully we'll get to see

Pribula throw the ball

By Cory Giger

This is, on paper, probably the worst opponent Penn State has ever played. Seriously.

Kent State is the worst of the 134 FBS teams in the country. It also lost at home to Saint Francis, which is like the 60th best FCS team. So, a case can be made that Kent State is like the 200th best team in the country overall.

That's why Penn State is favored by 49 points, believed to be the highest spread in program history.

What can we possibly watch for in this game that can benefit the Nittany Lions?

In reality, nothing. Honestly.

You can say that getting a bunch of backups some game experience would help. But even Penn State's second and maybe even third-teamers provide more competition in practice every day than a Golden Flashes team coming off a 71-0 loss at Tennessee.

If there's one thing, though, that I'd really like to see in this exhibition scrimmage, it would be Beau Pribula playing quarterback. And I mean actually playing quarterback, not running back who takes snaps.

Can Pribula throw the ball? You know, like a quarterback needs to on occasion instead of just taking off and running all the time.

At some point this season, a situation could arise where Drew Allar gets banged up and Pribula actually has to play quarterback and throw some — maybe even a lot of — meaningful passes.

This Kent State practice game provides a great opportunity for Pribula to work on his passing against a ... ummm ... real defense.

OK, an opposing defense at least.

I say let Pribula play much of or even most of the game, after Penn State gets up big, and let him throw the ball a good bit. Now, the problem with that is if the Lions are up by 30 points, continuing to throw would look a little bad and James Franklin could be criticized for running up the score.

Like that's never happened before.

But in this situation, regardless of how terrible the opponent is, Penn State should use at least some of the game plan to give Pribula opportunities to throw maybe 8-10 passes. This game is about getting lots of backups some experience, so it's perfectly understandable to have your backup QB who's never proven to be a good passer get some experience working on that part of his game.

Do I think any of this is actually going to happen? Not really. Penn State will absolutely demolish this team, and Pribula is going to spend his time on the field taking off on a whole bunch of running plays.

In short, I expect Franklin to completely miss an opportunity to develop his backup quarterback at least a little bit. And after this game, we still won't have much idea if Pribula can actually throw the ball.

Hope I'm wrong about that.

Cory Giger is the host of "Sports Central" weekdays from 4-5 on 96.1 Hank FM.