30 random thoughts on Beau Pribula, who owns the Wisconsin Badgers

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Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images

1. It's written in the stars that Penn State simply won't have a normal game again this season.
2. Imagine a world in which Penn State goes up 10-0 in the first quarter, leads 20-7 at halftime, and then wins 37-10. Couldn't be us.
3. I really thought Drew Allar got it done in the first quarter. He surveyed the field very well and got along well. Actually he should have started 10 against 10 if Julian Fleming hadn't dropped out.
4. There is nothing in the world that drives me up the wall more than Penn State's defense giving up 3rd-and-longs for first downs. Nothing!
5. Oddly enough, I don't blame Jalen Kimber much for running past the player. I mean, that's definitely annoying, but the block was lifted so quickly that it's almost impossible to override what you're taught in this split instance (don't contact the customer).
6. Dom DeLuca caught this punter though.
7. Speaking of drops, this may have been the easiest drop I can remember at a Penn State game. I don't say this lightly: *I* could have caught that ball.
8. I still believe we can get a Julian Fleming touchdown against Ohio State this week. The universe must deliver.
9. Despite all the talk on the show about Nick Singleton not looking the same as he did at the start of the season, I thought he looked good. Maybe there's some top gear he doesn't have, but he also doesn't look like someone who wouldn't be able to go more than 100 yards.
10. I'd like to see more of Nick Singleton reaching out wide. Can we get a game like Saquon Barkley vs. Michigan 2017 with Singleton playing one-on-one with a linebacker?
11. Some IDIOT yelled at Drew as he walked to the locker room and Drew let him know what was good. I want Drew to know: I have your back. I'm ready to fight for you. Just let me know when and where, brother.
12. “We need the defense to score a touchdown if we want to win this game” is not a new thought to Penn State fans over the years. I remember sitting in the Horseshoe last season and having the exact same thought.
13. Maybe the offense would have been fine even if Jaylen Reed hadn't scored there, but man, what a moment when Braedyn Locke threw right at Reed at the exact moment it felt like Penn State needed that play.
14. If Reed got a taunting penalty after his pick six for seemingly passing the ball to his family, then that seems like a good rule to change, right?
15. I understand that you don't want the guys to shoot the ball into the stands after every touchdown, but perhaps some common sense can be exercised when a player has a huge play and wants to honor his family in a more quiet way?
16. Not surprisingly, it was great that Gabe Nwosu had a strong push after the penalty to keep the momentum going on the Penn State side. Big difference between starting at 35 and starting at 50.
17. Alonzo Ford is damn good. At 6 feet tall and weighing 300 pounds, he's a big body who can move well, and he's starting to put it all together. Really nice game with 2 TFLs. I look forward to his continued play and that he will certainly play a starting role next season.
18. Okay, time to chat with Beau Pribula. I mean, what a guy!
19. I'll start with something negative and then I promise we'll get positive, but let me say this: Some of these narrow windows are dangerous. Sure, Pribula deserves credit for his timing and accuracy. But foooooolllllkkkksss, against the wrong defense these could go the other way.
20. It's so obvious how natural a shooter Pribula is when he's on the run. You saw Andy Kotelnicki do that on a couple of third downs where he had Pribula immediately roll out and find a receiver making an out.
21. Kotelnicki's trust in Pribula was evident on the third goal, which ended in a touchdown by Khalil Dinkins. This is a slow-developing play when Singleton isn't open in the flat. Then you have to wait for Dinkins to completely defect or for Warren to jump out of the fight. There's a big lead there, Penn State only has a lead by one, but Pribula didn't panic and showed impressive patience.
22. I said this on Twitter, but I'll say it here: In the era of NIL, where many players simply go to the highest bidder and have no emotional connection to the school, you have to watch a kid like Pribula choose his dream school committed damn stones.
23. Should we waste some time and energy wondering when Drew Allar will come back? Sure, why not.
24. Conventional wisdom from Twitter documents and James Franklin alluding to Allar may make it seem as though Allar has a Grade 1 MCL sprain at practice this week. That's good news for Penn State because it *should* mean this is a short-term injury. We're talking a few days to maybe a few weeks, but certainly nothing that should end Allar's season.
25. Having said that, I'm preparing for the fact that there will be no Allar on Saturday. It just feels (keyword here, for the record) like too quick a turnaround if it was bad enough that he couldn't play through it on Saturday night.
26. By the way, I saw some morons on Twitter (who didn't link to them because they don't deserve the impressions) questioning Drew for not going back in. He literally cried on the sidelines as he told James Franklin and the rest of the team that he couldn't play.
27. This was clearly not a scenario of a kid looking for a way out, and one might assume that he would have been given the benefit of the doubt by Penn State fans at this point.
28. There must be a wrinkle in Vega Ioane's movement plays where he simply runs into the flat to make a pass. Please, Kotelnicki, make this possible for me.
29. Quiet Night by Abdul Carter. We're going to need some big plays this Saturday, like driving Penn State superfan Will Howard to the core of the earth.
30. I've been saying for literally years that Amin Vanover would be a starting defensive player at about 75% of other schools. With Dani Dennis-Sutton now likely out with what appears to be a torn groin, I can see how right (or wrong) I am about Vanover.