UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (WTAJ) — Tomorrow’s Blue White Game wraps up Penn State football’s spring season. The Nittany Lions set of 15 practices allowed early enrollee freshmen to acclimated and stress the fundamentals. Penn State accomplished a lot during the spring, but the first order of business came on the eve of spring workouts when they hired Deion Barnes as their new defensive line coach.

“His ability to relate to the players and recruits is also going to be a strength of his,” said head coach James Franklin. “He has the ability to be hard and demanding on them in a way that they respect and can relate to. So I think, you know, obviously his ability to relate to the coaches, his understanding and fundamentals and techniques of the position.”

As practice began all eyes fell on Penn State’s quarterback competition as Drew Allar and Beau Pribula split the reps.

“We’ll see how it plays out,” Franklin said. “I know you want me to give you the game plan for West Virginia today.”

While Pribula’s athleticism could carve out a role in Penn State’s offense, Allar the former five star prospect is the favorite to start the season as the number one signal caller.

“Drew For some reason, Drew just always puts the ball out here, like on the side of a receiver,” said cornerback Kalen King. “Like it’s hard for the DB to make a play on it. So that’s one thing about Drew. He’s very accurate. He’s got a cannon for arm and him just I think he’ll be really good for us.”

On the other side of the ball, the defense is settling in for year two with Manny Diaz. The biggest change will be in the backfield where the departures of Joey Porter Jr. and Tig Brown leave a few glaring holes, but the change is minimal. The Nittany Lions return the core of their front seven including Abdul Carter, Chop Robinson, and Dani Dennis-Sutton who combined for 15 sacks last season.

“A defense has to be rebuilt every year. We do not pick up where we left off a year ago,” said Diaz. “And that comes back to how we run the football, how we leverage football, how we said edges our toughness and how we tackle.”

The Blue White Game kicks off at 2:00 pm on Saturday.