There wasn't anybody in Penn State's building a year ago who would have suggested that it had a good season. Penn State was undoubtedly the most disappointing team in America a year ago, and something obviously had to change.
Penn State decided to fire head coach James Franklin, and as a result, many players hit the transfer portal. Some even decided to follow him to Virginia Tech, including starting quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer after Drew Allar went down.
Leaving Penn State is definitely a tough decision for anybody involved. Grunkemeyer had a decent little showing during his time as the Nittany Lions' starting quarterback, even if it was short-lived.
When speaking to reporters about his decision to transfer to Virginia Tech and follow his former head coach in Franklin, it sounds like there was a lot of money on the table here and that was part of his reasoning for heading to the ACC.
“You lost your coach halfway through the season, and then you come out and beat a top-tier program in a bowl game. Part of my excitement was like, ‘hey, Penn State’s an awesome place.’ So I wasn’t really thinking about that (transfer decision) as much,” Grunkemeyer said, per Essentially Sports.
"A couple of days after the game, it kind of hit where it’s like, ‘hey, I got to finally make a decision.’ It definitely wasn’t easy. Luckily, I got to go home because we were on break and talk to my family about it. It was definitely a tough time.”
Franklin also spoke about what Grunkemeyer is going to do for this offense, as he's going to need to be the guy that Virginia Tech leans on heavily for the Hokies to even be competitive in an ACC that it hasn't been good in for a very long time.
“Right now, he’s the only quarterback that we have that we can really evaluate in a game. So, we need to get a chance to see those other guys live,” Franklin said about Grunkemeyer and the QB competition with Baker. “We’re not gonna do that a whole lot, but we need to do it a little bit so we get an idea of who they are, when the bullets are flying.”