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Sean Clifford tried to carry himself as Penn State’s starting quarterback during spring practice.
With his main competition for the job, Tommy Stevens, heading toward a transfer, his opportunity looks to be coming even sooner than expected.
“We’re just a tough team,” Clifford said after taking the bulk of the first-team reps during Saturday’s Blue-White Game. “We know what we have to get better at, and, we just talked about this in the locker room, we’re ready to take that next step. I think a lot of guys are excited because we know what type of talent we have. We know we’re a top-tier team.”
And the pressure looks to be on Clifford to lead it during his redshirt sophomore season.
Stevens’ name appeared in the NCAA’s online transfer portal on Wednesday, allowing him to have contact with other schools to explore his options. Although he could choose to withdraw his name at any point and ask to return to the Nittany Lions, that possibility doesn’t sound likely at this point.
Stevens himself has not made any public comments about his future. He was not available for interviews Saturday after watching the scrimmage from the sideline as he continues to recover from December foot surgery.
His father, Tom Stevens, however, told reporters Thursday that a transfer would be coming.
The reason? Lions coach James Franklin made it clear throughout the spring and again on Saturday that he wanted to see Stevens and Clifford compete into training camp.
Stevens, who is entering his fifth and final season, isn’t willing to take the chance that he could lose another camp battle, as he did to Trace McSorley in 2016.
“We don’t feel like the job was given to anybody,” Tom Stevens told The Athletic. “We couldn’t wait for that process to go on until August when this is Tommy’s last shot.”
When Stevens did compete with McSorley to replace Christian Hackenberg, Franklin and his staff didn’t make a decision on a starter until Aug. 23 — 11 days before the season-opener.
But that was also the first year of the Lions installing a completely new offense. And neither of the candidates were fifth-year seniors like Stevens is now.
Without him, the Lions’ top quarterbacks would be Clifford and redshirt freshman Will Levis. Two true freshmen in Ta’Quan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr. enrolled in January and went through spring ball.
If Stevens is looking for a guaranteed starting spot, that might be tough to find with such a short time to acclimate to a new team. Unless, of course, that new team has a familiar coach like Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State.
The former Penn State offensive coordinator is looking to replace Nick Fitzgerald as the Bulldogs quarterback and worked directly with Stevens in Happy Valley in 2016 and 2017.
Moorhead told reporters in Starkville following the Bulldogs’ spring game that he was hoping his returning signal-callers would have a better grasp of his system this year.
“If you had it on a scale, I wanted it to go from A to Z last year,” Moorhead said. “Instead, we went something like A to M. Now it’s about bridging that gap.”
Stevens could provide that familiarity along with a highly athletic 6-foot-5 frame that Penn State also used as a running back and a receiver.
Clifford is 6-foot-2 and less known for his running ability than Stevens and McSorley. But he has made it a point to work on that part of his game, picking up 31 yards on six carries on Saturday to go with 11-of-19 passing for 118 yards and a touchdown.
“Because of his competitiveness and because of how prideful he is, he went from what I think people would probably list as a pro-style quarterback to I think a guy that is a legitimate dual-threat guy that can hurt you in many ways,” Franklin said of Clifford last week. “He’s worked so hard at changing his body and getting stronger and getting more explosive.
“I’ve been pleased. He’s a guy that the game comes pretty natural to in terms of finding the open receiver. His off-the-field habits are really good.”
White-Out game set
Penn State’s home schedule will be highlighted by a visit from Michigan, and once again, the matchup with the Wolverines will serve as the Lions’ annual White-Out game.
The Oct. 19 meeting was given the designation in a release Penn State sent out Friday announcing student ticket sales. No kickoff times have been set for any of Penn State’s 12 games at this point.
Michigan’s last trip to Beaver Stadium for the White-Out was a 42-13 Penn State win in prime time during the same week in 2017.