Franklin: ‘Gap’ Between McSorley and Stevens at Penn State Quarterback

Penn State is at the true midpoint of its football off-season.

The Blue-White Game was 69 days ago. The Sept. 3 season opener against Kent State is 71 days from now.

And Penn State’s starting quarterback now is who its starting quarterback was the day of the spring game:

Trace McSorley. 

So, yes, the junior quarterback from Virginia, there is a “gap” between you and sophomore Tommy Stevens.

So said Penn State coach James Franklin on Thursday.

“So, is there a gap right now?” said Franklin. “Yeah, there is a gap. But now, with Tommy having a chance with the same opportunities over spring ball to now, I want to give him that opportunity.”

So…that doesn’t mean McSorley – who led his high school team to four consecutive Virginia state championship games – has the starting job locked up? No. Not officially, anyway.

EVEN THOUGH…

Even though McSorley is entering his third season at Penn State, his first two years having served as the backup to Christian Hackenberg. 

Even though McSorley performed McStrongly in the TaxSlayer Bowl, completing 14 of 27 passes for 142 yards, with crunch-time fourth-quarter TD passes to Geno Lewis and DaeSean Hamilton.

Even though McSorley shined in somewhat of a set-up – as Franklin acknowledged on Thursday – in the Blue-White Game in April, completing 23 of 27 passes for 281 yards, with four touchdown passes.

And even though he got the start with the first unit in that game because, chief among other reasons, he had earned it.

“I wanted to go into the spring game as if it was a Saturday and we were playing in a game, (with) who would we play and who would we start,” Franklin said. That was McSorley.

There were other, myriad reasons McSorley ran 40 plays with the first-team offense, while Stevens ran just five.

“There’s also value in getting Trace as many reps as we possibly can based on what he did in the spring, with that unit working together,” Franklin said. “No different than what we talked about with the offensive line. Last year, the last two years, we were constantly moving parts on the offensive line. It’s hard to ever build up that chemistry.

“We wanted to treat the spring game as if we were playing a real live game on Saturday, (with) who has earned the right to be the start on that Saturday. ‘Let’s get them a bunch of reps together, let’s build some confidence.’ The whole reason you go 2’s vs. 1’s and 1’s vs. 2’s, you build some confidence with the first unit.

“We accomplished that with our team, with the offense, with the defense. I felt like that was the right thing to do. Also, to get the fans excited. When you keep changing things around at quarterback you may not have the same kind of chemistry and feel. I wanted people excited: ‘See the offense, see what’s going on, build some confidence in our quarterback, build our confidence in our offense and have some success.’ I think we did that.”

All that happened. All were big wins for Franklin.

BUT…

But there were other reasons – beyond Franklin’s control — just five of Stevens’ 37 Blue-White plays came with the Blue first unit. Among them were a fourth-quarter shortened by a limited TV window; a fourth-quarter drive led by third-string QB Billy Fessler that ate up 5:49, nine plays and 51 yards and kept Stevens from a final planned go with the first team; and Stevens’ quick success in his sole run with the first team, quarterbacking them to a TD drive that covered 84 yards in just 195 seconds.

As a result, Franklin got most of what he wanted. Except for Stevens more time with the 1’s.

“I know what happened,” Franklin told a bunch of beat reporters on Thursday. “You guys saw a small glimpse of the quarterback situation. And you saw a lot of it on one day. You saw one day. What we did as coaches, and what the players did, we were able to see those two quarterbacks for 15 practices, as well as off-season workouts and everything else. And we were able to see those two quarterbacks 15 days on a level playing field. You guys did not get a chance to witness a level playing field.

“You saw the 1 offense going against the 2 defense, and the 2 offense going against the 1 defense. To sit there and try to say, ‘Based on the spring game that it’s obvious this guy is the starter and this guy is not even close,’ that’s not fair. It’s not that situation.”

It was a situation Franklin not only had to explain to the media on Thursday. He had to talk about it with a QB and his mother as well.

“So Tommy’s pissed at me, Tommy’s mom is pissed at me,” said Franklin, jokingly (I think…maybe). “The plan was for him to get two series. But the way the game played out, we weren’t able to do that.”

STILL A VACANCY

So now, between the rock of the spring game and the hard place that is the season-opener, Franklin may say that the quarterback position is still open. But there’s that “gap” thing. And it’s made bigger by the fact that Penn State is rolling out its New Joemoorhead Offense in the fall.

Nevertheless, Franklin did say on Thursday that Stevens, a 6-foot-4, 219-pounder from Indiana who redshirted as a freshman in 2015, still has a shot at being the Nittany Lions’ first starting quarterback not named Matthew or Christian since Jan. 1, 2012 – 51 games ago.

“Tommy’s a big, strong, athletic guy who does a lot of good things,” Franklin said. “He has a natural feel for the game, he has a natural feel for the position.

“And if you talk to some guys on the team and in the program, Tommy’s done some damn good things, and there’s excitement about that. What I think what happened is that everyone rushed to judgment based off the spring game and I don’t think that’s fair. So I want to give those guys a legitimate chance during camp to compete for the job. 

To which Franklin then added:

“I do think there’s a gap with Trace right now, from my last evaluation, which is basically from spring.”