It has been a long time since Penn State football has had itself a quarterback competition. You have to go back to 2016 when Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens were battling it out, but even that ended up being a bit of formality and never rose to surface after McSorley’s first year at the helm.
Further back? Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin. Beyond that maybe a few fans still calling for Pat Devlin. [You can read about many more examples here.]
Whatever the case might be, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford has never really had to fight off the competition for the starting job. Will Levis wasn’t an actual threat, Tommy Stevens didn’t stick around long enough to find out and nobody else on the depth chart was ever going give Clifford a run for his money.
But now there are the young guns in Beau Pribula, Drew Allar and the rising sophomore in Christian Veilleux. All three might be behind the leader in the clubhouse but each with varying degrees of a puncher’s chance at unseating Clifford. Will it happen? Time will tell, but for the first time Clifford has someone(s) breathing down his neck.
Which also introduces a new dynamic to Penn State’s upcoming spring, summer and fall. For the past three seasons there hasn’t really been a legitimate option behind Clifford. No matter how good or bad he played, saying “Penn State should try X at quarterback” didn’t change the fact none of those options were really legitimate options for better play.
But now? Maybe there are. And it won’t take long for someone to say it out loud the moment Clifford throws his first bad pass.
“We’re not going to waste any time on it externally. It’s impossible,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week of quarterback talk. “People are going to talk about you. […] and obviously when you recruit well, there’s excitement, which should I think that’s positive. I also think the competition is going to bring out the best in everybody. I think that’s going to be a really important part of this.”
“But internally we want that we want that type of competition. The external stuff we can’t control. We all kind of recognize that. I think in the old days coaches could insulate the players from that, but you can’t anymore.”
Penn State’s quarterback room has certainly done a 180 over an all-hands on deck approach last season. Whatever Clifford’s shortcomings might be none of Penn State’s options behind him are going to have more experience but the rest could very well be up for grabs. And if Clifford gets hurt for the fourth-season in a row someone might be able to pick up the slack.
Of course in the eyes of Franklin all of this is for the better, even if the end result is the same.
“I think the competition, Sean embraces it. I think Veilleux embraces it,” Franklin added “[…] then we got two young kids that have done some great things throughout their careers and put themselves in a position to come to a place like Penn State and compete. So we’ll see how goes. I’ll probably have a better feel probably after practice six or seven. But obviously, based on how we recruited them the tools that they have. There’s a lot to be excited about and whether that’s, you know, in the future or whether that’s sooner that – that’s to be determined.”
