Penn State Football: Roberson’s Baptism Under Fire Doesn’t Go Well

IOWA CITY, Iowa – It was 4:32 p.m. here — Central time; it was 5:32 back in State College – when backup quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson stepped onto the field at Kinnick Stadium for Penn State.

Number 2 – and QB2 – was about to become QB1 for the No. 4 team in the country. Ready or not.

And, he was not.

The Nittany Lions had a 17-10 lead.

What they didn’t have was the services of starting quarterback Sean Clifford, who left the game a little more than three minutes and two interceptions into the second quarter. And never returned.

By the time Roberson stepped off Duke Slater Field 132 minutes later, No. 3 Iowa (6-0) had a 23-20 victory over Penn State (5-1) in hand. (He would return later, admirably, for a post-game interview.)

It was a hellish baptism under fire for Roberson.

Roberson completed just 7 of 21 passes, for only 34 yards, with two interceptions. He also ran 10 times for 27 yards.

Perhaps the most telling stat, though, were the eight false starts by the Nittany Lion offense, which was clearly not accustomed to – actually, “befuddled by” may be more accurate — Roberson calling the signals, especially as the Kinnick Stadium crowd of 69,250 became more boisterous as the game wore on.

“We didn’t have an issue with the crowd noise until we lost Sean,” said Penn State coach James Franklin. “We use the same system for Sean that we use for Ta’Quan. We’re responsible for all of it. Obviously, it became a significant issue in the game.”

Roberson said that after summer camp, he did not practice very much with the first-team offense. And it showed.

“So, Sean gets a lot of reps with the 1’s,” Roberson said after the game. “And I get reps with the 2’s. A huge key for me is when he’s in is me getting mental reps and being mentally locked in. I know I haven’t had any experience. But I think I go against in my opinion the best defense in the country every day, and in camp, so I think that prepared me very well.”

Roberson is in his third year at Penn State. Yet, in most ways he is still a rookie since in 2019 and ’20, Will Levis was Clifford’s backup.

Then, on Feb. 5, 2021, Levis left for Kentucky. In this case, the transfer portal taketh away from James Franklin. It also took QB Micah Bowens to Oklahoma and QB Michael Johnson Jr. Franklin could not find a new backup quarterback in the portal, which is why he had only Roberson and true freshman Christian Veilleux on the sidelines at Kinnick, available for duty behind Clifford on Saturday.

Roberson played in in one game in 2019, throwing one pass and carrying the ball once.

He played in one game in 2020.

And, prior to Saturday, he appeared in three games in 2021. He had thrown 7 passes, completing 4 for 5 yards and a 23-yard TD pass to Theo Johnson against Ball State. And he ran three times for minus four yards.

None of that prepared him for what happened in Kinnick.

To his credit, Roberson came out onto the field one final time Saturday, after the game, when he did a session with a crush of media members that lasted 7 minutes and 9 seconds.

Roberson shared how QB coach/offensive coordinator Mike Yurich checked in with him when he knew Clifford was done for the day: “He asked me if I was good. And once I said yes, he said he’s not going to change anything up, so we just went from there. It was like, it’s my time. I knew what he meant.”

He thinks Yurcich has faith in him: “I think he has a lot of confidence in us as an offense and also in the quarterback room. We also have confidence in him and we trust his coaching.”

He underscored taking it one play at a time: “It’s always the next up mentality, so whatever happens on the last play we have to put it behind us.”

He appreciated the support of his teammates: “I know my teammates have my back, I have their back. We’re a family, so no matter what, they had my back.”

He wants to build on the longest performance of his college career: We just need better execution on our offense. I’ll watch the tape tomorrow. I’ll watch the tape with the coaches and take advice on what I need to do better and take it from there.”

Afterwards, his teammates did indeed have his back:

“That’s my guy,” said wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith. “I’m not going to stand up here and bash him on how he played. That’s my guy. I know he is going to be prepared. We surrounded him. No matter how he played, he’s still our teammate at the end of the day. That’s our brother, we go to war with him and we got his back 100%. He knew what he had to do. We had his back. We kept him up, like, ‘Big drive, yeah, let’s go.’ He was vocal, we were vocal with him. Nobody’s perfect. As a team we had a lot of miscues.”

Jesse Luketa, a senior and a team co-captain, had nothing but praise for Roberson.

“He’s a great, great quarterback and I’m looking forward to his progression,” said Luketa, repeating the next man up mantra as well.

“It’s tough, but playing at an institution like Penn State in a Power 5 conference, it’s what we do so it doesn’t matter how difficult  it is. We preach to our guys – the two-deep, the three-deep – to prepare like a starter because on days like today, you never know when your number is going to be called.”