Franklin has preached loyalty, and it's almost impossible for
me to believe that Stevens if healthy would not have been the
starter had he stayed. And if he proved to be as good as
Franklin has believed him to be, and that he and his father be-
lieve he can be, what's the issue? Did he lose trust in Franklin
and Ricky Rahne? Did he not think he could beat out Cli=ord?
Is ego getting in the way? There are plenty of reasons — good
ones — and appropriate times for kids to transfer. This is nei-
ther. If anything, it's clear now Stevens should have excused
himself a year ago. NEIL RUDEL ALTOONA MIRROR
Did Franklin promise Stevens anything? That's highly un-
likely, but regardless, did Stevens expect Franklin to return
the exceptional loyalty he showed by sticking around last
year? Does any of this reflect on the family atmosphere
Franklin has tried to build and maintain in Happy Valley? Or
is endless, open free agency the new reality for major-college
QBs?
MIKE GROSS LANCASTER ONLINE
To its credit, Penn State had managed to remain immune to
the reality that star quarterback recruits who develop in one
place sometimes wind up er electing not to transfer last o=season, rising senior
Tommy Stevens had been expected to inherit Trace McSorley's
starting job. That assumption remained true for most of the
spring, until Stevens unexpectedly entered the transfer portal
earlier this month. The vacant starting quarterback role in
State College is now Cli=ord's to lose, which may be a result of
how impressive the redshirt sophomore looked this spring.
The 6'2" quarterback was one of the top recruits at his posi-
tion in the class of 2017, and in limited playing time for the
Nittany Lions he's shown an ability to throw the deep ball ac-
curately.
JOAN NIESEN SI.COM
S P R I N G P R A C T I C E W R A P
W H A T T H E Y ' R E S A Y I N G
Maryland that a pretty good Penn State
team
could use as a launching pad for a
title run.
And Penn State should
be pretty good
on the defensive side of the ball. It re-
turns 15 of last year's top 20 tacklers,
and there appear to be solid players
waiting to fill the holes that have opened
up at defensive tackle and in the second-
ary due to graduation losses and early
NFL exits.
But on offense? The Lions' scoring
potential was a matter of some debate
even before Stevens left. Now that he's
gone, those questions have only be-
come more urgent. Penn State doesn't
have a lot of proven veterans at the skill
positions,
even after landing a couple of
players from the transfer portal. At
wide receiver, for example, eight of the
12 players on this year's scholarship
roster will have either freshman or
sophomore eligibility, and only one –
K.J. Hamler – has caught more than a
baker's dozen passes at the Football
Bowl Subdivision level. Could Justin
Shorter, Daniel George and/or Cam
Sullivan-Brown emerge as the sure-
handed, field-stretching threats the
Lions lacked last year? Of course they
could. Should we expect that transfor-
mation to have occurred by the time
preseason camp wraps up in late Au-
gust?
Probably not.
The Lions also have a dearth of expe-
rience in the backfield, where sopho-
mores Ricky Slade and Journey Brown
appear to be the leaders coming out of
spring practice. Slade has 45 career
carries, while Brown has eight. The
most effective running back in the
Blue-White Game was a guy who hasn't
yet amassed any carries in a game that
counts. January enrollee Noah Cain ran
hard between the tackles, caught the
ball out of the backfield and was con-
sistently effective even when he was
operating behind a backup-laden of-
