Blue White Illustrated

B L U E - W H I T E G A M E P R E V I E W fense, with eight starters departing, including the team's top five tacklers from last season: middle linebacker Jason Cabinda, free safety Marcus Allen, outside linebacker Brandon Smith, strong safety Troy Apke and outside linebacker Manny Bowen. Here's a position-by-position look at the team's progress this spring and where things stand heading into the Blue-White Game on April 21. QUARTERBACK NEWS Tommy Stevens announced in late March that he intends to remain at Penn State. The redshirt junior backup quarterback could have pursued a graduate transfer but has elected in- stead to finish his career with the Nit- tany Lions. He was injured this spring, but his unavailability allowed backups Sean Clifford and Jake Zembiec to get more reps than they would have gotten otherwise. FRANKLIN SAYS "For the first time since we've been here, we're going to have a three-deep of scholarship quar- terbacks who are available. … Obviously, Trace [McSorley] was available when we first got here [in 2014], but we would have had to burn his redshirt. So we'll have three quarterbacks who are avail- able to play without having to worry about burning redshirts, guys who we think can play and be ready and pre- pared for this level. I think that's really good." ANALYSIS This is obviously a huge re- lief to the Nittany Lions. Due to McSor- ley's effectiveness and durability, Stevens hasn't gotten a lot of opportuni- ties to play quarterback the past two seasons. He's attempted only 30 passes in his career to date, completing 16 for 194 yards. But his return is important for two reasons. First, he gives the Lions some security that the team's less-experienced quarter- backs – redshirt freshman Clifford and redshirt sopho- more Zembiec – wouldn't have provided. Clifford in particular looks to be a very promising prospect in his own right, but he's coming off a year on the scout team, while Stevens has been repping Penn State's offense for the past two seasons. The other reason this matters is be- cause Stevens has been an offensive threat at his other position – the "Lion" spot that the coaching staff created for him last fall and even inserted onto the team's official depth chart. Penn State has a lot of weapons, of course, but the Lion is a Swiss army knife – he catches passes, takes handoffs and presumably will have a chance to throw an option pass at some point. There had been some speculation that those red zone packages wouldn't be enough to keep an ambitious player like Stevens in Univer- sity Park till McSorley moves on after the 2018 season. Stevens admitted that he gave serious consideration to leaving. But even though he'll most likely only have one season as the (presumptive) starter, he's coming back. "I love the relationships I have here," he said, "and I love playing football with my best friends." As for McSorley, the Lions have no in- terest in fixing what isn't broken. They know what they have in the senior QB, and new offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne isn't about to radically overhaul an offense that has averaged 39.3 points per game over the past two seasons. So for the veteran quarterback, who has been Penn State's leading passer in its past 28 games dating back to the Tax- Slayer Bowl in January 2016, the spring has been about refining what already works. RUNNING BACK NEWS Penn State continues to recon- struct its backfield following Saquon Barkley's exit. Miles Sanders has been prepping for what figures to be a starting role this fall, and the Lions have also been working to develop their backups, as Andre Robinson's decision last fall to transfer – he had not announced plans as of this writing to enroll at another school – leaves the team with three con- tenders for playing time: Mark Allen, Johnathan Thomas and Journey Brown. FRANKLIN SAYS "I can't imagine that there is a better player for Miles to come up under than Saquon Barkley. You could make the argument that maybe he could have gone to some other schools and played as a true freshman, but I don't know if his development would have been to the point where it is now. I think being behind really good players and being able to study them and grow and be challenged by them is really im- portant." ANALYSIS Sanders has gotten slimmer and faster since last year. He was listed at 224 pounds a year ago but is down to READY TO RUN Sanders, who is in line to start at run- ning back, has low- ered his weight and improved his speed since last season. Photo by Steve Manuel

• Cover