Column: Competitive Consistency Key to Development

Penn State will have a quarterback competition on its hands when preseason camp rolls around in August. Really though, it's had one for quite some time now.

In camp, redshirt sophomore Sean Clifford will share reps with redshirt freshman Will Levis and a third, to-be-named true freshman, either Michael Johnson Jr. or Ta’Quan Roberson.

Given the absence of one of the program’s all-time greats in Trace McSorley, and especially given the departure of fifth-year senior Tommy Stevens to Mississippi State via the NCAA Transfer Portal, that James Franklin is going into it with an open mind adds up. But, as the head coach again stressed this week, that open mind and competition is his default setting going into every preseason camp regardless of the status of those vying for the opportunity.

Asked by a reporter how the conversations went following Stevens’ decision to transfer, both with Clifford as well as Levis, Franklin again demonstrated what he’s ingrained throughout his program during his tenure with the Nittany Lions.

“The conversation doesn't change a whole lot,” said Franklin. “I think that's what we believe in. The same things I say to you guys (are) the same things I say to the team. This is going to be a competition and it's going to be earned.

“Football is, to me, a direct reflection of life and of everything else. You're going to have to compete and you're going to have to earn it. I think with Sean it wasn't necessarily a shock because that's the same message he heard during the recruiting process. That's the same message he's heard since he got here. And it's the same message I think that you guys have heard I think almost to the point where it drives you guys crazy. But again, I think that consistency is important, and I believe it.”

In fact, having established that consistency long ago, it becomes especially relevant in situations such as these.

The presumption of a starting job was never part of the equation for Stevens and, quite likely, had something to do with his decision to finish out his collegiate career elsewhere. But even then, Stevens acknowledged before the start of spring practice that he understood the competition would be open and that Clifford believed himself just as worthy of the starting nod as anyone else.

“I don't want to speak for Cliff, but I bet he's probably approaching it the exact same way as I am. And at the end of the day, it was how me and Trace approached it when the job was up for grabs then, too,” Stevens told BWI in March. “I would say this if he was sitting right there - there's no way that he doesn't think that it's his job as much as I think that it's my job. But at the end of the day, like how me and Trace did it, we can't let that interfere with making the team as good as we can. To be blunt, both of us are going to come in, compete as hard as we can and whatever happens, happens.”

Taking that trajectory into his own hands, Stevens might have shifted the players involved for the quarterback competition at Penn State, but Franklin’s comments this week again revealed that it didn’t at all alter the shape of the conversation itself.

Which isn’t to say that the competitors themselves don’t have individual advantages and disadvantages as preseason ball arrives in just over a month, Franklin noted.

“I think if everything is even, you're going to typically go with the older, more experienced player. You know what you're going to get a little bit more. If it's not even, then it solves itself. You go with the more productive guy. So that's kind of where we are again,” said Franklin. “Sean's in a situation where now he's the more experienced guy, but he's still going to have to compete and battle and make it obvious to everybody, and then the decision will be made. I think the decision would have probably been made a little bit earlier, but now that we're in this situation, we probably will let it go a little bit further.”

As such, Penn State fans and the teammates surrounding the program’s currently composed quarterback room should settle in and get comfortable. Dedicated to the idea that constant competition breeds success and development in a variety of areas, not just on the field but off of it as well, it’s one that Franklin very much intends to see through to its conclusion.

“Obviously, when a guy leaves and there's one less guy that's part of the equation, it magnifies it. There's no doubt, it magnifies his opportunity, it creates more reps and all of those types of things,” said Franklin. “But I actually think that Levis, that Sean, and that Tommy were all going into it feeling like they were going to have to compete and that they were competing for the starting job. I would hope that they're approaching it that way.”

Regardless of the competitors now challenging each other for the opportunity, Franklin has ensured that they’ll do exactly that.