One of the biggest stroylines during spring football practices at Penn Statew has been what will the program do to address the depth at the quarterback position. Head coach James Franklin has not been shy about suggesting there is room to improve the position on the depth chart as far as experience and readiness is concerned, and his post-spring press conference Friday night once again drove that point home.
“I’ve been pleased with Sean [Clifford] this spring. I’ve been pleased with Ta’Quan [Roberson] and Christian [Veilleux] as well,” Franklin said Friday night when asked about his quarterbacks. “But, between now and fall, there’s a lot that needs to get worked on. I think that’s one of the probably exciting things at the quarterback position. You can work on that.”
After losing two quarterbacks form the roster via the transfer portal this offseason (WIll Levis to Kentucky and Micah Bowens to Oklahoma), Franklin said form the start of the spring Penn State would ideally like to add to the roster after evaluating where things stand at the end of the spring. Although Franklin was hopeful one of Roberson or Veilleux would make a strong enough case to be the backup for the fall, the lack of experience still concerns the head coach of the Nittany Lions moving into the summer.
“I don’t think you’re ever comfortable at the quarterback position until those guys have gotten game reps,” Franklin said when asked about his comfort with the quarterback depth. “But, having guys that don’t have reps and haven’t played critical game reps at significant moments, you’re never completely comfortable because you never know how guys are going to react when they get in there.”
Penn State is expected to explore the potential options in the transfer portal, including players already currently sitting in the database and those who will later be added to the portal between now and the end of the summer. With spring practices wrapping up around the country, more players will be likely to enter their names in the NCAA’s transfer portal, but Franklin has said before Penn State has to find the player that feels like the right fit. According to Franklin’s previous statements, Penn State won’t add from the transfer portal just to add a player to the roster. The Nittany Lions want to be relatively selective and ensure they are bringing in a player that can be a confident backup to Sean Clifford and can fit the offensive style new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich is bringing to the program.
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