Tommy Stevens Enters Transfer Portal
Update, April 26: 247Sports is reporting that Mississippi State has emerged as the favorite to land Tommy Stevens as a graduate transfer.
Joe Moorhead was Stevens’ offensive coordinator at Penn State during the best two seasons of his college football career in 2016 and 2017. The quarterback scored 12 touchdowns, rushed for 388 yards, and passed for 194 yards while serving as Trace McSorley’s backup during Moorhead’s time in Happy Valley.
Stevens moving to Starkville makes a lot of sense beyond the connection to Moorhead. The Bulldogs have a hole in their lineup after the graduation of three-year starting quarterback Nick Fitzgerald.
Update 5:30 p.m. April 18: Tommy Stevens’ father told the Centre Daily Times that Stevens is “certainly leaving” Penn State.
“Honestly, I don’t think that he’ll be welcome back at this point if he wanted to come back,” Tom Stevens said. “He’s certainly leaving Penn State.”
The quarterback’s dad also confirmed his son’s departure to The Athletic. Stevens himself hasn’t posted anything on his Twitter and Instagram accounts since news broke of his entry into the transfer portal on Wednesday.
Update 4 p.m. April 17: Tommy Stevens has deleted the tweet he posted last offseason announcing his return to Penn State.
Stevens posted a video of the scene from Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort announces he isn’t leaving Stratton Oakmont. His caption for the video was simply “#WeAre.”
Original Story: Penn State football quarterback Tommy Stevens entered his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal on Wednesday, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.
Stevens also explored a transfer before the 2018 season, but he ultimately decided to stay in Happy Valley. Unlike last year, the quarterback’s transfer process will be much more public, which is one of head coach James Franklin’s major gripes with the transfer portal.
Several Nittany Lions have entered the NCAA’s transfer portal this offseason, including wide receiver Juwan Johnson and safety Lamont Wade. Johnson ultimately decided to finish his college football career at Oregon, but Wade opted to return to Penn State and compete for snaps at safety.
The portal allows players to look at other options without asking for their coaching staff’s permission. However, entering the portal isn’t a binding agreement that forces players to leave their previous school, as evidenced by Wade’s return to the Nittany Lions.
Throughout spring practice, Stevens and redshirt sophomore Sean Clifford competed to replace Trace McSorley as the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback. The graduate senior was limited throughout the practice due to a nagging lower-body injury that impacted him throughout the 2018 season, and he didn’t play in the Blue-White game.
We’ll update this post with more information as it becomes available.
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