Injury-plagued Penn State quarterback Tommy Stevens, who has entered the transfer portal, will not return to the Nittany Lions next season, his father told multiple media outlets on Thursday.
“Honestly, I don’t think that he’ll be welcome back at this point if he wanted to come back,” Tom Stevens said, according to the Centre Daily Times of State College, Pa. “He’s certainly leaving Penn State.”
Tom Stevens added that his son will look for a new school to play out his final year of eligibility. Multiple reports confirmed that the quarterback entered his name into the portal on Wednesday.
Tommy Stevens was considered Penn State’s likely starter at quarterback ahead of spring practice, but he was limited during the session by injuries, which have been a problem in recent seasons when he backed up senior Trace McSorley.
Rising junior Sean Clifford took most of the snaps in Penn State’s spring game on Saturday.
After the spring game, Penn State coach James Franklin said, “We want to be able to name the starter as soon as we possibly can, but we are not ready to do that right now and it’s going to need to be more of a true competition. Tommy has done everything right for four years, there’s been a huge body of work that we’ve seen from him, and I think last year, in a lot of ways wasn’t fair for him because he was playing with an injury, a pretty significant injury.”
A foot injury caused Stevens to miss the first four games of the 2018 season. He underwent surgery after the season and wasn’t fully recovered in time for spring practice.
Stevens completed 8 of 11 passes for 110 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception last season. In parts of three seasons with the Nittany Lions, he completed 24 of 41 passes for 404 yards with four TD passes and one interceptions.
“Tommy has so much invested in this year, and we know that this is his last shot. If he’s not Penn State’s quarterback, he’s going to be somebody’s quarterback,” Tom Stevens told the Centre Daily Times in early April. “He wants to be a starter. … If it’s not Tommy, then I think Sean would do a great job, and we would wish Penn State the best of luck.”
