Penn State football coach James Franklin put a tentative timetable on the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback decision in an interview with the Big Ten Network aired Monday.
The coach said he would ideally like to decide between redshirt sophomore Trace McSorley and redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens “by this point next week.”
The segment was taped this past Saturday.
“This isn’t one of those deals where we know what we’re doing as coaches, and we’re not letting the rest of the world know. It’s a true competition still going on,” Franklin said. “You’d love to kind of have a guy solidified and start moving forward. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right guy. And if that takes a week-and-a-half, that takes two weeks, whatever it takes, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Franklin added this quarterback battle is an ideal situation in that the team is starting a new quarterback with “veteran receivers, with talent in the backfield, with talent at tight end and a developing offensive line.” He reiterated how Stevens has closed the gap a bit on McSorley, the backup last season, since spring.
Megan Ryan: mryan@post-gazette.com
First Published: August 15, 2016, 10:47 p.m.