Penn State football: Will Levis won’t settle for backup role without fighting
Many believe Penn State’s Will Levis is the backup quarterback for 2019, but he won’t just settle for the second-string position.
Times are changing for the Penn State football program in 2019. For the last four years, the Nittany Lions have been fortunate enough to have a reliable field general in Trace McSorley on offense. Early on in his college career, McSorely established himself as the perfect fit for the Lions offense, as he displayed a good arm and quick mobility.
Although McSorley only played in six games, attempting 40 passes during his freshman season, he would soon become a three-year, full-season starter in 2016 and beyond. Nowadays though, McSorley is out in Baltimore as he attempts to find his calling with the Ravens at the NFL level. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions are trying to move on without him.
Ideally, the Lions would go with McSorley’s long-term backup in Tommy Stevens as he’s been preparing to take over for a while now — but that won’t be the case. Instead, Stevens headed off to the SEC, leaving the battle for QB1 wide open for the next pair of guys.
As Stevens departed from Happy Valley, Junior quarterback Sean Clifford decided to automatically step into the leadership role that Stevens was initially set to have. Assuming since Clifford has more experience within the Lions offense, it makes sense why he’s the consensus favorite to start next season. However, head coach James Franklin preaches competition.
No matter how much the public believes Clifford is the starter for next season, the boss of the team won’t just be giving out any handouts. Therefore, Will Levis will have his equal opportunity to try and take the starting position, and you bet he’s not going down without a fight.
Will Levis looks forward to a fight
In August, the Lions will report to campus for camp. That’s when the official battle for QB1 takes place. Although both Clifford and Levis had eyes on them all spring, we’re officially entering crunch time ahead of the 2019 season. Mindset is everything in football. If a player believes they can achieve something, it is absolutely do-able. In Levis’ case, he believes there’s a good chance he can give Clifford a run for his money this summer.
"“People might not believe me, but I think it’s open to anybody,” he said. “You have no idea what the possible development from now until summer camp is. You don’t want to approach it thinking that you’re in a specific spot and that’s where you’re going to be. You want to approach it as you are going to be that guy. That’s what you’re working toward, that’s what you see yourself as. All the guys in the room have to be thinking that way.”"
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2019 will be Levis’ first season suiting up on the sidelines for the Lions, as he redshirted last year. The good news for Levis is that if he doesn’t come out of this battle on top, he could realistically have the number one spot in two seasons or less. The goal is to avoid waiting, though. If Levis can prove to the coaches he deserves to be the long-term starter for the Lions moving forward, they won’t hesitate to view him in that light. This year’s QB battle will surely be one to look forward to.