Penn State Football: Closer to 7-5 or College Football Playoff?

Road To Mediocrity #3

QBs continue to not develop

Here’s yet another example of how to take a good program and turn them into a mediocre one. Poor QB development.

I understand there’s a giant step from being a quarterback in high school to college. Which is why it’s extremely important for any football coaching staff to make sure their starting QB is getting better day by day, game by game, and year by year.

I also understand for every can’t-miss 5* QB bust there’s also a diamond in the rough 3* QB/FS who just so happens to go on to hold almost every single Penn State passing record.

And this is where I’m going to turn my attention to the quarterback development at Penn State during James Franklin’s tenure.

Christian Hackenberg had the impossible task of going from Bill O’Brien’s offense to the stone age offense of John Donovan. Oh, and he had perhaps the worst offensive line in the entire country in front of him.

It was an incredibly difficult situation for Hackenberg, but ask yourself this. Did he improve game to game and year to year at Penn State?

Next up is the aforementioned Trace McSorely. As soon as he took the field against Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl, you could tell the dude could ball.

Penn State Football fans know how the rest played out for Trace. In perhaps the best three year stretch in the past two decades, McSorely was the leader and rock which kept the Penn State machine rolling.

So here’s the question. Do you think McSorely made a marked progression as a quarterback from 2016-2018? Or was he a winner the minute he stepped into the role?

Now let’s look at Penn State Football’s current starting QB, Sean Clifford. Based on what you’ve seen from him in 2019 and 2020, did he improve? Or stay the same? Or regress?

How does everyone feel about Will Levis’ progression during the same span? And based on the level of play from both Clifford and Levis in stretches of the 2020 season how do you feel about the Penn State staff not being able to turn to any other highly rated QB recruits on the depth chart?

Based on how you answered the last question, do you have any confidence Clifford will further progress this season? Will he continue to get better day by day and game by game? Or will Penn State fans continue to get the same production from their starting signal caller?

I’m certainly not any kind of football expert, nor am I anything approaching a college football coach, but I do know this; If you want your football program to succeed, you’re going to have to develop players at the most important position in all of sports. This includes both recruiting the right guys and making them better.

But if you want a mediocre football program, then not developing your quarterbacks is a great way to start.