Q&A: Stevens confident, comfortable in advance of Lions' spring practice

In the course of a wide-ranging interview for Blue White Illustrated’s pre-spring practice magazine - printed and mailed to our print subscribers this week - Nittany Lion quarterback Tommy Stevens detailed some of the changes that have taken place since he first arrived at Penn State.

From his competition with Trace McSorley for the starting job before the 2016 season, to his growing role as a versatile weapon in the Nittany Lion offense, even while retaining the backup QB spot, to his serious contemplation of making a graduate transfer out of the program last winter, to his frustrations with an injury that prevented his full participation in the 2018 campaign, Stevens has already had an especially eventful and twisting ride.

And now, with the start of Penn State’s spring practice session on deck, Stevens is looking to finish off his five-year career with the Nittany Lions as their starting quarterback.

The 6-foot-5, 237 pound quarterback understands he will first have to earn his spot, though, in a competition with rising redshirt sophomore Sean Clifford that he’s already embracing. Said to be feeling “finally healthy” in advance of spring ball, this is what Stevens had to say about it all in his recent interview:

*Ed. note: Interview is lightly edited for clarity and length.

BWI: What’s it like to not have Trace McSorley around anymore?

TS: It's different. It's a different feel. Obviously, I got here and Trace was here, so this is the first semester that he hasn't been here. I'd be lying to you if I told you it wasn't different. But obviously it all ends eventually here. Your eligibility runs out, even if you have 32 years of eligibility like he did.

But it's a little bit different of a feel. The room feels younger, but that's easy for me to say because I'm the old guy now. Me and Sterling (Jenkins) enrolled early. We were the only ones from our class, and Sterling leaves. So now I've been here longer than some of the coaches.

It's weird sometimes when you think about it like that, being the old guy in the room now, the old guy in any of the rooms. But at the end of the day, this is kind of what I signed up for. So it's an exciting feeling at the same time as see you later, Trace, and best of luck, too.

BWI: Is there a new form of ownership for you? Do you feel in command now?

TS: I do, and that was kind of the thing. It was hard for me to kind of grasp a leadership role, at least from my perspective. Where am I crossing the line? When Trace was here, obviously it was his team, so I didn't want to step on toes or anything like that, but at the same time it was important for me to lead in any way that I could to help make my team better.

So now obviously there's no restrictions, and I guess there never really were restrictions, but at the same time I knew what my role was on a team and obviously now it's different.

BWI: You had to be cognizant of that.

TS: Yeah. I didn't want to do anything that created anything negative to negatively affect the team in any way. So it's always been about what I can do to make us better.

BWI: Do you feel like the job is yours now? What’s your approach to a competition for the starting role with Sean Clifford?

TS: I don't want to speak for Cliff, but I bet he's probably approaching it the exact same way as i am. And at the end of the day, it was how me and Trace approached it when the job was up for grabs then, too.

Both of us, I would imagine, there's no way - and I would say this if he was sitting right there - there's no way that he doesn't think that it's his job as much as I think that it's my job. But at the end of the day, like how me and Trace did it, we can't let that interfere with making the team as good as we can.

To be blunt, both of us are going to come in, compete as hard as we can and whatever happens, happens. But I'm comfortable with where I am. I’m finally healthy. And I'm excited. I'm excited for the opportunity because it's been a long time.

BWI: Without asking for injury specifics, how frustrating has this been?

TS: It's been a tough year. It was around pretty much this time last year when this all started. I never missed a game in high school when I was a starter. Up until that point, I never missed a practice. I was never hurt while I was here. So yeah, it's all pretty new to me.

I can't say it's bothering me because I do understand the fans' perspective and its your job as far as covering stuff, but it bugs me that I've got this injury prone reputation. But at the same time, I do understand it, and that's a valid reason to stay concerned. I didn't stay healthy this year.

BWI: You can’t control that.

TS: I think one it's football, so it's a dangerous game obviously, and it's life. Sometimes it's not how you picture it all happening. When I committed to Penn State, I thought I was going to come here right away and learn a bunch and play all four years and win four national championships.

BWI: Did last year change that perspective on the limited nature of opportunity?

TS: Absolutely. It goes pretty quick, and sometimes when I think about coming in with Sterling and now being the oldest guy in the room, there's times like that where I feel real old and there's other times when I feel like I just got here. There's been a lot of different things that shaped me, not even just while I've been here. There's been a lot of things that have happened in the course of my life, being 22, that have gotten me to this point. So I keep trying to adapt in small ways. Take this piece over here, take this piece, and put it together to try to continue to grow in every single way that I can.

BWI: How are you different today than you were at this time a year ago?

TS: It's hard to put it to one piece of my game. I've definitely learned a lot. If we would have had this interview at this time last year, I would have told you that I was learning patience and all those sorts of things. But I'd say even more so now, that not everything is going to happen how you picture it happening. That's life. That's how it works, but that shouldn't ever change the way you work, unless you're not working hard enough. I always kept going.

Juwan obviously struggled a little bit this year. Me and him had very similar years as far as frustration, mentally, physically. It never changed Juwan's work ethic, ever. Every day, he was out there all through the week, this time of year, every time I’m in the building he’s in here catching JUGS, watching film. Juwan worked harder than anybody. I would like to say that I outworked Juwan, but I can't. I can't say that. Even though I worked really hard, I can't say that I outworked Juwan.

So it’s tough. It's tough for us to have disappointing seasons, but it never wavered the way that I would approach it and the way that I would try to work, and the way that he did. I'm really confident he's going to go, he's going to have a great year, he's going to be very, very successful at this level and then move on to the next level and have a lot of success, I think. He's going to have a pretty big Oregon Ducks fan in the middle of Pennsylvania.

BWI: People make their own judgments one way or the other, but his approach to a similar circumstance was different from yours. What do you think when you see the transfer portal now?

TS: It would be easy for me to say, Yeah, they should have stayed. It's the selfish way of speaking. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have Juwan here and come back. But my decision to stay here doesn't necessarily make someone else's decision to leave wrong, at least from my perspective.

When I was looking around, I lived with Juwan. Juwan is probably my best friend. Juwan was very supportive of me, very supportive of what I was looking around to do, just trying to be a good friend. It was the same thing that I did, even though I was in a different situation of almost trying to recruit him to stay. I didn't want to do that. Of course I did it a little bit. I made sure that he knew what he would be coming back to, but I wasn't going to tell him that his decision to leave was wrong just because he's grown. He's a grown man and he can make decisions on his own. It wouldn't be right for me to tell him his opinion on what he thinks is best for him. That'd be wrong. So I'm always going to support him and the other guys that left.

BWI: How would you characterize your season in the games that you were able to play in last year?

TS: Every year since I've been here, since I was in high school, I always list out team goals, I always list out my goals and the things that I want to do. I want to say that I did get most of my goals my redshirt sophomore year when the whole ‘Lion’ thing kind of came out. I hit some of them. I did not hit all of my goals. That's aiming high. You're not going to get some of the things that you shoot for.

But obviously this year was a little bit different. I didn't make the goals before any of this stuff started happening, so obviously I wasn't going to reach the goals that I set that were bigger than the ones that I set the year before. But things change, with everything happening, and mentally you start thinking about things that you do want to do given the circumstances that you're in.

It was a tough year and maybe I didn't do everything that I wanted to do statistically or even just some of the things that I wanted to do as a leader or as someone in the classroom. Yeah, I did graduate and that was a big goal of mine, so I'm very proud of that. But there's always room to improve in everything.

BWI: Did you ever feel like your season hit its stride? It seemed disjointed from the start.

TS: I started to feel it come on when Trace got hurt the first time in the Iowa game. I didn't want to make it seem like I was by any means happy that Trace got hurt or unhappy to see him come back. But there was a part of me that was like OK, it's time. You've been waiting for however long. You've been put through all this different adversity. You came here to play quarterback and all these different things, people telling you you weren't going to be good enough in high school, people that were telling you you're not going to be good enough here to win the job. All this stuff.

So all those things are coming together and, 'Here it is, it's finally here.' You get a chance, you go out, and there are obviously things that I could have done better, but we scored a touchdown. We were down (14-7) at the time. We scored a touchdown, get the ball back, go down to the 2-minute drive and get a field goal so now it's (17-17), it completely changes the game and it was a huge deal.

So now it's rolling for me and the fire is going. I'm thinking that, ‘Hey, here it is. It's my team now. I'm going to do everything that I can in this position to give us the best chance to win.’ And then it's turned off. So that was tough. It really was. And they'll tell you that it was tough because I wasn't necessarily tanked, but it was tough to have it because it never turned on for me all through the time. No starts obviously. Limited quarterback action. It was finally on and I was like, I'm back. I'm finally back.

Sometimes I go back and watch high school tape just to remind myself yeah, this was it. Not that I didn't have confidence in myself at any point. I told you guys before the Wisconsin game that I have a lot of confidence in myself, but subtle reminders like that, it was finally there and then, boom, you're right back off. So yeah, that was where I started hitting the stride. I struggled in the Wisconsin game, I didn't play very well. I had some moments in the Maryland game that I was succeeding in.

And obviously the Michigan game didn't go really like any of us wanted, I'd say. The interception is always brought up and I understand. If I'm a college football fan, yeah, what the hell is he doing? But there's variables that go into everything. Yeah, I didn't throw the ball well, the ball slips out of my hand while I'm throwing it, rolling left, first throw of the game, I hadn't thrown since warm-ups. There's things like that that happen, but I don't want to add an excuse to that either. It's not something that haunts me or anything like that. Really, if you look back, I've had negative plays, but I can't think of one other than that that I've really had since I've been here. In a sense, it does bug me that people think that I can't throw the ball.

It's almost to the point of, ‘What do you really value? Whose opinions do I really value? Whose opinions really matter?’ But we're human, we have emotions, and in my perspective I'm a competitor and I want to be the best at the things that I do. So seeing things like that do bother you sometimes.

BWI: Are you better for it?

TS: Absolutely. There's always two ways to approach everything that happens to you in life, at least from my perspective. You can either learn from it and get better, or you can quit. It didn't change my work ethic, no matter what it was. I continue to come to work and I continue to show up. You can ask the guys in the locker room or anybody, I just continue to work, to do whatever I could in case I did have another opportunity or in case I have a opportunity like the Iowa game.

BWI: Where are you on the scale of excitement and anticipation for this season?

TS: I haven't felt this way since I've been here, or since the opportunity to win the starting job that first year, the 2016 season. I'm going into it thinking I was going to win the job. And ultimately I didn't and things happened, but I wouldn't change the things that have happened to me. It's shaped me into this version of myself. And I have gotten better from it this way. And who knows. I think things happen for a reason. Maybe I wasn't ready, then.

BWI: Do you ever think of what could have been? That was a close competition, and the winner went on to become one of the program’s record-holding quarterbacks and all-time greats.

TS: They really could have went either way with it. I'll say, straight up, during spring ball that year, I wasn't ready. I wasn't as far along into the playbook. I guess I wasn't picking it up as fast. But by the time camp rolled around, I was ready. So it was a battle and they decided to go with Trace, the older guy, the guy that had been in the program and had playing experience. And it makes sense, but it didn't make it any easier for me to understand. I was pretty upset then, too.

BWI: It’s a cliche, but is it apt to say you have a chip on your shoulder?

TS: A boulder. Yeah, that's right. But as long as I can remember, it's been that way. What opinions are really worth listening to? What's making you better?

BWI: Who are you listening to? Who are the people in your life that helped guide you through some of this stuff?

TS: The people in this building, the guys in that locker room, mostly. My friends and family back home. Those are the people that I've relied on my whole life or my time here, that I've relied on when the going got tough.

It's never really been about anything else. It's never been about proving people wrong. It's always been about doing what I can to make myself the best player that I can here to win the most football games and be the best person that I can be. But it's fun. It’s fun to prove people wrong. It's fun to prove that I can throw the ball. It's going to be fun to prove to people that I can throw the ball. It was fun to get to this level when people told me that you're never going to start in high school because the guy was one year older than you. I can go on for a while.

BWI: From a playing standpoint, what are the gaps that need to be bridged in your development from now until the start of the season?

TS: I think just as an offense, getting chemistry down because new faces. New quarterback, I guess complete shocker. It's a big deal. But having a new quarterback in there, having new leadership, there's a lot of different, new variables. We're going to have a new receiver coming in to compete for a spot. (Ed. note: Former Florida State five-star George Campbell will be a graduate transfer with the Nittany Lions) There's a lot of talent, there really is. And I don't want to make it a slight to the guys that were here when I first got here as a true freshman because obviously we had very talented guys then. But on paper, this is a very, very talented team. Five-star, four-star, four-star, five-star, across the board. There's a lot of talent and it's exciting.

BWI: Because of the success of the guys that were here, including yourself, the program continues to recruit higher caliber players, but they’re obviously less experienced.

TS: Here it is. I think it's exciting because we were the team that stopped the slide and tried to bring this thing back. I can't speak for other people, but it's what I came here to do. I came here to get Penn State back to where it needed to be and where it deserves to stay. So now obviously it's a lot heavier on my shoulders to keep it where it needs to stay and to do more with it. But it's what I signed up to do. It's why I came here. I was happy to do what I could in the past and I was happy to do my part, but even though the parts are starting to add up, I still have to do my part and I couldn't be more excited to do it.

BWI: So there’s some pressure with that.

TS: That does come with it, but at the same time, the feeling of that pressure doesn't necessarily outweigh the feeling of doubt. Being doubtful of wanting to do it, of me pushing it aside and not doing it. The ‘what if’ feeling. So I would much rather have this thing completely on my back. It's selfish for me to say that, but I would much rather lead and do all these things and have these guys looking to me for answers than to be the guy in the back that's doing little things.

I guess it's who I was raised to be. I was raised to try to compete and do all these things as much as I can and better myself. And in the grand scheme, I know I'm making this a lot about me, but the thing that really matters is that logo right there and Penn State football. So whatever I'm asked to do, that's not going to change, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability to give this team the best chance to win.

BWI: But, I think this is fair to say, this is your first chance to control that destiny; your own and that logo’s.

TS: I agree. And it is pressure. At the same time, as much as it is pressure, it is equally, if not more, excitement that I'm finally getting this chance. And I've never been more ready than I am right now.