Here’s Penn State backup quarterback Tommy Stevens running a route that sort of looks like a run block and ends with a touchdown, thrown by starting quarterback Trace McSorley:
Penn State’s backup QB is out here catching touchdowns, because why not?
Line a QB up at H-back and have him run a route? Try it!
That put PSU up 10-0 on Northwestern.
It’s not the first time Stevens has gone out for a route and not even his first TD. Entering the game, he had four catches for 27 yards on the year, including a score against Georgia State. He has three career rushing TDs, and, in 2016, lined up at WR and took a jet sweep for 13 yards. He was an All-Indiana DB in high school, too.
“I think it does a number of things,” Lions coach James Franklin said Tuesday when asked about the offense’s two-QB look.
”It allows us to get another guy involved in our game plan, it allows us to get Tommy game experience and on the field, which is always challenging at the quarterback position. It puts another weapon on the field.
“He’s a big, strong, fast guy, and they have to be concerned about him throwing the ball as well, so it makes a defense tentative when you have a quarterback like that carrying the ball.”
And a little hyperbole, from the current Heisman favorite:
“Tommy Stevens is a playmaker,” running back Saquon Barkley said after Penn State’s 52-0 win over Akron, “you could argue one of the best on our team. When you’ve got a playmaker like that, you’ve got to find a way to get him the ball.”
It all goes back to offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, one of the most creative play callers in college football:
“With JoMo and the football mind that he is, he’s going to continue to come up with new ways to be able to get Tommy on the field,” quarterback Trace McSorley said. “It’s hard to really say how much we’ve already seen because JoMo could have a whole 100 percent more plays that we haven’t even called yet.”
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