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<p>He&#8217;s scored a touchdown in each of the last three games. He&#8217;s even gotten to play stretches as the quarterback instead of the makeshift &#8220;Lion&#8221; position Penn State created for him.</p><p>Tommy Stevens believes he&#8217;s capable of more.</p><p>Odds are that the junior signal-caller won&#8217;t get to fully show it this season, not unless starting quarterback Trace McSorley&#8217;s knee injury gets worse. It creates a situation where the backup has to balance his confidence in his abilities with his desire to be a good teammate.</p><p>Both sides show when he&#8217;s discussing his recent cameos at quarterback in relief of McSorley &#8212; mixed results that include a pair of rushing touchdowns but also a pick-six in his first pass attempt last week at Michigan.</p><p>&#8221;I don&#8217;t want to say that it didn&#8217;t help, because obviously getting in and getting game reps are crucial to development,&#8221; Stevens said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. &#8220;I definitely would say that it helped, but I&#8217;m not saying it&#8217;s changed the way that I feel about myself as a quarterback. I&#8217;ve felt this way about myself for a long time.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;I&#8217;m not trying to sound arrogant by any stretch of the imagination. But I have a lot of confidence in myself to play the position, and I know my teammates feel the same way. It&#8217;s obviously something I&#8217;ve been preparing for a long time. I&#8217;ve just got to continue to grow and do the best of my ability.&#8221;</p><p class="p1">Stevens fully acknowledges that this is what he signed up for.</p><p class="p1">The Indianapolis native explored transfer options during the offseason, looking for a potential landing spot where he could have started this year and next as a graduate student who wouldn&#8217;t have been required to sit out a season.</p><p class="p1">In the end, he decided to stick it out at Penn State where he was comfortable, realizing it meant another year behind McSorley before getting his shot as a starter.</p><p class="p1">An injury kept him out for the first four games. He had a rocky 2018 debut against Ohio State before being left on the sideline against Michigan State.</p><p class="p1">Since then, he has remained part of the team&#8217;s Lion package, throwing a touchdown against Indiana out of it. The last two weeks he has subbed in at quarterback for an ailing McSorley as well as to try and give a suddenly sputtering offense a spark.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;It&#8217;s the position that I want to play,&#8221; Stevens said. &#8220;Like I said in the past, I&#8217;m obviously willing to do whatever is best for the team, whatever is going to be the best way to help the team. But I don&#8217;t want that to be mistaken &#8212; I want to play quarterback. I didn&#8217;t come to Penn State to be the Lion.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;At the same time, I&#8217;ll always put the team first. And whatever the team needs, I&#8217;m going to do. If the team needs me to be the Lion, I&#8217;ll be the Lion. If the team needs me to play quarterback, I&#8217;ll play quarterback. If the team needs me to play safety, I&#8217;ll play safety.&#8221;</p><p class="p1">That mentality has been noticed by teammates. Including the guys who actually do play safety.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;You go through a lot, waiting your turn, working hard,&#8221; said Garrett Taylor, who came to Penn State in the 2015 recruiting class along with Stevens. &#8220;And sometimes it&#8217;s hard because the future that you want might not be there in front of you right now. Tommy&#8217;s doing a great job embracing his role on the team right now, and I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s super worried on what&#8217;s to come yet. I think he&#8217;s still focused on what&#8217;s ahead this season.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;I think when his time does come, I think he&#8217;ll be ready and I think he&#8217;s going to do a great job.&#8221;</p><p class="p1">From the coaches&#8217; standpoint, the plan for the final three games of the regular season hasn&#8217;t changed.</p><p class="p1">McSorley will start and play as long as he&#8217;s healthy enough to run the full offense. And Stevens will still be involved in different ways.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;We&#8217;ll probably continue approaching it the way we have,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;Being able to mix him in some of the packages that we&#8217;ve used him with either two quarterbacks or have him in for a receiver or tight end or a running back.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;We&#8217;ll probably continue to approach it that way, which is a way to get him some experience, but also allow Trace to get in a rhythm and for our offense to get in a rhythm, which is important. That&#8217;s the thing we haven&#8217;t done a great job of the last couple weeks.&#8221;</p><p class="p1">Odds are that Stevens will be back out there in some capacity on Saturday against Wisconsin. But his heaviest workload will likely come after that against Rutgers and Maryland, especially after he turned in a career performance in last year&#8217;s rout of the Terrapins.</p><p class="p1">He&#8217;ll be looking to make the most of the opportunity.</p><p class="p1">&#8220;I want to get in and make plays, but at the same time I want to prove that I belong,&#8221; Stevens said. &#8220;Prove to people that I&#8217;m supposed to be here, prove that I&#8217;m supposed to be a college football player here. That&#8217;s a big part of it for me because it&#8217;s kind of hard to believe that I&#8217;ve gotten to this point. And there&#8217;s a lot of people that didn&#8217;t think I would.</p><p class="p1">&#8221;I&#8217;ve been working my entire life to get to this moment, and I know (it&#8217;s easy to look ahead to) 2019. But as far as the Wisconsin game, I&#8217;ve been working for as long as I remember to get to this spot. I remember being a little kid, wanting to play college football. To think that I&#8217;ve gotten to this point &#8212; it&#8217;s actually a reality I&#8217;m playing football here at Penn State &#8212; sometimes it&#8217;s hard to believe.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tommy Stevens&#8217; role has increased the last two weeks in part because of a knee injury to starter Trace McSorley. Stevens has a touchdown in each of the last three games. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18300782968873-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tommy Stevens&#8217; role has increased the last two weeks in part because of a knee injury to starter Trace McSorley. Stevens has a touchdown in each of the last three games. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18297858102906-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tommy Stevens said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ricky Rahne (right) was a big part of his decision to stay at Penn State rather than transfer last offseason. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18297858102906-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Tommy Stevens said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ricky Rahne (right) was a big part of his decision to stay at Penn State rather than transfer last offseason. </caption1><photoCredit1>Joe Hermitt | AP photo, The Patriot-News </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18310003623642-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tommy Stevens was the lone Penn State player to find the end zone on Saturday, breaking Michigan&#8217;s shutout bid with a late touchdown run. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18310003623642-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Tommy Stevens was the lone Penn State player to find the end zone on Saturday, breaking Michigan&#8217;s shutout bid with a late touchdown run. </caption2><photoCredit2>Paul Sancya | AP photo </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>PSU&#8217;s Stevens eager to prove himself as a QB</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Wisconsin at Penn State</p><p>Noon, Saturday, ABC</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State’s Tommy Stevens eager to prove himself as a quarterback