With Trace McSorley graduating and Tommy Stevens transferring to Mississippi State, Sean Clifford seems like the obvious solution to Penn State’s quarterback situation. Nothing is set in stone though, at least not for James Franklin.

Right now, Franklin has no interest in naming a starting quarterback.

Franklin told Blue-White Illustrated that he isn’t planning on naming a starter until later this fall. He doesn’t want to make any false promises at this point in the year.

“What I don’t want to do is, I don’t want to ever make promises or make statements and then don’t live up to them,” Franklin said. “We don’t do that in recruiting. A lot of schools do that in recruiting. They promise a guy a number, they promise playing time. We just don’t do that.

“To me, we’re supposed to be using the game of football to teach kids life, and you earn things in life and you earn things in college football.”

Franklin’s decision to wait until fall camp to name a starter makes sense considering the situation Penn State is in. The Nittany Lions have a really inexperienced quarterback room and there are still plenty of unknowns about the position.

While Franklin has common sense reasons behind his thinking, that mentality did cost him a quarterback this offseason. After spending four years in Happy Valley, Stevens wanted more of a guarantee that he’d be the starter for the Nittany Lions come fall, but Franklin didn’t want to make a false promise.

It doesn’t sound like Stevens’ move really affected Franklin’s mindset on the situation.