When we found out on Wednesday that Tommy Stevens entered the transfer portal, it came as a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t that Stevens was guaranteed to win the starting job at Penn State.

We knew that based on the non-committal comments from James Franklin following Saturday’s spring game in which he was asked point blank if Stevens was the guy.

We also knew that Stevens was banged up throughout 2018 and he didn’t make the trip to Orlando for the Citrus Bowl because of foot surgery in December.

And sure, we knew that Sean Clifford got the spring reps with the first-teamers while Stevens worked his way back to full strength.

But what we don’t know is what ultimately led to Stevens’ decision to enter the portal just 2 months removed from Franklin saying that he’d start atop the depth chart following the graduation of Trace McSorley.

Like, what really happened behind the scenes with the senior quarterback to get to this point?

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Obviously that’s not something we can expect to find out from Franklin, who typically dodges questions like that. And I’d be surprised if we got an answer about that from Stevens, who has said and done everything right throughout his career. That’s why so many Penn State fans came to appreciate him.

As everyone knows, Stevens could’ve transferred last year and gone elsewhere with a couple years of immediate eligibility left. That was if Stevens could graduate in May. But ultimately, he decided to stay in State College, be McSorley’s backup while playing the “Lion” position that was made up for him until hopefully starting as a senior in 2019.

I’m not sure if you could draw up a more likable player for a fanbase. Everyone loves the backup quarterback, but they love him even more when they’re willing to line up at receiver or run jet sweeps.

Does that mean Stevens was in line to start just because of that? Of course not. There are no guarantees. There’s no guarantee that Stevens even stays in the transfer portal (Lamonte Wade entered the portal and came back out shortly thereafter). Technically, there’s no guarantee that Stevens will have a scholarship waiting for him at Penn State if he decides to return, though I think Franklin would welcome him back with open arms.

But that “guarantee” word is important for someone in Stevens’ shoes. My guess is that someone in his spot — with 1 year of eligibility left — wanted a guarantee from Franklin. Penn State players were schedule to have post-spring individual meetings with the coaching staff this week. It’s unknown if Stevens already had his meeting before he entered the transfer portal. It’s also unknown if that meeting did occur, what was said in it (Franklin saying Clifford’s the guy, being non-committal, etc.).

What seems possible is that Stevens is seeing where he stands with Franklin. It’s possible — and totally understandable — that Stevens wants Franklin to make a decision now and not at the end of August when Stevens won’t have the option to transfer and start elsewhere.

Remember the Joe Burrow situation at Ohio State last year? Burrow lit up the spring game, but ultimately decided days later that he’d have better odds of starting elsewhere than trying to convince a non-committal Urban Meyer that he was the guy and not Dwayne Haskins. It worked out well for both Burrow and Haskins.

The timing of Stevens’ move is reminiscent of that, though there was no such thing as the transfer portal last year. That’s why in hindsight, it probably makes sense that Stevens played this card.

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There’s another theory that’s on the table. What if Stevens just decided “you know what? I’m done waiting around for this to happen. This is my fifth year here and if I can’t get a straight answer from Franklin now when I helped him out by staying last year, I’m gone. I don’t want to roll the dice on the possibility of not winning the starting job and being out of options.”

That could also be true. That would also be understandable. In a year in which it appears that multiple 1-year starters (Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins) are going to become first-round picks, it makes plenty of sense for the 6-5, 230-pound Stevens to do whatever he can to make sure he has a starting gig somewhere.

And to be fair, Franklin is in a tough spot here. The guy is replacing the most prolific quarterback in program history. In a perfect world, he gets to see Clifford and Stevens compete for the job through fall camp. Don’t forget that if Franklin outright names Stevens the starter now, there’s still the possibility that Clifford could decide he doesn’t want to wait until his fourth college season to become a starter and he leaves.

That’s the last thing Franklin wants because it would hurt depth and Penn State’s post-2019 quarterback situation. But with Stevens in the portal, it’s looking more and more like Clifford is going to be the guy and redshirt freshman Will Levis will be a turned ankle away from starting.

To avoid that situation, I’d be surprised if Franklin didn’t try to get Stevens back. If Stevens does return, the battle between him and Clifford could be a dogfight. And while it might be easy to connect some dots and assume that Stevens is the presumed starter in that scenario, keep in mind that as experienced as he is at understanding the offense, he only attempted 41 passes in his career. That’s still not a great sample size.

This whole situation is a reminder of how sticky and awkward these things can get, especially now with the transfer portal. Is there a bit of gamesmanship in this? Possibly.

What seems apparent is that Wednesday’s news didn’t help Penn State. Even if Clifford winds up being a legitimate starter and Stevens doesn’t come back to the Lions, they’ll be thin at the game’s most important position.

How will Stevens’ situation turn out? That’s anybody’s guess at this point.

As we’ve learned from the short existence of the transfer portal, anything is possible.