Penn State has seen a number of quarterbacks transfer out of the program over the years. Forget about the rumors Christian Hackenberg may be looking for a new playing home. Instead, one of his backups is leaving the program. Michael O’Connor is the next one out the door in State College.
The former four-star recruit will seek a transfer, the Penn State football program announced Thursday.
“We thank Michael for his contributions to the program and wish him well in his future academic and athletic endeavors,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said in a released statement.
O’Connor did not play at all this season, but he will still have to sit out a full season before playing again if he ends up at another FBS program. Of course, he will eligible immediately if he moves to an FCS or lower division school. As noted by Jeff Rice of Lions 247, O’Connor was passed on the depth chart this season by Trace McSorley early in the year, although it was possible and believable Franklin was attempting to avoid using O’Connor at all costs in order to preserve a year of eligibility. Hackenberg still has at least one more year as the starter ahead of him, if not two, so keeping as many years of eligibility for O’Connor as possible made sense given the hampered structure of the roster until the scholarships get caught up.
O’Connor was an early enrollee back in January after committing to Penn State in June 2013, which preceded an unofficial and an official visit later that year. According to his profile on 247 Sports, O’Connor held a good number of offers. Big Ten programs Michigan State and Rutgers were among those with an offer. The SEC’s Mississippi State, Missouri and Vanderbilt each extended offers as well. Whether any of those programs remains an option for O’Connor is unknown.
O’Connor joins a pretty lengthy list of quarterbacks who have transferred away from Penn State, going back to Pat Devlin at the end of the 2008 season. Devlin was never able to get past Daryll Clark for the starting job. Two quarterbacks left Penn State early in the Bill O’Brien era in part due to the NCAA sanctions allowing for a free transfer by the NCAA. Here is a list of recent quarterback transfers, starting with Devlin.
- Pat Devlin (2008, Delaware)
- Kevin Newsome (2011, Temple)
- Rob Bolden (2012, LSU, then to Eastern Michigan)
- Paul Jones (2012, Robert Morris)
- Steven Bench (2013, USF)
- Tyler Ferguson (2014, Louisville)
- Austin Whipple (2014, UMass)
- Michael O’Connor (2014, TBD)
As for Penn State, this hurts the depth going into the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College slightly, although as referenced above O’Connor was already sort of buried on the depth chart this season. Hackenberg is clearly the starter for the Nittany Lions in the Pinstripe Bowl and heading to 2015. Will the loss of O’Connor lead Franklin and the staff to make a late push for a quarterback in the Class of 2015? There are no quarterbacks lined up in the current Class of 2015 right now Penn State has dual-threat quarterback Tommy Stevens lined up for 2015 and O’Connor and McSorely were the two quarterbacks brought in with the Class of 2014.
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