“Matt McGloin will be our starting quarterback,” O’Brien said at the 16th annual Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Tournament.
The Nittany Lions had a three-way competition for the starting quarterback job throughout spring practice and McGloin beat out Paul Jones and Rob Bolden to be the No. 1 signal caller.
O’Brien said Jones will be the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart, followed by Bolden in the third-string spot. A full depth chart is expected to be released next Tuesday.
McGloin, who will be a redshirt senior in the fall, threw for 1,571 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions in 12 games last season. O’Brien said McGloin separated himself from Jones and Bolden by being the most dependable quarterback the Lions had during spring practice.
“[McGloin was] the most consistent guy throughout the spring, has good command of the offense at this point,” O’Brien said. “He’s a tough kid, he’s a competitive kid, he has good leadership qualities. I just felt like he’s the No. 1 quarterback.”
Last season, McGloin and Bolden had an “OR” between their names on the depth chart and shared the starting spot for the first nine games of the season. But things are different under O’Brien, who named a starter exactly three months before the Lions season-opener against Ohio.
“When you go into training camp, you got to make sure that one guy is getting the bulk of the reps,” O’Brien said. “You don’t have time to give three guys equal reps, […] and in the summer time, without the coaches being around, you have to have leaders on both sides of the ball. And Matt being our quarterback, is a leader on the offensive side of the ball.”
O’Brien said Jones — who missed all of last season due to academic ineligibility and was redshirted in 2010 — improved each practice this spring on his way to earning the No. 2 spot.
As far as Bolden goes, there were rumblings a few weeks ago that he was no longer with the team and looking to transfer, but O’Brien said Bolden is still with Penn State and is currently on campus.
Bolden was Penn State’s starter for its season opener in 2010. He now finds himself in the No. 3 quarterback spot after a 2011 season in which he completed 39.3 percent of his passes and a 2012 Blue-White game that featured three interceptions from Bolden.
With McGloin as the starter, O’Brien said he still feels good about Jones and Bolden, but the duo won’t see as many snaps as McGloin when training camp starts.
“I feel like [Jones and Bolden] have decent command of the offense, they’re competitive, they both have interesting qualities, and we’ll see how they do in training camp,” O’Brien said.