By: David Andrews

Penn State true-freshman quarterback Rob Bolden is apparently looking to transfer. Bolden's father made it public to media personnel Sunday following Penn State's loss to Florida that his son is not happy with his current role at Penn State.

In Joe Paterno’s 45 years as head coach at Penn State, he had never started a true freshman as a quarterback until he started Bolden in 2010. Following the departure of Daryll Clark in 2009, Penn State sifted through one of the most heated quarterback controversies in college football in years. In the end, it was Bolden that beat out fellow freshman phenom Paul (P.J.) Jones, sophomore walk-on Matt McGloin, and sophomore Kevin Newsome, who was supposed to be the heir to the throne since the day he was recruited.

When Penn State beat LSU on New Year’s Day 2010, it would still be five months before Bolden would walk onto Penn State’s campus. He only had taken part in the allotted 20 practices and hardly knew the layout of the campus or about college life, but he beat out three talented quarterbacks to claim one of the nation’s most popular team’s quarterback position.

The 83-year-old coach obviously saw something in Bolden he had never seen in nearly half a century at Penn State.

Bolden impressed the Happy Valley crowd on September 4th in the season opener, completing 20 of 29 passes, throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns, beating Youngstown State handily, 44-14. Although the performance was against Youngstown State, critics started paying attention to the "kid" who had the most successful debut as a true freshman in Penn State’s storied history.

Unfortunately for Bolden, Penn State was the first team in BCS history that had to play three BCS bowl game winners from the year before: Alabama, who won the BCS National Championship, Iowa, who won the Orange Bowl, and Ohio State, who won the Rose Bowl. Even more unfortunately for Penn State, they had to travel to Tuscaloosa, Iowa City, and Columbus for all of three showdowns.

It seems cruel to throw a true freshman into the fire like that, especially when he has to play the defending national champions in their stadium the second game of his career. No one expected much of him, or of Penn State that night; no one except Joe Paterno. The accomplished coach had faced Alabama enough in his career to know they are a hard-hitting team that doesn’t allow many yards on defense. Paterno, however, bestowed his faith in Bolden to get the Lions through what was going to be a tough night.

Even after Bolden and the Penn State offense failed to produce a six-point drive in the game and was rolled by the Tide, Paterno stuck with the fresh-faced rookie. Bolden responded by winning the next two games against Kent State and Temple before losing an expected loss to Iowa and a disappointing loss to Illinois for Penn State’s homecoming.

Still, Paterno thought Bolden was the man for the job.

ESPN’s SportsNation ran a nationwide poll, asking which uprising star is currently shining brighter: that of Gossip Girl’s and “The Town”s Blake Lively, or that of the first ever true freshman to start at quarterback for Penn State, Robert Bolden. Much to the delight of the Penn State faithful, Bolden got more votes than the model/actress, proving that Paterno wasn’t alone in the freshman’s support. Even the nation believed his future was looking up despite losses to BCS foes.

Bolden started against Big Ten rival Minnesota, in a conference match-up that provided a chance for Penn State to turn their shaky season around. In the first half, Bolden was knocked out with a concussion and was replaced by walk-on sophomore Matt McGloin. Even when Bolden recovered, Paterno decided to give the sophomore his shot, leaving Bolden antsy on the sideline.

McGloin seemed to add a spark to the Penn State offense, beating Minnesota and Michigan, staging a comeback against Northwestern, and beating Indiana in their final six games. He too, however, lost his unscathed stature, losing two conference important match-ups to Ohio State and then to Michigan State in the Lion’s regular season finale.

In the 2011 Outback Bowl, Paterno decided to stick with McGloin to lead the Lions into battle against Florida, but McGloin’s inexperience showed, as he threw five inexcusable interceptions. One came on what ended up being Penn State’s final meaningful drive, as the Lions tried to march 70+ yards down by six with one timeout in the final 1:30 of play.

McGloin’s performance proved that the quarterback controversy of a year ago was still anything but solidified. A month earlier, Kevin Newsome, who got limited playing time only as a running option late in games the Lions already had all but won, announced to an open-mic crowd at Penn State’s student union building that it was his final performance at Penn State, as he was looking to take his talents elsewhere in hopes of landing a starting job.

With the door left wide open for the quarterback position, Bolden has already taken strides to follow in Pat Devlin’s footsteps, who lost his quarterback competition to Daryll Clark three years earlier and transferred to Delaware.

It’s hard to believe such drastic measures are being taken by Bolden and his father, since McGloin proved to be anything but consistent in Penn State’s loss to Florida. As far as experience, McGloin and Bolden are tied neck and neck. Although he was replaced after suffering a concussion, Bolden still seemed to have an edge in coming years since he is still so young and showed such potential in his first two months in college.

It doesn’t add up that Bolden’s father was reported to have said Saturday was the final straw and that Bolden was definitely going to transfer, since McGloin installed much doubt in the minds of Penn State on Saturday. Paterno even said himself that he was kicking himself a day later for not getting Bolden more playing time against Florida.

Perhaps Bolden will go on to an FBS school and then back to a BCS contender and lead his new teams to championship games back-to-back years as Cam Newton did after he left the roster spot empty behind Tim Tebow in Florida.

The Gators, however, did not have the gaping hole at quarterback that Penn State currently has and is still looking to fill.