Moon Township, Pa. – Robert Morris University head football coach Bernard Clark announced Thursday that a trio of transfers will join the Colonials for the 2018 football season. Graduate student quarterback Caleb Lewis, junior running back Terence Stephens and redshirt-sophomore Steve Petrick are all leaving FBS-level programs to become Colonials. Both Stephens (West Allegheny) and Petrick (Norwin) played scholastically in the WPIAL.
 
Lewis will enroll as a graduate student at RMU with two years of eligibility after graduating from LSU in the fall. Stephens has two years of eligibility and will be a junior while Petrick will be a redshirt-sophomore in the fall with three seasons left on his clock. All three will be available to play in the fall of 2018.
 
"What all three of them give us is competition. They're not going to come in here and get the job right away, but they're going to push the guys. That's the thing we need more than anything else," said Clark. "The more competition we can create, the more competitive we are on the field with ourselves, the more competitive we'll be on Saturdays."
 
Lewis is a 6' 4", 200-pound quarterback that comes to Robert Morris from LSU where he was a back-up for the Tigers. In his senior season at Victory Christian Academy in Lakeland, Fla., Lewis was named the Class 2A Player of the Year for the second straight season. He completed 159-of-273 passes for 2,613 yards and 32 touchdowns. Under his leadership, Victory Christian made two straight state championship game appearances, winning in 2014 as he threw for 384 yards and six touchdowns to lead Victory Christian to its first state title. Lewis played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Hilton Head Christian in 2011 and 2012, tallying over 3,500 yards and 48 touchdowns to guide the Eagles to consecutive South Carolina 2-A State Championships.
 
"Caleb Lewis is a young man that I recruited when he was coming out of high school," said Clark. "He is extremely smart, he did a good job, but I think was third team at LSU and I think that's why he decided to make a change. He graduated in three years, so he still has two years left and I think working with [offensive coordinator] Gabe (Luvara), he's going to help us out a lot."
 
Stephens, a 6' 1", 200-pound running back from West Allegheny, played at Bowling Green each of the previous two seasons, carrying a total of 26 times for 121 yards while playing in 20 games. The talented Imperial, Pa.,-native also played on the Falcons special teams, returning a total of eight kickoffs for 142 yards, an average of nearly 18 yards per return. He had 204 all-purpose yards in 2016 and 2017. Last season, he rushed four times for 24 yards at Kent State. In three seasons at West Allegheny, Stephens helped the Indians to a 33-6 record and a pair of WPIAL championships. He rushed for 1,420 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior, earning Parkway Conference offensive MVP honors in the process.
 
"Just watching Terence on tape, he adds that extra punch that we're looking for more than anything else and he adds some size in the backfield," said Clark. "Harrison (Dreher) did a good job but I also think that Terence is going to add something that we don't have."
 
Another local product, Petrick played his high school ball at Norwin before joining the Temple Owls in the fall of 2016. After redshirting in his freshman season, Petrick appeared in three games last season – against East Carolina, Tulsa and against Notre Dame. A 6' 5", 250-pound tight end, he was a three-year letterwinner at Norwin and earned all-conference honors as a senior. He caught nine balls for a 117 yards while totaling 26 tackles and two sacks on defense.
 
"Steve is definitely going to give us some size at tight end that we don't have and he'll be able to stretch the field for us as well," said Clark. "Gabe, his first year at Albany coached that tight ends and then moved to quarterbacks, so he loves working with tight ends and getting the ball to the tight end which I think is probably one of the most underused positions. When you got a 6' 5", 250-pound guy running down the field the way Steve can, I think he's going to be outstanding."