Penn State football: Where does Sean Clifford rank in the Big Ten?

Although they are one of the better teams in the Big Ten, Penn State football doesn’t have one of the better quarterbacks… For now.

The 2019 offseason caused quite the shakeup for Penn State football. While they knew they were going to lose their long-term starter Trace McSorley to the NFL — nobody expected them to lose his eventual replacement, Tommy Stevens. Initially, Stevens was going to take over, but he couldn’t get a verbal guarantee from the Nittany Lions head coach, James Franklin.

So Stevens up and left for Mississippi State, where he knew he was going to be issued a starting spot right off the bat. Stevens departure quickly made Sean Clifford the favorite to start for Penn State’s 2019 campaign. Like Stevens, Clifford won’t automatically be issued the QB1 spot on the depth chart. First, he will have to earn it in the offseason.

It shouldn’t be difficult for the Junior quarterback to win the spot, but as we know, James Franklin won’t just give it to anybody without a battle. Therefore, Will Levis will have his fair opportunity to turn some heads, but at the end of the day, the consensus belief is that Clifford is the man for the job. If that’s the case, then where would Clifford rank as a starting quarterback in the Big Ten?

Barley Top Ten in the Big Ten?

247 Sports recently put together a quarterback power rankings for the Big Ten Conference. Before, Penn State could not only find their starting quarterback within the top three — but they could also see him within early Heisman talks. Nowadays, that’s not the case, though.

As of right now, the Big Ten has three quarterbacks that are currently Heisman relevant. Justin Fields of Ohio State, Shea Patterson of Michigan, and Adrian Martinez of Nebraska. Since they are in early odds for the trophy, it comes as no surprise that those guys are top three within the conference. So now where does first-year starter, Sean Clifford rank?

10. Sean Clifford

"“Thanks to Tommy Stevens’ departure to Mississippi State in May as a graduate transfer, Penn State’s QB1 title belongs to Clifford. He competed with Stevens in the spring and played well at times, but can’t be expected to replicate the production numbers left by multi-year starter Trace McSorley. The Nittany Lions made sure to strengthen their depth at the position this cycle after James Franklin signed a pair of four-star passers in Taquan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr., both early enrollees.”"

As of right now, Sean Clifford is listed tenth out of 14 teams. Are we surprised? Not really. At this point, Clifford’s upside is just expectations. He’s thrown for seven passes in his entire college career so far. Granted, he does have two touchdowns, one being the longest in program history at 95 yards. But less than ten passes isn’t enough to prove that Clifford deserves to be higher.

The 2019 season will be a big one for Penn State as a whole, and Clifford’s play could determine just how far they go. As Penn State turns the page to a new chapter without McSorley, Clifford has some big shoes to fill. There are high hopes for Junior gunslinger, and hopefully, he can piece everything together and turn in a stellar season for the Nittany Lions.