Penn State football: We should “expect big things” from Sean Clifford
Penn State football should be expecting big things from Sean Clifford in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Penn State football program has been grinding it out in offseason practices in Happy Valley. While there are many areas to focus on for the Nittany Lions, all eyes from the offensive coaching staff are on the dueling quarterbacks.
Sophomore quarterback Sean Clifford might be the consensus QB1 to the public, but Freshman passer Will Levis isn’t going down without a fight. Penn State head coach James Franklin preached competition all summer long, and it sounds like both QBs were up for the challenge.
We’ve been told that the Nittany Lions starting quarterback will be named when the decision is obvious — 90-percent obvious, to be exact according to offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne. And for those who are wondering, no, the Lions are not going to prolong the process.
When they know, they will make it known for everybody else. The answer isn’t out there quite yet, but it is believed that the former four-star prospect Sean Clifford will win his spot. Therefore, Clifford is already showing up on NCAA quarterback rankings, and to our surprise, he’s been showing up relatively high on some lists as of late.
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Clifford has a fan in PFF
Pro Football Focus recently ranked 130 NCAA starting quarterbacks. Obviously, PFF is under the assumption that Clifford won’t get beat out by the Freshman. Not only do they believe Clifford will win, but they also see him almost as a Top-30 QB in college football, despite having little-to-no experience as a starter under his belt.
Ranked at 31, Pro Football Focus believes Clifford is “the most unknown among the Top-50 quarterbacks.” We can’t argue that considering he’s thrown seven total passes in his collegiate career thus far. However, just because he’s inexperienced, doesn’t mean he lacks the tools to be successful within the Big Ten and the NCAA as a whole.
“He can float the ball with perfect touch just as he can punch the ball into tight windows and with a much larger sample size incoming this season,” PFF’s Cam Mellor explains. “Expect big things from Clifford and his pass-catchers.” Despite being an unknown, Clifford’s track record speaks for itself. There’s a reason why he was a top-ten pro-style quarterback in 2017.
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The only question now would be — can Clifford run the Lions offense similar to how Trace McSorley did? While McSorley had a nice arm himself, his speed and rushing instincts made him a game-changing threat on the offense. Coach Franklin has praised Clifford for working on his mobility, but we have yet to see it in a game scenario. If Clifford can put that together, the rest of the Big Ten will surely be put on notice in 2019 and beyond.
