Penn State football: Sean Clifford hasn’t won his spot yet
Penn State football quarterback Sean Clifford hasn’t been the clear winner of an intense quarterback battle quite yet.
Another Penn State football practice goes by without head coach James Franklin making the announcement we’ve all been patiently waiting to hear. Who will start under center for the Nittany Lions this season? Will it be the Sophomore Sean Clifford as we all assumed?
Or will Freshman passer Will Levis step up to the plate and give Coach Franklin no choice but to get started with him early? We don’t know for sure right now — but neither does Franklin and the rest of the offensive coaching staff, apparently.
When former Nittany Lions quarterback Trace McSorley was set to leave the program, many assumed there was an obvious replacement on board in Tommy Stevens. Since Coach Franklin wouldn’t guarantee the starting position though, Stevens packed up and left.
Now, the decision isn’t all that obvious. And Franklin and Ricky Rahne are using the summertime practice sessions to find out who’s truly ready to step up and take over the offense. Many believe that Clifford is the guy — but Levis is being gifted a fair shot, and so far it seems like he’s doing a stable job at keeping it close because he’s still in the race.
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When will a starter be announced?
On multiple occasions, James Franklin was asked who the starting quarterback would be. His obvious answer was always an unsure one. We could assume that he’s holding out the starter for competitive purposes, but that’s not exactly the case.
Before summer practices got started, both Franklin and Rahne made it clear that they would announce the starter when it is obvious. Well, 15 days into August and according to Lions247’s Tyler Donohue, there’s nothing to announce at the moment.
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As the media gathered in Happy Valley for a Wednesday night practice session, Franklin prepared for the questions regarding the QB situation — and still no answers.
Does this mean Clifford is struggling? Not precisely. However, it could mean that the battle is a lot closer than many thought it would be initially. It’s still assumed that Clifford will win the spot since he is still taking the first-team reps. But at least we know that Penn State’s Freshman passer is ready to go to war if he has to because he’s still putting up a fight.