CBS lists Penn State Football’s quarterback room as top 10 in the country

Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS recently release his list of the best quarterback rooms in college football, and while the top two are no surprise, many Penn State Football fans may be shocked to find the Nittany Lions in the top 10 – but he may be onto something.

Prior to reading the list, it would not have even crossed my mind that Penn State would have one of the better quarterback rooms in the country, but after some thought, they very well might.

First and foremost, lets remind ourselves that the list put out by CBS is taking into account the entire quarterback room, not just the starter – though that is obviously part of the equation.

We’ll start at what is the bottom of the projected depth chart and work our way up.

How many schools in the country have a fourth string quarterback as talented and athletic as Beau Pribula? Not many.

The second and third spots on the depth chart are between Christian Veilleux and Drew Allar, and while it is still to be determined which one will be the backup, both have high ceilings and bring a lot of value to this quarterback room. There will not be much of any drop off behind Sean Clifford regardless of who wins the backup job.

Veilleux is a redshirt freshman who looked good in a small sample size last season, and showed the confidence and capabilities to be able to step in and make plays against Power 5 competition.

Then onto the former five star in Drew Allar, who certainly has the highest ceiling among all the quarterbacks in the room, and has a big arm and a bright future.

With Sean Clifford as the starting quarterback, many might laugh at the thought of Penn State Football having a top 10 quarterback room in the country, but No. 4 on the list is the Georgia Bulldogs. No disrespect to Stetson Bennett, but he isn’t exactly a feared, light the world on fire, Heisman caliber quarterback.

We’ve seen in 2019 and in the early part of 2021 that a healthy Sean Clifford is a solid Division I quarterback.

Is he a top 10 quarterback? No.

Is he a top 25 quarterback? Also, no.

Is he still an above average FBS quarterback? Yes.

Don’t believe me?

Go back and rewatch some games from other teams around the country from a year ago and watch their quarterback play. There are probably nearly 70-80 teams (out of 120+) that would love to have No. 14 under center for them.

I challenge you to truthfully find 40 quarterbacks in the FBS that you would take over Sean Clifford.

The issue is, we all watch virtually every down of Penn State games, and remember all the mistakes Clifford makes, and when Penn State isn’t playing, we typically choose to watch big games that consist of great teams with great quarterbacks, and we use that as our judge on all FBS quarterbacks, when truth be told, there are plenty of quarterbacks out there that are far worse than Sean Clifford.

It might sound silly to say “well, he’s not the worst quarterback out there” about the starter to try to justify Penn State as having one of the top 10 quarterback rooms in the country, but the point is, an above average quarterback – or really even an average quarterback – with a ton of talent and depth behind him, is hard to top in terms of finding a better quarterback room from top to bottom.

Plus, Clifford enters 2022 with 33 starts under his belt, and having that type of experience as a starting quarterback is invaluable. There is nothing that a defense can throw at him that he hasn’t seen, and he’s played in plenty of big games in front of many hostile crowds.

Believe it or not, Penn State Football may very well have one of the top 10 quarterback rooms in the country in 2022. If not, they’re not far outside of it.