Sean Clifford added to a pair of preseason watch lists

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford has been added to preseason watch lists for a pair of national awards.

The first award that the Nittany Lions’ sixth-year signal caller has been named to the watch list for is the Maxwell Award.

The Maxwell Award is not a position-specific award, rather an award given to who is deemed as the best player in the country for that particular season. The preseason watch list is quite an extensive list.

Some favorites for this award might include Alabama’s Will Anderson and Bryce Young (last year’s winner); Ohio State’s CJ Stroud, Jaxson Smith-Njigba, and TreVeyon Henderson; Texas’ Bijan Robinson; USC’s Caleb Williams and Jordan Addison; and NC State’s Devin Leary.

The second watch list that Sean Clifford has been added to is the Davey O’Brien Award, which is given to the nation’s most outstanding quarterback.

Along with the quarterbacks mentioned above for the Maxwell Award, some other potential favorites for the Davey O’Brien Award include former Nittany Lion and current Kentucky Wildcat, Will Levis, as well as the highly touted Texas Longhorn quarterback, Quinn Ewers.

It’s unlikely that Clifford wins either of these awards, even if he has the best year of his career, just solely because of all the talented players he is up against.

However, if he could get himself to even be selected as a semifinalist for one or both of these awards, that would mean that he put together an excellent 2022 campaign, which would be great news as it would mean a lot of wins for Penn State.

Some watchlists for some other awards should be announced in the coming weeks.

Expect Parker Washington and Mitchell Tinsley to be on the Biletnikoff watchlist for the nation’s top wideout, Curtis Jacobs on the Butkus watchlist for the best linebacker, and Joey Porter Jr. and Ji’Ayir Brown on the Jim Thorpe Award watchlist for college football’s top defensive back.