Three reasons to be optimistic about Sean Clifford

Reason #2 – Sean Clifford’s best

At his best, Sean Clifford is good enough for Penn State to win a lot of games and contend for a Big Ten title.

Let’s take a look at some of his numbers from what was statistically his best season–2019–in which he helped the Nittany Lions to an 11-2 record and a Cotton Bowl victory.

First up, his touchdown passes, where he was tied for 32nd nationally, throwing for 23 scores throughout that 2019 campaign. He could have been even higher had he not missed a large portion of the Ohio State game, as well as the entire Rutgers game.

Initially, No. 32 in the country doesn’t sound all that impressive, but when there’s over 120 starting quarterbacks in FBS, it’s well above average; which is exactly what Penn State needs Sean Clifford to be.

He doesn’t need to be something he’s not. He doesn’t need to be able to carry the team or be in the Heisman conversation, but he needs to play above average football with limited mistakes.

Even better than his passing touchdowns, he was 25th in the nation in yards per attempt at 8.3, as well as 30th in passer rating.

Interceptions is tough to compare nationally, as there are many quarterbacks–such as backups or those who just didn’t play in many games–that only threw a couple. So instead, we’ll compare him to a quarterback who was a Heisman finalist that year, is now a starting quarterback in the NFL, and is someone that many fans in certain parts of the state might be very familiar with.

Sean Clifford threw seven interceptions on 319 attempts in 2019, whereas Jalen Hurts threw eight on 340 attempts. One more interception, albeit on 21 more attempts, but all in all, they’re very similar numbers.

Let’s also take a look at Clifford’s numbers prior to leaving with an injury at Iowa in 2021, in which he was clearly not the same quarterback after. Up until that point, he was completing 66.5% of his passes for an average of 8.3 yards per attempt, as well as 11 touchdowns.

None of those are eye popping by any stretch of the imagination, but they are all above average and enough for the Nittany Lions to win a lot of games.

All of this is proof that Penn State can be a top 10-15 team and contend for a conference championship with a healthy Sean Clifford playing his best ball, which is another reason to be optimistic about the Nittany Lions’ sixth-year quarterback.