Penn State Football: 3 Players with most to prove this offseason

1. Sean Clifford – Quarterback

Another important offensive player entering into his third season as a starter is senior quarterback Sean Clifford. Since taking over as the starting quarterback in 2019, Clifford has experienced some up-and-down performances.

In the 12 games in 2019, Clifford passed for 2,654 yards, 23 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a 148.5 quarterback rating on a completion percentage of 59.2 percent. This past season, Clifford passed for 1,883 yards, 16 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 137.4 on a completion percentage of 60.6% in the nine games played.

The offense for the Nittany Lions stalled a bit this past season as they fluctuated in the different quarterback schemes between Clifford and dual-threat quarterback Will Levis.

With Levis announcing his transfer to the University of Kentucky to play for the Wildcats, there will likely be no quarterback competition in the 2021 offseason.

While this is a win for Clifford, he will be the Nittany Lion with the most pressure on him in the offseason and the 2021 season. This season will be his last season at Penn State as several Nittany Lions fans are already looking into the future without him as the starter.

There is not as much hype for the Nittany Lions’ offense this upcoming despite Dotson having an explosive season.

Head coach James Franklin did hire former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, former Ohio State Buckeyes passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach, and former Texas offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich for the same position. Yurcich is the fourth different offensive coordinator for Penn State in five seasons.

As the orchestrator of Penn State’s offense, Clifford must show he can be a player to lead Penn State back to Big Ten Conference title contention or he may find himself benched once again.