Penn State Football: Why you can bet on Sean Clifford as starting QB

Penn State football faces an important 2022 season and one key to a turnaround is solving the riddle at quarterback. Can that be done with Sean Clifford? 

When it comes to the Penn State football team, there is one key question that just about everyone asks in one way or another: who is the quarterback going to be?

This question can be asked in different ways. Is there a quarterback competition? Is Sean Clifford going to start? When is five-star freshman Drew Allar going to see the field?

In terms of whether there’s a legitimate quarterback competition going on in the Penn State football program, Franklin didn’t really shy away from it but also said things coaches always say about QB competitions:

"“I think the competition is going to bring out the best in everybody. I think that’s going to be a really important part of this. But I think the competition, Sean embraces. I think Veilleux embraces. I think we all saw Veilleux get in a game last year and play at a really high level, and then we’ve got two young kids that have done some great things throughout their career and put themselves in position to come to a place like Penn State and compete.”"

However, for all that talk of Penn State football having a quarterback competition, it’s mostly being fueled by hype for incoming freshman Drew Allar, who is a five-star quarterback and is probably the Nittany Lions’ best hope of having a first-round QB for the first time since Kerry Collins back in the mid-90s.

Yet, unless Clifford really struggles, the Allar era likely won’t start until 2023.

Why Sean Clifford will start

For all the criticism that Clifford has gotten, he hasn’t been that bad. Even last season, he threw 21 touchdowns compared to eight interceptions.

Over the past three seasons, Clifford has 60 touchdown passes but he’s also thrown 24 interceptions. That’s where he needs to improve, especially if Penn State football wants to compete for Big Ten titles again.

However, it seems unlikely that Clifford would be supplanted next season. It takes time to learn the quarterback position and while I believe that Allar is talented enough to start, J.J. McCarthy probably was for Michigan last season too. He just needed more seasoning and that’s going to be the case with Allar and Penn State.

He will have some moments of glory this spring and even in the fall. But Clifford is going to be consistently better and that’s why I believe he will start next season.

That’s also why the competition is a competition, but also really isn’t because it doesn’t feel like Clifford’s starting job is really in jeopardy.

That only becomes the case if he fails to meet expectations.