Drawing on 2020's tough lessons, Clifford finds confidence this offseason

Sean Clifford doesn’t hide from the question or its implication.

On the heels of a particularly dispiriting 2020 season, one in which the second-year starter at one point found himself benched for poor performance, the Nittany Lion quarterback acknowledged his aspirations ahead of the 2021 campaign. Determined to get better each day this offseason, pushing national championships and Big Ten titles to the background in favor of incremental personal and team development, Clifford sounds convinced of its merit.

But what of his headspace?

Given the rollercoaster of his career’s trajectory at Penn State, leading the Nittany Lions to an 11-2 season in his first at the helm before leading the program into an 0-5 hole to start the 2020 schedule, how is he feeling? And maybe more important, is the question a fair one?

“It is. I feel like it's a fair question. One hundred percent,” Clifford told Blue White Illustrated. “I feel like right now, with where I'm at, I've seen the highs. I've seen the great Trace McSorley operating at his peak. I've seen myself operating at my peak. And then I've also experienced some of the lowest times in our country's history and then just in Penn State football history in general.”

Through it all, Clifford continued, he has emerged this summer with a confident approach that has put him at ease ahead of Penn State’s much-anticipated 2021 season.

“I think that I've learned from every situation, and that's where my confidence comes from right now. Because it's not fake. It's not fake confidence, and I can truly say that. I'm not just spewing out whatever, like oh, I feel great. I feel this and that,” Clifford said. “I honestly feel confident because I know that the preparation that I'm doing, I truly feel like it's unmatched right now. And I feel like our team's preparation is unmatched.”

That preparation, the element most directly in Clifford’s control as the 2021 season approaches, is something Penn State head coach James Franklin has noted repeatedly this offseason.

Long considered one of the program’s hardest, most-dedicated workers and students of the game, Franklin recently commended Clifford for his efforts and the implications they could have on Penn State’s success this season.

“I think he's had a really good summer. He prepares like crazy. He works like crazy,” Franklin told BWI. “When I had my end-of-the-year meetings and I asked the team who are the hardest workers on the team, I asked the guys who are the best leaders on the team, his name comes up consistently. So I think he's gonna have a big year for us, and I'm very proud of him.

“I think although last year was extremely painful for him, I think there's value and growth that's going to come from that, especially when it comes to some of the toughness aspects; the emotional toughness that comes from going through a year like that, the mental toughness that comes from going through a year like that, especially when you had so many people patting you on the back the year before.”

Between the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Clifford’s numbers stand in particular contrast to one another, running in conjunction with the relative success and failure of the program.

Finishing with 188 completions on his 321 attempts as a redshirt sophomore, completing 23 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions, Clifford’s campaign last fall was a comparative disaster. Though his completion percentage improved slightly to 60.5 percent (153 of 253), Clifford’s nine interceptions and three costly fumbles helped to dig holes from which the Nittany Lions repeatedly found themselves unable to emerge.

Only upon regaining his starting job past the season’s midpoint, at Michigan in late November, did Clifford turn the corner with his performances, finishing with five touchdowns against one pick in the final four games and, more important, four wins.

Using that tempered success as a springboard into an offseason in which two of Penn State’s four scholarship quarterbacks transferred out of the program, Clifford worked to assert his leadership with new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, the entirety of the coaching staff, and within the team itself.

“We just had a discretionary week, and the leaders took full control because the coaches can't be around,” Clifford said. “We took control of the team in the past three weeks and made it where we're not going to let what happened last year happen. And that's kind of our motto right now.

“We're not going to compare it to last year. We're not going to compare it to 2019. We're going to try to be the 2021 team, and we're going to do everything that it takes to earn the right to go into Wisconsin and play them. And that's what matters.”

Having exhibited both ends of the spectrum of success and failure, Penn State is very much counting on Clifford to find the path back toward proficiency moving forward.

And with Franklin in his corner, the Nittany Lions are determined to see that come to fruition.

“I try to look at the big picture, and I know this is a profession and this is a game based on not only production but what have you done lately,” Franklin said. “You could be all-everything, as a player, as a coach, whatever it is, and if the last game or the last season wasn't up to standard, then that's how people view you. That's fair, to a degree, but I also know that two years ago we won 11 games with Sean (and won the) Cotton Bowl.

“There were a lot of people talking before the season started that not only was he maybe one of the top two quarterbacks in the Big Ten, but also one of the top quarterbacks in the country. That's still my guy. That's still my Sean.”

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