How a 'battle-tested' Sean Clifford is building trust with OC Mike Yurcich

Consider Sean Clifford well familiar with the introductory proceedings by now.

The Penn State Nittany Lions football quarterback will play for his fourth offensive coordinator in five years when Penn State’s attack takes the field against Wisconsin under the command of Mike Yurcich.

Clifford has built these foundations before. And he'll have to build another brick-by-brick if the Nittany Lions are going to rebound from what was a dismal offensive season in 2020.

"It's just building trust," Clifford said. "That's the biggest thing."

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Yurcich's work ethic has helped him make a positive start toward that path with Clifford. He's always involved, always available, sending interesting Tweets, answering questions.

But what can Clifford do to help Yurcich trust him?

"Number one, probably take care of the football," Clifford said. "Just make sure that every play that I make, I have a reason for it. I'm not going to be a robot out there. I'm not going to not be aggressive, that's who I am. I'm an aggressive football player. I like to take shots. I like to make plays, but at the same time, it's having a reason for everything, it's not being stupid. It's not going off the rail with something. It's having a reason and staying in the system."

Meeting with the press at Penn State football media day on Saturday, Yurcich made two things clear right off the bat.

He believes Clifford can play the quarterback position well at Penn State, and helping him to reach that point is near the top of Yurcich's immediate job description.

"His ceiling is very high," Yurcich said. "I think he can get a lot better. That's my job, to help him along and to guide him and to give him the information that he needs, and to continue to press upon the things that he has to improve on and apply pressure where it needs to be in practice, give him difficult looks, allow him to fail, and then figure it out and then continue to build his confidence up."

The dynamic between Yurcich and Clifford will prove crucial in whether that process brings the desired — and, in reality, required — results. In some ways, the relationship between these two men could define Penn State's season.

Yurcich did not shy away from critiquing Clifford publicly once or twice during the spring when he found it necessary, and Clifford values that honesty as he enters his third season as the Nittany Lions starting quarterback. He's trying to provide the same thing.

"Just being honest with him day in and day out," Clifford said, "making sure that we're all on the same page. If you saw something in your progression that's wrong, you've got to tell him, that way we can make a correction. An honest football player is the best football player, and that's how you build trust. That way he can see what you're seeing through his eyes, and that's how we mesh together and that's how this offense is going to be."

The offense, by all accounts, will be more demanding — certainly when compared to the sheltered, run-heavy scheme that Penn State reverted to late in 2020.

Penn State head coach James Franklin said Saturday that he hopes to return to the style of offense the Nittany Lions deployed under Joe Moorhead, their offensive coordinator when they won the Big Ten title in 2016.

"We had a lot of spread concepts, and we kind of took it to a whole other level with Joe," Franklin said. "We're back to that. That's kind of who we wanted to be the entire time that we've been here. With the athletes that we have at receiver and at tight end and at running back, that was another big part of it, just getting as many guys involved, getting as many guys touches, getting as many guys in space as possible."

Clifford is confident he can brush off last season's shortcomings in order to lead an outfit with those objectives effectively.

"Being a quarterback is being up-and-down, up-and-down, up-and-down because you're relying on so many other people other than just yourself," Clifford said. "So you got to be able to learn to weigh it. I feel like I've been tested through all of this, and that's one of the best thing's that's happening.

"I'm battle-tested. I'm ready to go."

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