6/22/2021 football Edit

In 'Flight School' setting, Clifford demonstrates offseason improvement

Nate Bauer • Happy Valley Insider

Senior Editor

Is in his 17th year covering Penn State football and men's basketball for Blue White Illustrated.

In Atlanta for last weekend’s Quarterback Takeover “Flight School,” East-West Shrine Bowl Director of Operations Eric Galko watched Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford for the first time in a workout.

The Nittany Lions’ fifth-year senior signal-caller had some spare time to relitigate the contentious conclusion to Penn State’s overtime loss at Indiana last October. Participating in the annual summer event, one that draws some of the best college quarterbacks to work with noted QB gurus Quincy Avery and Sean McEvoy as well as dozens of aspiring middle and high school QBs, Clifford also very much caught the attention of Galko, the East-West Shrine Bowl Director of Football Operations & Player Personnel.

“He looks great. He looks like a guy who's entering his third year as a starter and his fifth year at a college program,” Galko said by phone Monday. “I think the biggest takeaway I had was just how refined he is as a passer, from a drop-back standpoint, from a balance standpoint, from a running on the move standpoint. He just looks like he understands the why of the technique and the footwork, at all times, and even in practice.

“And he's one of the few quarterbacks that I saw down there who was adapting what he was learning also to what his offense wants him to do, what his quarterback coach at Penn State wants him to do as well. It was a really impressive, ‘Hey, this kid has a real mastery or is working to have a mastery of what people want him to do, technique-wise and footwork-wise,’ and you can just see the dividends being paid of the accuracy, of the velocity, of all that stuff when he's under control the way he was playing.”

Given Clifford’s showing during the 2020 season, one in which he struggled severely with turnovers through an 0-5 start that included his eventual benching, the signs of an off-season bounce-back will come as welcome news to the Nittany Lions.

Having re-earned the confidence of head coach James Franklin through the rest of the season and into the winter and spring, Clifford’s name has often been identified as a steady and stabilizing force throughout the program this offseason. Acknowledging Clifford’s shortcomings last season, ultimately finishing with 152 completions on 251 attempts for 1,883 yards and 16 touchdowns, offset by his nine interceptions, Galko noted that the trajectory wasn’t particularly unusual for a second-year quarterback.

“What always happens that second year you're a starter, whether you're in high school, college, or the NFL, more stuff gets put on your plate, and it's not always your fault when things are going wrong," Galko said. "Sometimes you have this quicksand mentality, that when something goes wrong, then I've got to fix it, I gotta make a play better.

“So for me as an evaluator of quarterbacks especially, it's not about how poor you played last year. I think he would admit, and certainly, it's clear on film, that he struggled with some decision-making and timing and all that stuff, but I wouldn't hold that against him because of how he looked when he is, basically, more of a game manager and he's managing an offense in 2019. He certainly struggled a little bit when the offense needed to do a bit more in 2020. But that doesn't mean he can't do it. And I think putting that together and watching him this past weekend, I know he can put it all together footwork, technique-wise.”

Able to spend some time with Clifford, describing the senior as “a very impressive guy” who’d backed up what Penn State coaches and staff have said about him now for years as being an “above the shoulders type of player,” Galko added that he’s optimistic a better performance is coming in the weeks and months ahead.

“He's just in control and confident. I think he's very focused. Watching him in practice, it's pretty impressive for a college quarterback,” Galko said. “There are multiple future high draft pick quarterbacks along with him, and when he was around his peers, he was very confident, he was very supportive, he was very loose, but focused.

“He goes from being incredibly focused, adapting what Quincy Avery, one of the best quarterback coaches, is teaching him, but also adding in some wrinkles of the Penn State offense with the timing of the throws and the routes. That mastery is just really impressive, and not many guys there have it. And to be honest, there's not a lot of guys in college football that can learn something and say 'Hey, I know what I'm doing here, this is helping me, but it's also better that I can adapt to what I'm going to be seeing on game day.' So I think the fact that he's that confident, and that able to take information and be coachable and be able to learn it's just, it's really impressive.

“Again, I won't say it's entirely rare, but it's certainly unique, especially from my perspective, when I'm evaluating these players for the East-West Shrine Bowl to say ‘Hey, this guy still has room to get better,’ which he has gotten better this offseason.”

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