Sean Clifford doesn’t want the football.
At least not for any extended period of time.
Which is kind of odd to hear from a Penn State quarterback, considering how QB-centric Penn State’s RPO offense was the past three years.
With Trace McSorley as the triggerman from 2016-18, the Nittany Lions’ offense ran off 2,740 plays.
And McSorley either ran or passed the ball 60% of the time — 1,175 passes (43%) and 460 runs (17%).
All roads ran — and passed — through Trace.
Not so with Cliff.
Clifford, the presumptive starter at quarterback given the departure of Tommy Stevens, says the football — Penn State’s official pigskin is a Nike Vapor One — is a hot potato that he’d rather dish off.
“I’m not trying to keep the ball,” Clifford said near the close of spring drills. “I’m trying to get it to our play-makers — guys like K.J. Hamler, Justin Shorter, all those types of guys. They’re much better with the ball than I am. So, I’d rather get it out of my hands as fast possible.”
With Hamler around, that makes sense. Although the speedy wideout and return man averaged just six touches per game in 2018, he vaporized defenses for 17.9 yards every time he had the ball. That almost doubles the yards Purdue phenom Rondale Moore averaged per touch (8.99), and surpassed the per-touch averages of Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers (12.4 yards) and Notre Dame’s Tim Brown (14.2) had in their Heisman seasons.
Clifford sees himself as a passer, not a runner. And despite his image as a fighter with a much-hyped competitive nature, Clifford actually sees himself as a lover.
“I definitely love passing the ball,” said Clifford, a redshirt sophomore in the fall. “That’s why I play quarterback. That’s really why I play this position.”
To be precise, Clifford thinks his ability to be a pinpoint passer is his best attribute. “I pride myself on my accuracy,” Clifford said. “I don’t like talking about what I can do, I’d rather show you…by putting the ball where it needs to be.”
Not that Clifford, at 6-foot-2 and 218 pounds (33 more than when he entered Penn State), can’t run the ‘ole Vapor. He can.
SEAN AS A SAINT
In his senior year at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Clifford threw 216 times for 1,426 yards and nine touchdowns, and he ran 152 times for 517 yards (3.4 yards per carry) and 12 TDs. That’s a 4-to-3 ratio. He holds the St. Xavier career records for rushing yards (1,110) and rushing TDs (20) by a touchdown for a quarterback.
Of course, he hasn’t shown that prowess to any great degree at Penn State. In the recent Blue-White Game, when the QB was tagged instead of tackled and essentially off-limits, Clifford carried six times for 31 yards. In four regular-season games in 2018, he excelled as a passer — completing 5 of 7 for 195 yards, including TD tosses of 34 and 95 yards. He was credited with five rushes for minus three yards.
QB coach and offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne said Clifford has made great strides running the ball.
“Coach (Dwight) Galt is a great trainer and Sean works really, really hard. That’s the thing he does best,” Rahne said in the minutes after the Blue-White Game. “His competitive spirit is going to allow him to keep working himself into a great athlete. Quite frankly, he is more of a natural athlete than people give him credit for. He’s always had naturally gifted skills. He’s getting better every day and we’re really pleased with the progress he made in that area.”
Clifford, too, thinks he has improved as a runner.
“I definitely feel faster, coming out of the pocket and running in the run game,” Clifford said a few days prior to the spring scrimmage. “Personally, I’ve taken it upon myself” to get better as a rusher. “That was one of the biggest criticisms coming in, that I can’t move as well as the other guys.
“I need to keep working on it, working on my pocket movement, working on the out-of-pocket running game, so that if the pocket breaks down, I can make that play… I’m definitely trying to add another dynamic of the game for me, so I can press defenses in different ways.”
NO CLIFF-HANGER
Still, it’s no secret that Clifford is not the runner McSorley was. Or Stevens, for that matter.
As a result, you have to think the Penn State offense — which averaged just 24 points per game over its final 5-4 stretch in 2018 — will look fairly different than the one Penn State fans have been accustomed to watching over the past 40 games.
Clifford has been around so long, he committed to Penn State before Joe Moorhead was hired. And he has outlasted the quarterbacks — both McSorley and Stevens — who made JoeMo’s O go. Clifford was the first commit of the Class of 2017, pledging his allegiance to Nittany Nation back on July 13, 2015. Back when John Donovan was the offensive coordinator and Rahne was the PSU QB coach — the first time around.
So, what’s old may be new again, in some ways.
In the week before Stevens’ departure, I asked Clifford, “Is the offense the same, whether you’re in there or Tommy is?”
Clifford replied: “I think that from the play-calling standpoint of Coach Rahne, he’s not going to change anything — no matter who is in there. Tommy and I both have strengths and weaknesses. But Coach Rahne tries to keep it the same. I think that the offense, in general, complements both opf us.”
After the Blue-White Game, when Stevens was still in the mix, I posited essentially the same question to Rahne this way: “How different is the offense with Tommy there vs. Sean, as far as game-planning, identity and scheming?”
Rahne replied: “Quarterback, wide receiver, running back — you’re going to have a little different flare on game-planning depending on who your players are. But, can Tommy do all the things that we want him to do? Absolutely. Can Cliff do all the things? Absolutely. Can Will Levis? Yes.”
Rahne did acknowledge there would be differences.
“There are going to be certain things you’re going to lean on more, just because you want to put your players in the best position to succeed,” said Rahne, beginning his second season as offensive coordinator.
“It will vary a little bit, depending on where you’re at. But it also depends on their growth. Your whole team can change some things, you might think you’re going to run a route or a concept, but your team may not be very good at it for whatever reason and you have to adjust.”
With Stevens gone, that adjustment is bound to be bigger than anyone expected.
