COLUMBUS, Ohio – It was an emotional farewell here for Sean Clifford.
It was just after 12:30 a.m. early Sunday morning when the Penn State quarterback said his good-byes to a small circle of friends and family — one of them wearing a red sweatshirt — and walked through the iron gates in the southwest corner of Ohio Stadium for the last time.
He boarded one of several Penn State team buses, and soon thereafter The Horseshoe was in the rear view mirror the last time for Clifford, who was born and raised in Ohio. As a Nittany Lion football player, anyway.
A few minutes earlier, Clifford was in the middle of another group, a swarm of reporters who had QB1 backed up against a wall in the wide, open-air cement ramp that led from the PSU locker room to the field.
There, Clifford gave a 5-minute, 59-second post-game press conference that seemed as painful as the four sacks – one of which led to a fumble and subsequent Buckeye TD – and several hits that he absorbed in the Nittany Lions’ 33-24 loss witnessed by a national TV audience. The defeat dropped Penn State to 5-3, while Ohio State jumped to 7-1.
Clifford had the most prolific night ever by a Penn State quarterback in the school’s 15 trips to The Horseshoe since it joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993.
By far. But it wasn’t enough.
He completed 35 of 52 passes for a whopping 361 yards, with a critical fourth-quarter interception and a five-yard touchdown pass to Brenton Strange. He also had that fumble in the second quarter, which Ohio State’s Jerron Cage snapped up and ran 57 yards for a touchdown.
“I thought Sean battled. He took some shots,” said Penn State coach James Franklin afterwards. “He made some big-time throws in traffic. He stepped up in the pocket and made some very accurate throws. Obviously, on third down (PSU was of 11 of 18) I thought he did a good job of managing that and the protections as well. But we just have to eliminate the turnovers. The turnovers are costly. It’s hard to win when you turn the ball over.”
Clifford looked – and played — much healthier and freer than he did last week in Beaver Stadium, where he was very limited by an upper body injury as Penn State lost to unranked Illinois in a nine-overtime contest that was the ugliest game of Franklin’s 96-game tenure at PSU.
And that was preceded by the Nittany Lions’ loss at Iowa, when Clifford was knocked out of the game and his replacement, Ta’Quan Roberson, looked helplessly flustered as the Hawkeyes came back from a 17-3 deficit to knock Penn State from the unbeaten ranks. Among other things, Roberson’s performance showed how much the 2021 Nittany Lions truly rely on Clifford.
A LOSS THAT HURT
The 1-2 punch of losing to Iowa and Illinois no doubt hurt Clifford’s body and spirit. But on Saturday night, you could tell that the defeat to his home state Buckeyes hurt his heart.
His sentences were short, his blue eyes most and his emotions raw.
“We battled hard,” Clifford started off. “We left it all on the field.
“This is where I’m from — from Ohio. It’s tough, but we’ll battle and get back to business and get better.”
The reporters’ questions were long, his answers pointed. And poignant.
“That’s the worst part,” he replied when asked about the tight game. “Feels like you’re getting better, but it’s not always enough.
“I feel like I could have done so much more just to change the outcome. That’s the toughest part of being a leader, just battling through your own adversity as well as the team’s.”
Near the end of the gut-wrenching post-game Q&A, Clifford got to the point…then underlined it:
“We lost the game. We lost the game.”
Seconds later, he was off, to visit those family and friends.
It was the second loss in The Horseshoe in 23 months for Clifford and teammates, and his third overall as the starting quarterback. The Nittany Lions fell to the Buckeyes here, 28-17, in 2019, when Clifford was knocked out of the game. In 2020, the Big Ten season started late and the third-ranked Buckeyes showed up on the schedule early. They defeated the Nittany Lions, 38-25, in an empty Beaver Stadium on Oct. 31 – almost a year to the day on Saturday night. Spooky. In that game, Clifford threw for three touchdown passes, all to Jahan Dotson, and for 281 yards.
But it was not enough to beat the Buckeyes.
It almost never is.
In a span of 707 days, Clifford had thrown 99 passes for 813 yards, with four TDs, two interceptions and 63 completions against the Buckeyes. And all he had to show for it was 3 x 0-1.
He did have the respect of his teammates, who knew that Clifford had played injured against Illinois and was still not 100% against Ohio State.
“Sean is a big key to our offense,” said running back John Lovett. “Sean is our leader and he’s a captain. When he speaks, everyone listens. That tells you what you need to know right there.”
Dotson felt for his friend and quarterback. “I know it’s been rough on him,” Dotson said. “It’s never easy going through an injury. For Sean, though, to be out here battling and giving it his all and showing no signs of weakness is huge for us. I know it’s tough for him, but we have his back no matter what. I try to pick him up every single play, every single day. Literally.”
On Saturday night, Clifford got historically little help from the Penn State rushing game. Again. The Nittany Lions ran the ball 29 times for only 33 yards. That’s 40 inches per carry. Just as Clifford’s passing performance was Penn State’s best in Ohio Stadium since it joined the conference 28 years ago, its running performance here on Saturday night was its worst.
PENN STATE IN THE HORSESHOE
Here are Penn State’s offensive statistics for all 15 of its games (accompanied by a 2-13 record) in Ohio Stadium since joining the league.
Take note that when PSU was at its most successful at running the ball in The Horseshoe – 239 yards in 2011, while occasionally deploying the Wildcat under interim head coach Tom Bradley against interim Ohio State head coach Luke Fickell – it beat the Buckeyes, 20-14.
Year Result Run-Yds. QB (att-comp-yds, TD-Int)
2021 L, 33-24 29-33 Clifford: 35-52-361, 1-1
2019 L, 28-17 36-99 Clifford/Levis: 16-28-128, 0-1
2017 L, 39-38 35-91 McSorley: 17-29-192, 2-1
2015 L, 38-10 40-195 Hackenberg: 7-13-120, 1-0
2013 L, 63-14 40-120 Hack/Ferguson: 19-34-237, 2-2
2011 W, 20-14 39-239 McGloin: 10-18-88, 0-1
2010 L, 38-14 32-113 McGloin: 15-30-189, 2-1
2008 W, 13-6 37-160 Clark: 12-20-121
2006 L, 28-6 40-142 Morelli: 16-25-106, 0-3
2004 L, 21-10 50-177 Robinson: 7-22-86, 0-2
2002 L, 13-7 23-81 Mills: 14-28-98, 0-3
2000 L, 45-6 39-93 Casey/Senneca: 11-23-120, 0-1
1998 L, 28-9 30-79 Thompson/Casey: 13-29-102, 0-1
1996 L, 38-7 26-68 Richardson/McQueary: 17-37-143
1993 L, 24-6 32-149 Collins: 13-39-122, 0-4
