Despite being knocked out of Penn State’s blowout loss to Michigan last weekend with an upper body injury, longtime quarterback Sean Clifford is still expected to be the Nittany Lions’ stater against Minnesota if he’s healthy enough to go.
While coach James Franklin didn’t offer any substantial update regarding Clifford’s health on Tuesday, he did indicate that there were currently no changes to Penn State’s quarterback rotation at this time. The Nittany Lions hold their first practice of the week Tuesday evening after their traditional day off on Monday.
“So as you guys know unless it’s a season ending injury I typically don’t announce [injuries]” Franklin said. “It’s Tuesday [and] we haven’t even practiced yet so it’s hard for me to give you guys an answer that helps you do your job. But yeah, nothing has changed with the plan or the model at this stage.”
It’s certainly true that Franklin could be holding his cards close to his chest regarding Clifford’s health, but pressed on the idea that true freshman quarterback Drew Allar should play instead of Clifford – both for the benefit of the immediate future and the longterm future of the program – Franklin pushed back on that idea, his argument effectively summarized that Allar playing right now is equal parts unfair to Clifford and not in the best interesting in winning each and every week so far in 2022.
Franklin also cited the Nittany Lions Big Ten Championship season in which Penn State started 2-2 before rattling off its historic run.
“I guess there’s a lot of different things that I would say – I think number one, that’s the wrong message,” Franklin said of starting Allar. “That’s the wrong signal. Sean has earned the right to be on the field. That doesn’t mean Drew hasn’t done some good things and we’d love to get him an opportunity and continue to grow in him and to continue to develop him for his future. No doubt about it. It’s just interesting, and we’ve kind of talked about the whole dynamics of college football, how it’s changed, and specifically at Penn State, but I got a text from Mike Gesicki on Sunday when I was breaking down film. And in 2016 we lost the Michigan and played Minnesota the following week and found a way to get that win, and the rest of the season went pretty well. So I think there are tons of examples not only at Penn State, but across the country, where you do everything you possibly can to win the next week. And I think some of those approaches aren’t necessarily about winning this week. In my opinion.”
Whether or not fans agree with Franklin, Penn State’s nearly decades-long head coach isn’t wrong that the Nittany Lions still have plenty to play for as a program that won a total of 11 games the past two seasons with a real chance to win 10 this year. It’s also hard to really know much at all about where Allar is in his development and if way-too-early growing pains would be to his benefit in the long term. In either case with plenty of games still to go, the Nittany Lions must first set their sights on Minnesota and improving to 6-1 and move on from there, no matter who the quarterback is.
