Thursday, March 28, 2024
Home » News » Local & Penn State Sports » Penn State Football: Clifford Practicing, but Status Still Uncertain for Saturday

Penn State Football: Clifford Practicing, but Status Still Uncertain for Saturday

no description

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford’s status is “fluid” ahead of the Nittany Lions’ meeting with Illinois this upcoming weekend, according to head coach James Franklin.

Clifford was seen participating during the open media portion of practice on Wednesday – a period that lasts roughy 15 minutes. The three-year starter appeared to have no particular issue throwing the ball over the course of the drills he participated in alongside redshirt sophomore backup Ta’Quan Roberson and freshman Christian Veilleux. During the media’s viewing period Clifford was not held out of any drills.

The nature of Clifford’s injury sustained during Penn State’s loss to Iowa has not been disclosed. Franklin previously stated that Clifford’s injury was common among quarterbacks but did not offer any additional details.

As an aside, Penn State quarterbacks have long practiced with knee braces but do not play with them during games.

“Yeah, not sure at this stage; all three of them took reps — a third, a third, a third,” Franklin said following practice. “We’ll see. I don’t know at this stage. But we’ll see where he’s at by Saturday. Hopefully, obviously, we’ll have an idea before that. But it was good to see him be able to get some reps today at practice, all three of them.”

As recently as Tuesday, Franklin had noted that Penn State would split first team reps between Roberson and Veilleux. Franklin confirmed that Wednesday was not the first time Clifford had participated in team activities or thrown the ball, but said the situation was ever changing.

When a decision will be made on whether or not Clifford is available this weekend is a still-to-be-determined timeline. However, as Franklin noted after practice, the Nittany Lions will have to make a decision soon in order to ensure whoever the starter ends up being is fully prepared.

“We obviously want to be able to invest our time where we think we’re going to get the greatest return,” Franklin said. “And, you know, that’s hard to say. I mean it’s literally day by day. And a lot of times we get a report in the morning, we have a staff meeting every morning at 7 a.m. and we’ll go through it, and we get one report at 7 a.m. and it may be different by two o’clock.

“So I think the term fluid is a good word to describe kind of where we’re at right now. Just kind of take it day by day. But we want to try to make sure, like we always do, that the guys that are going to play the most reps in the game with starters are getting the majority of the reps in practice.”

Penn State could likely beat the 2-5 Illini with Roberson at the helm, although the following weekend’s meeting with Ohio State in Columbus proves to be far more daunting.