College football has seen the offensive schemes transform in favor of the passing game over the past couple of decades, and Penn State has been catching up to that trend. It should come as no surprise that the list if Penn State’s all-time single-game passing records has been significantly reshaped over the past 10 years, and Sean Clifford aims to keep rewriting the record book this upcoming season.
Prior to 2010, Penn State’s list of 300-yard passing games was up to 14 total games. Penn State will enter the 2021 season with 42 300-yard passing games in program history, and odds are fairly good the Nittany Lions could come close to 50 by the end of the season.
Clifford enters his third season as Penn State’s starting quarterback and he already owns three 300-yard games in program history, including one in the top 10 in program history.
Penn State still has just one 400-yard passing game in program history. That belongs to Christian Hackenberg, who passed for a school-record 454 yards in a season-opening victory against UCF in Ireland in 2014. The North American single-game passing record for Penn State still belongs to Zack Mills, who came one yard shy of the first 400-yard mark in school history back in 2002 against Iowa.
As for the school’s all-time passing leader, Trace McSorley? He’s had his share of 300-yard games during his time in Happy Valley. McSorley passed for 300 yards 10 times.
Here is a look at Penn State’s top 10 single-game passing yardage leaders in program history.