Penn State has reached the midway point of the season with a perfectly placed bye week in Week 7. What better way to spend time during the bye week than by beginning to assess everything that has happened thus far and determine where things go from here for the Nittany Lions?
And it feels appropriate that the mid-season evaluations begins with the biggest issue facing Penn State coming out of a tough loss at Iowa, and that is the quarterback situation. After a perfectly fine start to the season by a clearly much more confident Sean Clifford, his injury during the Iowa game and uncertainty for the immediate future has cast a much darker cloud over the passing game in Happy Valley. And with the results put on display against Iowa with Ta’Quan Roberson stepping in for the injured Clifford, there is rising doubt about just how effective the Penn State offense, and specifically the passing game, can be with a tough slate ahead of them in the second half.
Year-to-Date Summary
The 2021 season was destined to be a Sean Clifford or bust type of season following the transfer of Will Levis to Kentucky (where he is enjoying life as the starter for the Wildcats, by the way). After coming up dry on the search for a transfer option in the offseason, Penn State decided to roll the dice with hopes riding on Clifford staying on the field. And for a while, that seemed to work just fine.
Under the coaching of new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich, Clifford significantly cut down on his bad judgments and unforced errors and began showing more patience and awareness. As such, Penn State’s offense became much more efficient and effective. Clifford managed to begin spreading the ball around without having to feel like every play had to be going through Jahan Dotson. Clifford’s ability to spread the ball to Parker Washignton and his tight ends Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson proved to be effective. Through the first five games of the season, Clifford was intercepted just three times, and only one was arguably considered an actual mistake by Clifford.
In his most recent game, Clifford overcame an early mistake against Iowa — an interception at the Penn State 8-yard line on the first offensive snap of the game for the Nittany Lions — to lead Penn State to two efficient touchdown drives in the first quarter against an Iowa defense that was allowing just over 12 points per game this season. Clifford’s first, and only, series in the second quarter resulted in a field goal to put Penn State up 17-3 at the time.
But that was the last we saw of Clifford. Clifford went to the Penn State locker room after that possession and did not return to the playing field.
| Attempts | Completions | Pct. | Yards | TD | INT | Rating | |
| Sean Clifford | 178 | 118 | 66.3 | 1,482 | 11 | 5 | 151.00 |
| Ta’Quan Roberson | 28 | 11 | 39.3 | 85 | 1 | 2 | 62.28 |
Stats via CFBStats.com as of Oct. 11, 2021.