On the first series of Saturday’s road game for Penn State at Auburn, quarterback [autotag]Sean Clifford[/autotag] took a clean and devastating hit from Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe. The hit knocked the football loose but was recovered by Penn State for a fourth down situation. The hit could have set the tone for a hard-hitting game down south but Clifford responded by leading Penn State to a touchdown on their next possession, and Clifford and the Nittany Lions never looked back in a 41-12 demolishing of the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
After the game, Pappoe was asked about his hit on Clifford, and he offered him a show of public respect.
“Salute to him, getting up from a hard hit like that,” Pappoe said. “He was actually about to slide so I pulled up and didn’t give him all I had.”
Clifford has taken some hits in his career as Penn State’s starting quarterback. Few may have been as hard as that. The hit was celebrated by SEC fans as a “Welcome to the SEC” moment, but Clifford got the last laugh as he and the Nittany Lions handed Auburn its worst loss in a non-conference game since 1982.
The win even had one Penn State player smashing the SEC logo on the field with a hammer after the game.
“They were the better football team today,” Pappoe said of Penn State. “We didn’t execute how we needed to execute on both sides of the ball.”
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