A look at Penn State’s all-time 2,000-yard single-season passers and how the game is changing.
Penn State has a storied history when it comes to running the football, but the newer generation of football and the way the game is played is seeing the quarterbacks begin to have a larger impact on the field. And the stats certainly back that up.
Penn State doesn’t have a long list of passers who have eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark through the air the way some other schools have, but it is more and more expected that a Penn State quarterback will not only pass for 2,000 yards in a season, but go for over 3,000 yards in a single year.
Three quarterbacks in Penn State have history have multiple 2,000-yard seasons but [autotag]Trace McSorley[/autotag] is the only player in school history with multiple 3,000-yard seasons.
Will Sean Clifford become Penn State’s all-time leading passer in 2022?
While Penn State has never been known for it’s quarterback play, the team’s history books appear like they are about to change.
Presently, [autotag]Trace McSorley[/autotag] is the all-time leading passer in program history. Hot on his heels though is present starter Sean Clifford. Clifford is returning for his fourth season as Penn State’s starting quarterback while some fans are eager to see what comes next at the position with Drew Alar on deck. But before that page if slipped, Clifford has a great chance to rewrite some Penn State passing reocrds.
If he can stay healthy, then the all-time passing record should be Clifford’s. Notably, though, there are some surprising names in the team’s all-time passing ranks. Names like Clifford and McSorley are obviously in there but also players like [autotag]Darryl Clark[/autotag], [autotag]Christian Hackenberg[/autotag], and program favorite [autotag]Matt McGloin[/autotag] also make appearances.
While none of them outside of Clifford are still competing, their careers never stray away from Penn State fans. Look now at the team’s top-10 all-time passing rankings entering 2022.
Remembering the time Joe Paterno and Doug Graber got into a hissyfit after Penn State defeated Rutgers in 1995
There are not too many iconic moments in the history of the Penn State-Rutgers series, which dates back to 1918. With Penn State owning an all-time record of 29-2 against the Scarlet Knights entering their Week 12 matchup in 2021 and winning 14 consecutive meetings starting in 1989, it has been perfectly clear where the two programs have stood against one another over the years.
So when Penn State let its offense throw a late touchdown pass in a 1995 meeting in Giants Stadium, with Mike McQueary completing a deep pass to Chris Campbell to extend Penn State’s lead on the Scarlet Knights to 59-34 late in the fourth quarter, a routine postgame handshake quickly became the most interesting moment in the history of Penn State and Rutgers.
Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and Rutgers head coach Doug Graber came together at midfield and, rather than exchange pleasantries, the two were caught on camera having a foul-mouthed shouting match at each other as they went their separate ways.
Graber was rightfully perturbed by Penn State tacking on a late touchdown in the way it did, knowing full well the result of the game was all but certain at that point. Graber accused Paterno of running up the score on his program, with many believing Penn State may have been attempting to attract votes in the polls, but Paterno said his young quarterback saw an open receiver instead of checking for his tight end for the first down and let it fly.
“I did not want to run up the score against Rutgers,” Paterno said after the game, according to The Daily Collegian. “Obviously, some people won’t believe that… our team and our former players and coaches know how I feel about embarrassing anybody. I’ve made that statement too many times.”
Paterno would go on to apologize for his words of anger caught on camera.
“The four-letter word was really inexcusable and I’d like to apologize to everybody who had to hear it,” Paterno said. “The people watching television in their homes should not have to put up with that stuff and especially their children. I really feel bad about that. I have no excuses. I was wrong. I’m dead wrong about it.”
Years later, when Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014, Graber was asked about this iconic moment in series history. Graber told NJ.com in an interview that that infamous moment was water under the bridge and that he has a good laugh about it to this day.
“As a matter of fact, I did two games at Penn State (as an announcer) after that when Joe was still there and he and I laughed about it,” said Graber. “Just a couple of competitive coaches — that’s all.”
The play that led to the unpleasantries after the game came back into the realm of discussion decades later. McQueary, who completed the long touchdown pass rather than look to convert for a first down to a tight end, was reportedly involved with some gambling debts into the thousands, according to an old report from ESPN. It is alleged McQueary may have gambled on Penn State games, which brought this specific moment back into the limelight. Penn State was a 20-point favorite against Rutgers in that 1995 game. The late touchdown covered the spread.
Regardless of the sequence of events that led to the postgame handshake blowing up in front of the national cameras, the fire shown between the two coaches in the heat of the moment is certainly one that will last forever in the series between the Nittany Lions and Scarlet Knights.
Trace McSorley left his mark on Penn State’s single-game passing record sheet, but what other quarterbacks have had big games through the air in Nittany Lions history?
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.
Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford has a chance to be a top-three all-time passer at Penn State in 2021.
Penn State is hardly the first school you may think of when it comes to passing offenses, but the Nittany Lions have had some tremendous players at the wide receiver and quarterback positions over the years. And in more recent years, college football’s evolution to more of a passing game has started to rewrite the Penn State record book when it comes to all-time career passing leaders.
Entering the 2021 season, Sean Clifford is primed to easily make his way into the top 10 on Penn State’s all-time passing list, and he could move into the top three on Penn State’s all-time list, just behind the two quarterbacks who started before him.
Trace McSorley remains the school’s all-time leading passer, having the benefit of three years as a starter in an offensive system that was at the height of its game at the time.
Here is a look at Penn State’s top 20 all-time leading passers, including Clifford’s pursuit of moving up the board this fall.
