Nebraska Football: Talking Penn State with Victory Bell Rings

So my next question, and this is kind of one that I’m interested in, I’ve read on a couple of Penn State websites this week about the play of Sean Clifford. Now, just from the box score, he doesn’t look like he has bad statistics. I believe it’s nine touchdowns and five interceptions. But I’ve read certain articles that say, is it time to bench him? Is it time to make a change? He’s not consistent. So what exactly does Nebraska have to worry about with Sean Clifford? And is he kind of the dynamic playmaker that I would envision him being, especially heading into the season? I had him as one of my players Nebraska should watch out for.

We’ve got a lot of Eagles fans around here. I am not one. But one of the things we always hear is Carson Wentz hold on the ball too long and tries to make plays. And that’s always the issue. Sometimes Clifford does that, sometimes he doesn’t. And that’s where it’s really frustrating. If it’s one thing I feel like you can kind of teach around that. Count to five in the pocket and get out of there, right? It’s various things. He can run. There’s no doubt about that. He’s not your prototypical mobile quarterback, but he can move, right? On third and 10, if you don’t have a, obviously you need a spy, but if he gets out of the pocket, he can run up the middle for 15 easily.

There are definitely some inaccurate passes right now, right? There’s no doubt about that. And I think it’s hard because we expected with Freiermuth and with Dotson to have some targets. Now, if teams are taking them away, and no one else can get open, that’s definitely a part of it. We also haven’t been able to run the ball, right? That’s a huge part of it as well. We really haven’t succeeded. So his stats don’t look bad. I mean, part of that is, we were down to Maryland, I think we were down 100 to nothing in the first quarter. So even you and I could through for a couple hundred yards coming back from that.

I’m not sure what the answer is with him yet. We do have kind of a wildcat-y package with Will Levis as the backup quarterback. The last two years that’s been used. It hasn’t done anything this year. It’s the classic backup quarterback syndrome. Will Levis is huge, all right? He’s got a cannon, but not obviously all that accurate. I would be very surprised if given a training camp-shortened season, like this one is, that you really can develop your backup quarterback. So I would be surprised. I mean, you might see a little bit more of the wildcat-type packages. But to be honest, anytime a wide quarterback is lining up as wide receiver, what’s that really providing?

There are some people that are actually pushing for neither one of them, for either Ta’Quan Roberson, or even… I mean, Michael Bowen is, now you’re talking super raw. I mean, that’s punting on the year. I don’t know if we’re quite there yet. The fan base is. I highly doubt Franklin is. I have high hopes that Clifford is going to come out and start looking like he did last year, just strong in the pocket, run when you need to. There’s nothing wrong with throwing the ball away. I just feel like every time he either runs or throws it away, or tries to force it, it’s the wrong decision.

Offensive line is not doing its job, alright? That’s a huge part of this. This was supposed to be the offensive line, and that’s been the biggest… Penn State has been close, right? We won it in 2016, but we’ve been close a couple of years. We probably should have beaten Ohio State a couple times these last two or three years. But the lines aren’t quite there. You need that top-flight offensive, and defensive line, but we’re talking offense. This was supposed to be that year. We’re older, a couple high recruits. Is it because of COVID? Who knows? I’m not saying they’re bad, but they’ve been average, and that’s a huge disappointment.

So I think that if I’m Nebraska, keep the pressure on Clifford. Keep making him make decisions. And if he keeps staying inside his head, it’s going to only get worse.