Blue White Illustrated

B ack in June, when we were putting together BWI's 2019 Penn State Football Preview, there seemed to be a consensus among the beat writers that the Nittany Lions were a year away from being legitimate contenders for the Big Ten East Division title. I believe it would be fair to say that the majority of Penn State beat writers foresaw, at best, a third-place :nish for the team. Even I was a bit skeptical of this ex- tremely young Penn State football team, which went into the season with eight of its starters on o;ense holding either freshman or sophomore eligibility. The Lions had lost record-setting quarter- back Trace McSorley, leading rusher Miles Sanders and a pair of multiyear starters on the o;ensive line in Ryan Bates and Connor McGovern. I pre- dicted that Penn State would :nish the 2019 season with a 9-3 record and would most likely end up playing in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando or the Outback Bowl in Tampa. That could still end up being the case, but going into their eighth game of the season against Michigan State, the Nit- tany Lions had posted a 7-0 record and were ranked sixth in both polls. Heading into the year, I felt that Penn State had a pretty good chance of being undefeated at the midway point, but I would not have expected the team to be ranked so highly. What follows are 10 reasons why I be- lieve this Penn State football team is ahead of schedule as it continues to re- make itself following the graduation of McSorley and so many of the other play- ers who spearheaded its return to the Big Ten's top echelon a few years ago: 1. SEAN CLIFFORD On o;ense, the No. 1 reason why Penn State is ahead of schedule has been the play of its redshirt sophomore quarterback. Back in mid- March, just before the start of spring practice, the consensus was that :=h- year senior Tommy Stevens would be Penn State's starting QB in 2019. But then, a=er the conclusion of spring drills, it was revealed that Stevens had entered the transfer portal. Eventually, he opted to rejoin his former Penn State o;ensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead, at Mississippi State. Stevens' exit opened up a competition between Cli;ord and redshirt freshman Will Levis. Cli;ord won that battle, and during the :rst half of the season he showed that the coaching sta;'s faith in him was entirely justi:ed. Yes, he had some rocky moments in games against Pitt and Iowa, but statistically his per- formance mirrored what McSorley was able to accomplish during his redshirt sophomore and junior years. In the Lions' :rst seven games, Clif- ford completed 116 of 184 passes (63.0 percent) for 1,742 yards, with 16 touch- down passes and only two interceptions. He had a pass-e

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