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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> When this happened, he was the first person to call me up. 'What can I be doing?' " Avery said. "That's unique. That's what differentiates him from everybody else, how hard he's willing to work. He's willing to do anything he can to get a little bit better." Clifford's performance as a first-year starter last season demonstrated as much. Stepping in as the presumptive starter following Tommy Stevens' deci- sion to leave for Mississippi State, Clif- ford clinched the starting position in preseason camp and immediately made his mark. He led the Nittany Lions to eight consecutive wins to open the season and the No. 4 spot in the initial College Football Playoff rankings and went on to complete 189 of 319 passes (59.2 percent) for 2,654 yards. His 23 passing touch- downs were the fifth-highest single-sea- son total in school history, and his passer efficiency rating of 148.5 ranked fourth in the Big Ten behind only Fields, Min- nesota's Tanner Morgan and Wisconsin's Jack Coan. Following the regular season, Clifford received honorable mention All- Big Ten nods from the coaches and media. Those numbers and accolades were merely byproducts of the element that draws Clifford to the game so intensely. Describing "the process" as "what makes football so great," he has focused on in- cremental improvements, believing them to be foundational ingredients to his suc- cess. It's an approach that has served him well, especially now that the fate of the upcoming college football season is un- certain. Clifford isn't fixated on an end- point, but rather on simply making continual progress. "I'm always trying to grow as a quarter- back. I'm always trying to learn, trying to do whatever I can to play the best I can at this level and then go on and play even further," Clifford said. "You need to have all the tools in your toolbox. But there's never going to be a perfect quarterback. You could say that you have perfect prospects or damn near perfect prospects, but at the same time, there is never going to be that perfect quarterback who's just not going to make any mistakes. I think that's why football is such a great game. I think that that's why quarterback is the best position to play, just because there are so many different things that you can learn on a day-to-day basis." In an off-season already defined by change for the Nittany Lion offense, with three new assistant coaches having joined the staff before the coronavirus outbreak brought a halt to all organized team activ- ities, Clifford has a welcome advocate in new coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. The for- mer Minnesota assistant said that he ex- pects his junior QB to reap the benefits of his 12 starts last fall. "He has to be able to apply the experi- ences and take the mistakes that he might have made last year that all quarterbacks make," Ciarrocca said. "The key to be- coming an elite-level quarterback is being able to learn from your mistakes and apply that knowledge to the next time Because Penn State's athletic activi- ties were suspended shortly before spring practice was set to begin, of- fensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca hasn't put in any on->eld work yet with his four scholarship quarter- backs. The >rst-year Nittany Lion OC has had to rely instead on game >lm from last season. Those >lms have given him an opportunity to evaluate returning starter Sean Cli?ord, but there isn't much footage of backups Will Levis, Ta'Quan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr. "I really have not seen any of them throw, anything like that," Ciarrocca said. "Because Will only played in the Ohio State and Rutgers games, I don't have a great baseline on him. But I've had a chance to watch a lot of Sean's >lm and see his playing." Cli?ord started 12 of Penn State's 13 games last season, while Levis played in seven games, >nishing the Ohio State game aAer Cli?ord was injured in the third quarter and starting the regular-season >nale vs. Rutgers the following week. Roberson played in only one game as a true freshman, tak- ing over for Levis late in the Lions' 27- 6 victory over the Scarlet Knights. Johnson did not see action, as both he and Roberson redshirted. Ciarrocca has been working with his quarterbacks remotely, as is the case for all of Penn State's assistants as the quarantine continues. NCAA rules allow for eight hours of interaction per week, and Ciarrocca spends part of that time meeting with his quarter- backs as a group and the rest meeting with them individually. With only four scholarship players in his position group, Ciarrocca has had an easier time conducting videocon- ferences than some of his fellow coaches. "It's di@cult to meet with 20 players on a Zoom meeting at one time. The interactions are harder," he said. "The fact that I have four quar- terbacks makes it pretty easy." While he hasn't gotten to see much of his backup quarterbacks just yet, the meetings have allowed Ciarrocca to assess how well they absorb the material he's been presenting to them. "The one thing I can tell you is that all three of the guys have a great work ethic and an ability to learn," he said. "Our time has really been spent in the classroom, so I've got a feel for them as people – how they learn. They're very intelligent guys, they've been well- trained, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with them. I'm anxious to get on the >eld with them and watch them throw and watch them process stu? in real time." –M.H. Ciarrocca eager work with quarterbacks in person

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