Blue White Illustrated

>> estly isn't a bad thing," Cli:ord said. "It was more the fact that I was so locked in and invested in what we were doing and what we were trying to accomplish that eventually I just got in such a good rou- tine that everything was the same. I never really thought back on what was happen- ing." "What was happening," for Cli:ord, was a romp through the Nittany Lions' schedule in his 8rst season as a starter. Delivering breezy wins against Idaho and Bu:alo to open the year, Cli:ord got an all-important home victory against Pitt in the noncon- ference 8nale, then pro- ceeded to reel o: wins at Maryland, against Purdue, at Iowa, under the lights against Michigan, and in a downpour at Michigan State. At 8-0, the Nittany Lions were fourth in the 8rst set of College Football Play- o: rankings and, in Clif- ford's case, were demonstrating an o:ensive prowess suggesting every bit of attention had been earned. Penn State owned the na- tion's 12th-ranked scoring o:ense to that point in the season at 38.5 points per game, and Cli:ord was ranked ninth in passer e;ciency (164.9 on 134 of 216 at- tempts). His 20 touchdowns in eight games equaled Trevor Lawrence's nine- game total for Clemson. His three inter- ceptions matched Jalen Hurts' total, and Cli:ord had 36 more attempted passes than the Oklahoma quarterback. But on Nov. 9, Penn State visited Min- nesota in a battle of Big Ten unbeatens, and the bubble burst. Clifford turned in a gritty performance, completing 23 of 43 passes for 340 yards and a touch- down and nearly rallying the Nittany Lions to victory late in the fourth quar- ter after they had fallen behind by two TDs. But he also threw three intercep- tions, and those picks, coupled with a handful of controversial officiating de- cisions, sealed the Lions' first loss of the year. That defeat has since provided a sense of perspective that Cli:ord has found in- valuable throughout the Nittany Lions' bizarre o:-season. "The best-worst thing to happen to me was Minnesota. That sucked a lot," Clif- ford said. "It seems like that at some points that the fans just think that we don't care... like I'm not the one hurting the most out of this. It's just funny how people respond to certain things." Coming off his first loss as a starter, Clifford was determined to make his re- sponse count. He led the Nittany Lions to a rebound win at home against Indi- ana the next week, but his regular season was cut short when an unspecified leg injury sidelined him early in a 28-17 loss at Ohio State on Nov. 23. To close out the conference season, backup Will Levis directed a 27-6 win against Rutgers, setting up a Cot- ton Bowl matchup with Memphis. Clifford re- turned for the bowl game but took a backseat to running backs Journey Brown and Noah Cain. He completed only 11 of 20 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown while taking four sacks in Penn State's 53-39 victory. Only a

• Cover