Blue White Illustrated

KEY PERSONNEL Sean Cli ord*, Ta'Quan Roberson, Christian Veilleux LOSSES Micah Bowens, Will Levis* RISING STAR The Nittany Lions were believed to be in the market for a trans- fer, given James Franklin's very legiti- mate concerns about going into the season with only three scholarship play- ers at this position group. So it's possible that their rising star was still on someone else's campus as of late June. But of the current enrollees, the one most likely to come o the bench if anything were to happen to Cli ord is Roberson. He's get- ting set for his third year at Penn State, and he's the only quarterback on the summer roster other than Cli ord who has thrown a pass in a college game. BIGGEST LOSS Levis, obviously. It's unclear whether he would have had a real chance to unseat Cli ord for the starting job a1er a season in which the coaching sta seemed much more con2- dent in his legs than his arm. But his de- cision to transfer to Kentucky made that a moot point. NUMBERS GAME In his 2rst eight games as Penn State's starting quarter- back, Cli ord compiled a 20-3 touch- down-interception ratio. In the 13 games in which he's played since, his ratio is 19-13. And yet, Cli ord goes into the 2021 season with a career pass-e:- ciency rating of 146.8, the highest in school history. OUTLOOK Cli ord is working with his third o ensive coordinator at Penn State – his fourth if you count Joe Moorhead, who was still the Nittany Lions' OC in 2017 when Cli ord was redshirting as a true freshman. Is that discontinuity going to be a problem this year now that Mike Yurcich has taken over for Kirk Ciarrocca? Cli ord doesn't think so. As the veteran QB explained this past spring, he and Yurcich have been on the same page since the start of their work- ing relationship. "We'll butt heads because we're so similar," he said. "You see it in the meet- ings. You can ask any of the other quar- terbacks, too. I'll be talking because I want to express my point, and he'll want to talk, too. It goes both ways some- times. But I think it's a really good rela- tionship. It's fun, and we're kind of learning that balance in the room. He wants us to enjoy ourselves." While at Texas last season, Yurcich helped Sam Ehlinger lead the Big 12 with 25 touchdown passes and win second- team All-Conference honors. Before that, he was quarterbacks coach at Ohio State during a season in which Justin Fields threw for 3,273 yards, with a 181.4 pass-e:ciency rating and an astound- ing 40-3 touchdown-interception ratio. Yurcich also developed Texas A&M's Mason Rudolph into an NFL-caliber quarterback and a Unitas Award winner. If Cli ord can approximate any of those performances, that would be pretty en- joyable. It will be imperative for Cli ord to stay healthy this year. He's got 220 career carries, more than any of the team's re- turning running backs, but there's no way that the coaches will want to expose him to so much punishment with no proven depth at the position. That cal- culation might change if Penn State were to bring in a transfer in the coming weeks. But as of late June, this looked to be the position group at which the Nit- tany Lions could least a ord an injury of any kind. –M.H. * Starting experience at PSU in 2020 ROBERSON Clifford key to bounce-back hopes P O S I T I O N B R E A K D O W N Q U A R T E R B A C K P H I L ' S T A K E If Penn State doesn't go into the transfer portal to sign a backup quarterback, I won't be the 2rst person to tell you that depth at the position going into the 2021 season will be a major concern for James Franklin and 2rst-year o ensive coordi- nator Mike Yurcich. The only quarterback on the Nittany Lions' summer roster with any real game experience is Sean Cli ord. Redshirt sophomore Ta'Quan Roberson has only played in two games and thrown one pass, while Christian Veilleux is a January enrollee. In other words, Penn State is just an injury away from having a very serious problem at quarterback. If the Lions hope to challenge Ohio State for the Big Ten East Division title this fall, Cli ord has to remain healthy for the entire season. And he has to perform like he did in the 2rst eight games of the 2019 season, when he completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 1,913 yards, with 20 TD passes and just three interceptions. The No. 1 key for Penn State's o ense this coming season will be the performance of Cli ord at quarter- back. The Lions must have a strong passing game to complement what appears to be an excellent running game. ■ QUARTERBACK NO NAME HT WT YEAR 14 Sean Cli'ord 6-2 220 Sr./Sr. 2 Ta'Quan Roberson 5-11 199 Jr./So. 9 Christian Veilleux 6-4 202 Fr./Fr.

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