Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1430714
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M riods to settle. He finished the game with 19 completions in 34 attempts for 165 yards and avoided the running plays that had been a big part of his game be- fore the injury. A few days after the loss to the un- ranked Illini, Clifford admitted the ob- vious. "I didn't feel 100 percent," he said, "but I felt good enough to play. "I'm working really hard, doing ev- erything possible to get my body right," Clifford added. "Obviously, that will help the team in the end. So, I'm doing everything I can to put the best product on the field." While the Lions' supporting cast may not have gotten its due earlier this sea- son, at least as far as Yurcich was con- cerned, it was clear in the loss at Iowa — and in the staff's decision to start a less-than-fully-healthy Clifford ahead of Roberson or true freshman Christian Veilleux against Illinois — that the se- nior from Cincinnati was the one player on either side of the ball that Penn State couldn't afford to be without. And that has left Penn State with a conundrum it must resolve. One of its biggest assets on offense has been Clif- ford's ability to pick up rushing yards, whether on designed runs or scrambles in which he's able to dodge tacklers after the pocket breaks down. But every carry brings with it the potential for a season- changing hit like the one that Campbell delivered at Iowa. Clifford said that after his injury he wasn't necessarily shying away from contact, but he also conceded that the risk-reward calculus had changed. "I've just got to be a little bit smarter when I'm in a situation like that, just because I know what condition my body [is in]," he said. "But at the same time, I'm going to have to make the plays that are there. If that means sacrificing my body for a first down or a touchdown, I'm going to do it." The coaching staff has been working for years on ways to get the most out of Clifford's running ability. When he ar- rived at Penn State out of Cincinnati's St. Xavier High in 2017, Franklin told him that he had the talent to be an im- pact player at the Big Ten level, but only if he got faster. "So, I took that to heart," Clifford said, "and I worked extremely hard at it." Heading into what may (or may not) be his final season at Penn State, Clif- ford had shaved his 40-yard time to 4.57 or 4.58 seconds by Yurcich's estimate. He was the team's third-leading rusher in 2019 with 402 yards and its second- leading rusher last year with 335. This season, even with the injury having cur- tailed his effectiveness on the ground, he was still fourth on the team with 138 yards rushing through 10 games. Carrying the ball may bring with it an element of risk, but the Lions don't want to eliminate a facet of their offense that has the potential to produce yards and points. "Sean has got athletic ability," Yur- cich said. "When he feels it's a certain coverage and they've lost contain, if he wants to get out, you've got to let him get out. He's got to have that creativity. "And then there's a fine line: Eyes downfield, stay tough, then, hey man, get out. You don't want to handcuff the kid. "How you manage that and how you coach that is, to me, the secret sauce, really. That's the fun of it all. With a guy like Sean, you can have football conver- sations. It's not all one-way commu- nication. You want to learn from him. What did you see? How did you feel? OK, next time think about this. Keep this in your mind . You're just trying to help him out as much as you can. But at the end of the day, my man has got to make some plays." Clifford did that in a 33-24 loss to Ohio State, completing 35 of 52 throws for 361 yards and looking much more like his old self than he did against Il- linois. A week later, he and Dotson combined to carve up Maryland's secondary. Clif- ford hit 27 of 47 attempts for 363 yards and three touchdowns, with Dotson ac- counting for 242 of those yards and all three of the scores in a 31-14 victory. Against Michigan the next week, Clif- ford hit 23 of 43 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown in a 21-17 loss in which he was battered by the Wolverines' stand- out defensive line. Clifford's resilience came as no sur- prise to anyone in the program. As a redshirt sophomore in 2019, he recov- ered from an injury that forced him to miss the regular-season finale and went on to lead PSU to a Cotton Bowl victory over Memphis. Last year, he bounced back from a midseason benching due "I'm working really hard, doing everything possible to get my body right." S E A N C L I F F O R D