Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1488968
2 2 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M craw of many fans, but you have to win a lot of games to get to the point where missing the playoff becomes a disap- pointment. Penn State has done that, appears poised to continue doing it, and will have a much better shot at the play- off when the field expands to 12 teams in 2024. Said Clifford, "From a program per- spective, I think we're in a really good place." 'He's Maximized The Experience' Clifford has been on hand for much of the Lions' recent upturn. As a high school prospect at St. Xavier in Cincinnati, he committed to Penn State in July 2016, just a few months be- fore the Lions began their sudden ascent back to national relevance after going 29-21 in the four seasons that followed the NCAA's sanctions. Clifford arrived in State College only a few months after the 2017 Rose Bowl, took a redshirt year as a true freshman and then spent the following season as the third-team quarterback behind Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens. Except for matchups against Iowa and Rutgers during the 2020 season, Clifford has started every game for the Lions over the past four seasons, a total of 45 games heading into the Rose Bowl. No one could have anticipated that he would have such a long career as a start- ing quarterback. He would have likely backed up Ste- vens in 2019, but that plan changed when the rising senior surprisingly transferred to Mississippi State after spring practice, thrusting Clifford into the starting job. He would have run out of eligibility after the 2021 season if COVID hadn't wreaked havoc on college sports, prompting the NCAA to provide a bonus year to those who wanted it. Clifford did want it, and as a result, he went into the Rose Bowl boasting more seniority with his current team than 22 of the 32 quar- terbacks who were starting in the NFL as of mid-December. Clifford said he didn't come to Penn State with any preconceptions about how much he would play. Penn State has been fielding football teams since Grover Cleveland was a first-term president, so it's always a bit surprising when the Nittany Lions come across a Power Five opponent that they haven't faced at least once in their 135- year history. That's the case this year, though. The Rose Bowl marks Penn State's first-ever game against Utah. The Utes are the only current mem- bers of the Pac-12 Conference that PSU has never faced. The Lions have com- piled a 25-14 record against the other Pac-12 teams, the most recent of those games being a 35-28 win over Washing- ton in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl. College football is a sport with a deep, rich history that often adds to the intrigue of the postseason, but the absence of history can create its own kind of excitement. As Penn State coach James Franklin noted when the Rose Bowl matchup was announced, "It's not too often in 2022 that you're able to do things for the first time ever." The Utes have been playing football since 1892, but they've rarely played it as well as they have since switching from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac-12 in 2011. Kyle Whittingham is in his 19th season as head coach at the Salt Lake City- based school. He led Utah to first-place finishes in the Pac-12's South Division in four of the seven seasons that preceded this year's move by the conference to scrap its divisions and match the league's two winningest teams in the title game. The Utes finished in a tie for second this year, but they thrashed first-place USC 47-24 in the Pac- 12 Championship Game to earn their second consecutive Rose Bowl invitation. Whittingham, the son of NFL player and coach Fred Whittingham, has spent the majority of his career in the state of Utah, starting in 1985 as a graduate assistant at BYU, his alma mater. Next came stops at Eastern Utah and Idaho State before he arrived at Utah in 1994 as defensive line coach. He's been with the Utes ever since, taking over as head coach in 2005 when Urban Meyer left for Florida. Even though he's done all of his coaching out west, he said he's been paying attention to Penn State since the Joe Paterno era and has been impressed with what he's seen. "I've never been to a game there, but it looks nuts to play in that stadium with that crowd and those fans," he said. "Of course, JoePa was what I grew up with, him being the guy at the helm. It's a storied program with a lot of tradition, a lot of history, a ton of success through the years. We're relatively new on the scene compared to what they've got going and what they've had historically." Maybe so, but their mere presence in the Rose Bowl will present PSU with something it has never seen before. After that game, there will be only six teams in the Power Five conferences that Penn State has never faced: Duke, Virginia Tech, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. — Matt Herb Matchup Against Utes Is A First For Nittany Lions Kyle Whittingham is in his 19th season as head coach at Utah. He and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy are the second-longest- tenured head coaches in the FBS, trailing Kirk Ferentz, who is in his 24th season at Iowa. PHOTO COURTESY UTAH ATHLETICS