For better or for worse, each of the last three seasons Penn State has seen its backup quarterback take meaningful snaps in meaningful games.
It started in 2018 when Tommy Stevens entered for an injured Trace McSorley against Iowa (McSorley would eventually return). Just a week later Stevens would once again play meaningful snaps, this time against Michigan on the road, McSorley hobbled with another injury. In the season finale, McSorley would head to the sidelines following an injury in the Citrus Bowl and a young Sean Clifford entered the game (Stevens was unavailable for the game following his own injury-related surgery; McSorley would also return to that game as well).
Then in 2019 Clifford himself was injured against Ohio State and replaced by Will Levis. The next week against Rutgers it was Levis taking the start — and the win — before Clifford eventually returned healthy against Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.
In 2020, health wasn’t the motivating factor, but Levis replaced Clifford on more than one occasion due to Clifford’s up-and-down play, eventually earning a start against Nebraska before Clifford ultimately returned to the starting role.
Totaled up: 28 games, three different starters and four different quarterbacks hitting the field with the game still in the balance.
Welcome to 2021, a year in which Sean Clifford is the only quarterback on the roster to have done much of anything. The other three — Ta’Quan Roberson, Christian Veilleux and Mason Stahl — have thrown for a single pass, a Roberson completion that netted -1 yard.
Of course every great quarterback had to throw his very first pass and simply because the three options behind Clifford are inexperienced doesn’t mean they can’t be good. But experience is king in college football and there’s a reason why Stevens and Levis were so highly coveted commodities on Penn State’s roster — and why both eventually opted to find a place where they could start.
It’s also why even though Penn State was open to taking a transfer quarterback to boost the room’s depth this summer, it had a hard time finding a fit in a transfer portal full of quarterbacks hoping to play, not hoping to sit.
“That’s the nature of the game, there’s a lot of things that happen,” Clifford said on Saturday, looking back at the Citrus Bowl. “It’s a crazy game that we play so I think everyone in the room knows that we all prepare like we’re the starting quarterback. I tell Ta’Quan to beat me out every single day. I tell [Veilleux] to beat me every single day, making sure that whatever they’re doing is to beat Wisconsin the first week. Whether I’m playing or not playing, it doesn’t matter. They need to be prepared to win that game. They need to prepare to play with the [first unit] this afternoon. They have to work so that way you know we’re never taking a step down. We’re always pushing each other and that’s how everyone grows.”
The lack of any truly experienced backup does pose a somewhat obvious issue for a Penn State team facing a daunting schedule and the growing trend of backup quarterbacks seeing the field for meaningful action. Roberson is the presumed backup by nature of having been in the program the longest. But even as Clifford looked somewhat unimpressive during two open practices the media saw this spring, Roberson performed a bit like what you might expect: not without flashes of talent, but not without inconsistencies either.
In turn, while Clifford is not looking to head to the bench for either health or performance related issues, he understands the need to get everyone up to speed.
“I think it’s just explaining a little bit more,” Clifford said of teaching the quarterbacks behind him. “I’m looking back to when Trace was teaching me and I had no experience. It’s just telling them, ‘Oh yeah, you might have seen this, but it’s not the way it looks.’ The defense that we play, especially here … our defense is one of the best, so they’re gonna give you a ton of different looks, a ton of different disguises. Sometimes you’re not going to know where you are when you’re a young kid — like you don’t even know what they’re doing.
“So it’s trying to put them in and remind them of all the reps that they’ve had, and try to simplify it as much as I can, because that’s what I’ve done over the past few years. I have a Rolodex in my head of all these different looks and I can see when this safety does this and I know okay I’m either getting this coverage or this coverage. When you’re a young guy you’ve just never seen this in high school football. They’re running cover one man and prevent like, basically Madden coverages. So it’s getting in the groove of things, making sure that they’re getting all the looks that they need. If they have a question, ask and I’m always there to answer.”
The other side of this coin is new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich who has an unenviable task of getting Clifford back into his 2019 form and and getting his three backup quarterbacks up to speed with a whole host of things at the collegiate level.
Yurcich seems unfazed by the whole thing, or at least doesn’t project any outward anxiety about the entire obstacle. Whether or not that’s a good poker face remains to be seen, but Yurcich doesn’t see his coaching or his teaching changing because 75% of his quarterback room effectively hasn’t played a snap of college football.
“Each quarterback is a little bit different,” Yurcich said on Saturday. “But just because the guy doesn’t have playing time doesn’t mean that you really modify your teaching based on player experience. You try to give him all the information he needs to be successful. I think you have to really coach them hard. You have to coach them hard and put stress on them in the meeting room because they never have had to play in front of 107,000. So you want to apply pressure. At the same time, you have to build confidence, and I think that’s a fine line of knowing when to apply that pressure; make them sweat but then also build them up and give them confidence.”
But back to that whole staying in the game thing.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to win the game,” Clifford said. “I think that’s always been the competitor in me […] It’s what drives me. So I’m gonna take a shot. I’m gonna do whatever it takes for the team to make sure that you know we can get the W.”
And for Clifford, Franklin and Yurcich, hopefully “whatever it takes” doesn’t result in a fourth-straight year of backups seeing the field.
