STATE COLLEGE — Last week, James Franklin said he thought Sean Clifford should have been the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Penn State’s 28-20 win over Auburn.
It turns out the Penn State coach was just a week early for his quarterback to snag conference honors.
Clifford was named the Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after he turned in a career day in Penn State’s 38-17 win over Villanova at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. It’s Clifford’s first Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honor of his career.
Clifford was 19 of 26 for 401 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. The 401 yards were a career high for Clifford and the second-highest single-game total in Penn State history behind only Christian Hackenberg’s 454 in 2014. Clifford’s four touchdown passes tied a career high. He previously threw that many touchdown passes in a game twice in 2019.
The four touchdown passes gave Clifford 49 in his career, which moved him ahead of Hackenberg (48) and Matt McGloin (46).
Clifford shared honors with Northwestern running back Evan Hull who rushed 22 times for 216 yards and two touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 35-6 win over Ohio.
Clifford threw four passes that covered at least 52 yards — the first time Penn State had that many big plays through the air since 2013 — including a pair of 52-yard touchdowns to wide receivers Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington and an 83-yard touchdown to wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith. The 83-yarder was the sixth-longest pass play in program history.
Clifford went over 300 yards for the fourth time in his career, a mark that is tied with Kerry Collins for the fourth-most in program history. He also moved into fifth place on Penn State’s career passing list with 5,890 yards.
Through four games this season, Clifford is 86 of 120 passing (71.67%) for 1,158 yards and eight touchdowns with only two interceptions.
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In Penn State’s win over Auburn earlier this month, Clifford turned in one of the best performances of his career by completing 28 of 32 passes (87.5%) for 280 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
Clifford is the first Penn State player to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors since wide receiver KJ Hamler in October 2019.
Previously, Nittany Lions linebacker Brandon Smith earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Auburn, while kicker/punter Jordan Stout was the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week for his outing at Wisconsin in the season opener.
Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for PennLive. He can be reached at dgallen@pennlive.com. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow PennLive’s Penn State coverage on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.