Penn State football: Sean Clifford's mentorship key for Drew Allar and Beau Pribula

There will be few quarterbacks more experienced than Penn State’s Sean Clifford when the 2022 season kicks off next fall.

Clifford recently announced his intent to return for a sixth season — and a fourth as Penn State’s starting quarterback. That decision coincided with the addition of two talented prospects to PSU’s QB room. On3 Consensus five-star Drew Allar and four-star Beau Pribula signed their National Letters of Intent last week, and will enroll for the spring semester.

“I’m really excited just to be that older guy for everybody to learn, to grow, and make strides for the team,” Clifford said last week.

Clifford doesn’t know much about the skillset of either Allar or Pribula just yet.

He’s met both of them, but said he hasn’t gotten the chance to really get to know them.

He does know, however, just what that duo is about to take on when they get to campus in the new year.

“For them, it’s just going to be a lot of learning to start,” Clifford said. “That’s where I can come in and really allow them to be sponges and just give them as much information as possible, help [OC Mike] Yurcich grow that room, develop it and develop myself at the same time.”

Clifford’s mentorship abilities are an important component of his return for Penn State’s coaching staff.

Penn State coach James Franklin explained that Clifford handles the mental aspect of the game well. As it relates to film, studying the game, and learning defenses, Franklin said Clifford is as good as any quarterback he’s been around at the college level.

“I think that’s going to be really valuable for these two quarterbacks,” Franklin said of Allar and Prubula. “I think obviously also with [Christian] Veilleux’s experience that he was able to gain last year, I think we’re in a healthy position at the quarterback spot with those two guys. I’m really proud of both of them and how they handled the situation throughout the entire process.”

Yurcich said Clifford’s role with the two signees will be exactly what one might assume. He can show Allar and Pribula what it means to carry themselves like a college quarterback.

“You get a guy with a ton of experience, a lot of playing time, and he gets to help those guys out,” Yurcich said.

Yurcich expects Pribula and Allar to pepper Clifford with questions upon their arrival, ranging from his thought process on certain plays to his eye placement to footwork.

That’s key, because, as Yurcich noted, he can only spend so much time in meetings with his quarterbacks. Clifford can serve as a pseudo-coach for Penn State outside of that regimented time.

“There’s only a certain number of hours that I’m allowed to meet with those guys,” Yurcich said. “So I think it’s really important to have a player like Sean who can coach those guys on their own, player meetings, when they’re on their own and they’re in the office and I can’t meet with them, Sean’s going to be going over some stuff. He’ll be available to them.”

Clifford’s impact won’t be limited to just film study. It’s everything. Mental and physical preparation. Nutrition. Habits. Execution.

He can also make mistakes that Allar and Pribula can learn from, Yurcich pointed out.

“If Sean misses a read, then they also learn from mistakes,” Yurcich said. “I think there’s a lot of good things that Sean’s doing right now that he’s getting better at. A lot of it is, you have to teach yourself. You have to self-correct at times. He’s getting to expert level at that stuff.”