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James Franklin, Sean Clifford and Ji'Ayir Brown recap Penn State's 2023 Rose Bowl win

Mug-Shot 4x4by:Ryan Snyder•01/02/23•

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Penn State head coach James Franklin celebrates a win over Utah in the Rose Bowl. (Credit: Ryan Snyder/BWI)

Penn State finished its 2023 season in style Monday, Jan. 2, defeating Pac-12 Champions Utah in the Rose Bowl, 35-21. Not only did the Nittany Lions cap their season with a dominating win, but senior quarterback Sean Clifford had a strong performance, completing 16 of 22 attempts for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Clifford completed 73 percent of his passes and was named the Rose Bowl’s offensive MVP.

“I’m just proud of these guys. I was here in 2016, one of the better Rose Bowl games, and watched somebody else celebrate, and I wanted this for them,” Franklin said during his postgame press conference. “I couldn’t have wrote the script any better for Sean Clifford to be the offensive MVP, and my man Tig to be the defensive MVP. It’s awesome, sending these guys out the right way, in a time in college football that I think it’s more challenging than ever.”

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Clifford added, “I just can’t thank everybody enough for my experience at Penn State. I cherished every minute of it, the ups and the downs. I just couldn’t be more thankful.”

Defensively, safety Ji’Ayir Brown was named the defensive MVP, totaling eight tackles, including 1.5 sacks and an interception.

“I think in the second half we had to take a look at ourselves,” Brown said. “A lot of emotions happened in this game when guys start to get out of their way of the scheme, and second half we went in the locker room, and everybody got their jitters out, and we just played together, trusted each other a little more, and we was able to execute more on more plays.”

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