Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford has been named the Big Ten's co-offensive player of the week after a strong performance throughout a 38-17 Nittany Lions win over Villanova.

Clifford completed 19 of 26 passes for 401 yards and four touchdowns in the victory, as PSU improved to 4-0 ahead of this coming Saturday's primetime meeting with Indiana. He shared the conference award with Northwestern back Evan Hall, who had 216 yards and two touchdowns in the Wildcats' win over Ohio.

"This time last year we were 0-4, 0-5 sitting in the locker room sad," Clifford told reporters. We're 4-0 and we're one of, if not, I still think the best team in the country. Like that's what our mentality is right now.

"We're going to keep the underdog mentality and all that. You guys talk about it but we know the confidence we have in the room and on the team so it's all about getting better every single day and days like Wednesday can't can't happen again. We got to make sure that we are maximizing all the potential that we have every single day."

Penn State's last Big Ten offensive player of the week was receiver KJ Hamler back in 2019. It marks the first time Clifford has won this honor, and he's one of just 10 FBS quarterbacks to throw for over 400 yards in a single game this season.

On the season, Penn State's No. 14 has completed 86 of 120 passes (71.7 percent) for 1,158 yards and eight touchdowns to just two interceptions.

This bit of news was actually released in the middle of the Penn State-Villanova game, but we wanted to highlight it again now that kickoff is just a couple of weeks away.

The Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions will clash at 4 p.m. ET (3 p.m. local time) on FOX on Oct. 9, both programs announced. PSU holds a 17-13 all-time series lead against Iowa and has an impressive 10-5 mark at Kinnick Stadium.

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