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football Edit

Pro Football Focus evaluates Penn State's QBs, RBs & WRs

Penn State football wrapped up its 2020 season with a 4-5 record this past weekend, defeating Illinois with ease.

Although many will likely remember the circus that the Big Ten displayed leading up to (and during) the season , it'll also be looked back upon by Penn State fans as a season of "what ifs." Losing Micah Parsons and Journey Brown was just the tip of the iceberg this year, and it ultimately had a bigger impact than anyone would've imagined, as the Nittany Lions lost their first five games this season. Also, it was the way they lost to teams like Maryland and Iowa - inside Beaver Stadium, might I add - that had some wondering whether James Franklin would still be the head coach come Christmas.

Franklin's job was never truly on the line, but nonetheless, he and the team do deserve credit for the way they rallied. Two days after Thanksgiving, they defeated the Big Ten's other major storyline, Michigan, in Ann Arbor for the first time in more than a decade. The Wolverines were every worse than Penn State this season, but it proved to the spark that they needed, as the Nittany Lions went on to win three more games against Rutgers, Michigan State and Illinois. In fact, with other teams not playing all of their games, Penn State went from last place to third in the East Division, behind Indiana (6-1) and Ohio State (6-0).

To get a better feel for how Penn State's skill players performed overall, we used the Pro Football Focus database to compare Penn State's offensive players to not only others in the Big Ten, but in the other Power Five conferences.

If you're unfamiliar with how PFF works and grades out players, check out their FAQ page here.

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Quarterbacks

Penn State Nittany Lions Football
Sean Clifford actually led the Big Ten in passing this season with 1,883 yards.
Quarterback Grades
Player Overall Grade Passing Rushing

Sean Clifford

66.2

61.1

70.1

Will Levis

64.7

62.5

62.7

Sean Clifford Stats - Completed 152 of 251 attempts (60.56%) for 1,883 yards, 16 TDs & 9 INT. Clifford also rushed for 335 yards on 99 carries (3.4 YPC), totaling 3 TDs and 3 fumbles.

Will Levis Stats - Completed 33 of 55 attempts (60%) for 421 yards, 1 TD & 0 INT. Levis also rushed for 206 yards on 82 carries (3.2 YPC), totaling 3 TDs and four fumbles.

With respect to Will Levis, I'm going to focus on Sean Clifford here, as this was truly a tale of two seasons for him. Although he came out of the blocks with a respectable grade of 79.6 against Indiana, Clifford fell apart in the three games that followed against Ohio State, Maryland and Nebraska, earning grades of 50.7, 48.4 and 44.2, respectively. That earned Levis an opportunity to start against Iowa, but even then, Penn State went back to Clifford in the second half when they were down big.

From that point forward, Clifford performed much more similar to 2019. In fact, he was actually even better than last year. After finishing the game against the Hawkeyes with an improved grade of 67.7, he played his best game of the season against Michigan (80.2). He then earned grades of 72.0, 71.3 and 64.1, respectively, in the final three games.

For the season, Clifford finished 13th out of 22 Big Ten quarterbacks that had at least 50 dropbacks. However, his overall grade of 77.3 was actually third-best in the conference among quarterbacks if you just look at the Iowa game and beyond. Justin Fields and Adrian Martinez were the only two quarterbacks that played better down the stretch.

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