Sean Clifford got the full spectrum of Penn State fans’ opinions — in 10 minutes

It’s not a fan referendum, ever. It sure felt like one, though. On Thursday, Penn State looked ready to start 2022 at 0-1, a Sean Clifford pass providing the game-winner …

… for Purdue.

If Clifford had picked up his phone right then and there, he’d have seen a whole lot of Penn State’s fan base, his own fans, ready to move on from him.

“Cliff gotta go ... I said it.”

That was a tweet from one Nittany Lions fan who got more attention than most, since DaQuan Jones, now with the Buffalo Bills, played for Penn State himself, pre-Clifford era. Just a typical fan now.

» READ MORE: Penn State wins opener at Purdue, 35-31.

I get the frustration, and I don’t get it. Penn State fans had resigned themselves to 0-1, and yet here they are with a 1-0 team because the same Sean Clifford, back against the wall, came up huge at the end, engineering a winning drive, completing the game-winning pass with 57 seconds left. The Big Ten came out with its first weekly awards and there was Sean Clifford, co-offensive player of the week.

I’m firmly in the camp that you want experience at QB. Don’t NFL teams strive for it? Aren’t Big Ten defenses complicated enough that even the most talented QBs straight out of high school need to adjust to them?

Fox analyst Joel Klatt, himself a former Colorado QB, made a legit point during the game, even before the pick-six, how fans often tire of veteran quarterbacks still around. Klatt said on the air: “Usually when you’re in college football a long time, it’s because you’re not good enough to leave.”

A backhanded swipe at Clifford for sure. Maybe true. But Klatt was more talking about the relationship with fans than offering commentary on Clifford himself. (I think.) PSU fans, allowed to want more, are fully allowed to hope and think that freshman Drew Allar is that guy, the personification of a brighter future. But is he the present? Do you know if he is ready to shake off a late killer interception and come up big?

» READ MORE: Here’s why Penn State’s game-winning TD was so much more than a routine catch for Keyvone Lee

Nobody doubts Clifford is a gamer. That’s never the issue. But if he wasn’t meant to be the QB of the present, why even start this season with him?

To me, Clifford slots in neatly between Trace McSorley and Christian Hackenberg on the pecking order of James Franklin quarterbacks. Sure, Allar could end up on top of that list. But rushing this process, eh. Allar looked more than fine out there for six plays, throwing his first two passes for first downs, easily backing up all the buzz about him. But Franklin has the right approach here. Don’t throw Allar in the deep end just yet. Penn State knows it has a big-time backup and that’s no small thing … evidence: 2021 season, when the Nittany Lions were doomed without one.

Obviously, if Penn State had begun with losses at Purdue and Auburn in its first three games, James Franklin would have had decisions to make. The future suddenly moves closer.

Thursday’s win kicks all this further down the road. OK, if Penn State loses at Auburn and can’t handle Ohio State, or drops one before the OSU game at Michigan — if the playoffs are out of the picture, we all know what that means. Until then? Clifford is the quarterback of the present as long as the present matters.

In Clifford, you’ve got a guy who came into this season completing 60.3% of his passes, which is better than anyone who came before him. The number that stands out: third all-time in passing efficiency. Considering the volume of throws, that ain’t bad at all.

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Maybe this is all preaching to the choir by now. Everyone saw how it played out at Purdue, including DaQuan Jones.

After that game, Jones tweeted again, including a little “That’s my QB!” meme. Jones added his own caption, “I’m [an] emotional tweeter people! Get over it!”

Nittany Lions fans understood, all of it. Until the next interception ...