Penn State’s Sean Clifford moves into ‘retirement’ on the highest possible note

PASADENA, Calif. — Sean Clifford got loose inside the Rose Bowl, by the 25-yard line … now the 30, moving fast, almost dancing. No helmet on — Penn State’s quarterback had substituted a rose stem between his teeth.

TV cameras caught all that. They’d focused in on Clifford on the sideline, victory over Utah secured. Was that a raindrop or a teardrop?

Cameras didn’t catch this part. Hours earlier, as Penn State’s starters were being announced, a tunnel hit gridlock with Nittany Lions fans hustling to their seats. AT QUARTERBACK, SEAN CLIFFORD … Some guy in the tunnel added, “Retire.” Nobody laughed or cheered or booed or gave the guy a hard time. Everyone simply moved on. Someone giving Sean Clifford a hard time doesn’t turn any heads.

Another scene: The 35-21 victory against Utah secured, media allowed on the sideline for the final minutes. A TV standup was filmed. A man stood in the late-game drizzle and said into a camera, “This was Sean Clifford’s legacy game tonight, in the biggest game of his career.”

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Who’d he beat? That had been the refrain. Update: At the top of his game, Clifford soundly beat the seventh-ranked Pac-12 champions in the Rose Bowl. You have to go back to Penn State’s second season in the Big Ten for its last Rose Bowl win. Joe Paterno remained Penn State’s coach for another 17 seasons after that last win here.

“When you come to the Rose Bowl and beat the Pac-12 champion, that’s a statement game for sure,” said wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who was a key ingredient in the Nittany Lions’ three biggest offensive plays of the game.

As the sun left the premises, Clifford’s decision-making stayed as sharp as his passing. His first five third-down passes … all completions.

Maybe Penn State fans had earned their weariness of a sixth-year QB whose career defined ups and downs. But Clifford had so earned this moment.

“Sean’s experienced it all at Penn State,” coach James Franklin said later, relating how Clifford didn’t want to come out at the end. Franklin wanted to give him a proper send-off.

“We kind of got into an argument,” Franklin said.

By then, Clifford was sitting next to his coach, calm demeanor returned.

“To be able to be a spoke in the wheel for this team in the Rose Bowl is such a blessing,” Clifford said of his 21 passes, 16 completed, including for two scores, earning him Rose Bowl offensive MVP.

Spoke in the wheel? Not this night. Call Clifford the catalyst. Lambert-Smith stood against a wall outside Penn State’s locker room and gave it all some proper framing.

“In years past, one loss has turned into two — one team has beat us twice,” Lambert-Smith said of how it added up to 11-2, matching the best record of Franklin’s nine seasons, with the Nits reaching 11 wins for the fourth time of that era. “I think we did a good job of not looking in the rearview mirror and just having laser focus for the rest of the season.”

Of Clifford’s performance specifically …

“You couldn’t write it up any better than that,” Lambert-Smith said. “I just think he was so locked in. You could just tell, he wanted it bad. He wanted it more than anybody else. He just had a little bit of an edge to him today. He’s always got an edge, but he had a little bit extra today.”

There was another key play by a QB. Utah’s Cameron Rising hadn’t been as sharp as Clifford passing, but his elusive running had added to the mix as Utah matched Penn State’s 14 first-half points. But a great Rising third-down scramble turned badly for Utah when he went for more yards and got hit by multiple Nittany Lions, his leg twisting. Easy to say he should have slid … but he should have slid.

Rising was done for the game and Utah never got any mojo back, Penn State scoring 21 unanswered points before a last-minute Utes TD.

A huge first-half tone-setter came in the second quarter, third-and-8, Clifford spinning out of trouble, finding Lambert-Smith wide-open down the left sideline for 32 yards. Three completions later, a 10-yard Clifford-to-Mitchell Tinsley pass made it 14-7.

“Honestly, that play, I’m just clearing out,” Lambert-Smith said. “All week in practice, the ball’s never gone to me … The red sea just kind of opened up and sometimes in the games you get different looks than you were anticipating. Me and Sean were on the same page and were able to capitalize.”

The highlight play of the game was star freshman Nick Singleton racing 87 yards in the third quarter for a 21-14 lead. Lambert-Smith had a block that cleared a lane.

“We did a different snap count than we usually do to kind of get them caught off guard a little bit,” Lambert-Smith said. “That was the first time we did it in the game. The whole point of it, they looked back to the sideline, we snapped the ball. Kind of doing that, catching them off guard.”

Singleton in the open …

“I knew once he got past me,” Lambert-Smith said of that score.

The receiver added an 88-yard touchdown of his own on a third-and-4 reception, opening play of the fourth quarter. Checkmate.

“Sean Clifford’s last season — I’m playing for Sean Clifford,” Lambert-Smith said. “I’m really proud of Cliff. I’ve seen the ups and downs, his trials.”

Afterward, nobody was in a hurry to leave the field, as groups of players took turns posing behind a bed of roses. They played “Sweet Caroline” on the loudspeakers. They egged on the crowd into “We are ...” chants.

One of the last guys to leave, on the run again. The crowd in the corner above the tunnel to Penn State’s locker room roared at the sight of him. Clifford doffed his Rose Bowl champion hat and disappeared into the tunnel.

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