Giger: Clifford is the QB, 'nothing had changed,' and that's that

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- I apparently heard something different than some other Penn State beat writers this past week, because it seemed pretty obvious to me based on what James Franklin said Tuesday that Sean Clifford was still the starting quarterback and that nothing was really going to change with the QB usage.

Sure enough, nothing has changed.

Franklin even said exactly that after Saturday's 45-14 rout of Indiana, in which Clifford remained in the game for a long, long time.

While everybody was waiting for Drew Allar to get some meaningful snaps, it didn't happen until the game was essentially over at 31-7.

"Yeah, nothing had changed," Franklin said. "I told you I had discussion with members on the staff. But nothing had changed from our perspective. Everybody still saw it the same way."

Like I said, that seemed pretty obvious to me when Franklin repeated over and over on Tuesday that he was only focused on his 1-0 mentality. The coach noted he didn't like the tone of a question about giving Allar an extended look because there was still a lot left to play for this season.

But it seemed like a lot of reporters viewed Franklin's responses during the week as an indication that he would consider a change or at least consider playing Allar in more meaningful ways. There were a bunch of stories making it seem like the coach was undecided in some way on what to do.

Ha!

James Franklin knows exactly what he's going to do.

He's going to keep playing Sean Clifford. And keep playing him. And keep playing him.

And that's that.

This coach is not going to try and build toward the future by playing the freshman Allar more. That became crystal clear Saturday when Franklin refused to put Allar into the game despite the fact that Penn State had complete control, a big lead and that Indiana's offense was terrible and stood no chance.

There were ample opportunities to play Allar -- up 14-7, or up 21-7, or 24-7. But it didn't happen until it was 31-7 in the third quarter.

Here's the rest of Franklin's answer on that subject.

"Obviously, we would have loved to get Drew in this game. That was part of the plan to hopefully continue to get him as many reps as we possibly can. But really, I mean, I know you guys, I think the last time I got together with you, I think my first seven questions were about the quarterback position. And for us, it really wasn't ... a lot of dialogue. There was one discussion that we had. But after that, we just kind of went back to our normal operation."

The normal operation for four years has been Clifford starting and playing pretty much the entire game. Yeah, it would help for the future if that were to change and Allar could somehow split series, but again, Saturday proved that anyone hoping for something like that is going to be disappointed.

Clifford had a solid day as a game manager. There was a lot of wind, so maybe, I thought, that was a reason why Franklin decided to keep Clifford in the game for as long as he did -- since Allar has never faced that kind of situation in college.

Franklin, though, said the wind did not play any factor in his decision.

"The wind was bad, it probably wasn't as bad as I thought it may have been based on some of the reports that I got," Franklin said. "I also thought we were gonna get rain maybe before the game and just up to the game, maybe in the first quarter. That didn't happen. So that helped. But no, (the wind) really didn't factor in."

So, here were are. And this is where we're going to stay.

Clifford is going to keep playing because Franklin absolutely, unequivocally believes the sixth-year senior provides the best chance to go 1-0 each week.

If you want to see Allar get playing time, you'd better hope Penn State gets a big lead and has control of the game.

Allar did play a good bit in mop-up time and did well, completing 9 of 12 passes for 75 and tossing two short TDs. Still, the game was out of hand by that point, so he didn't face any real game pressure.

Clifford was asked a good question after the game about all the noise that has been around the QB situation over the past week. He's been around a long time and understands how to block out the noise, but at the same time, as the question put it, he's also "human" and cannot completely ignore all of it.

Here's the video of his answer:

"I mean, it's a good question," Clifford said. "I think that the number one thing for me, is if you take all that away and you look at what I'm doing right now, I'm living out my dream of playing college football at the highest level for a team that I've been a captain for for four years, for a community that has had my back and realistically has been very good to me.

"So, I can't get mad at people being critical. And I won't get mad at people people being critical. I'm just blessed to be in the position that I am. I'm living out a dream that I've had for years and years and years. So, for me, I don't really pay attention to it because I'm just like the happiest dude. It sucks to lose, that's for sure. And don't get me wrong, I would love to win every game, obviously, very competitive.

"But at the same time, I wake up every day, win or lose, very happy person, just because not many people get to experience this. So, taking every day as a blessing for sure."

There are three regular-season games left, and Penn State needs to win all three to finish 10-2 and possibly earn an Orange Bowl berth. A lot of people, me included, believe the Lions could go 10-2 while playing Allar and also give the young quarterback the experience he needs.

But that's just not going to happen.

Because nothing has changed.

And Penn State fans are just going to have to accept it.