Many Penn State fans have gone through the 2022 football season not expecting coach James Franklin to make a QB change for any reason other than an injury to starter Sean Clifford.
Many Penn State fans also want Drew Allar to be the starter, and that number might have increased after this Saturday’s loss to Ohio State.
Although Penn State is a more-than-respectable 6-2, it has no shot of a Big Ten championship, and its last four games are against teams it has no reason not to beat, starting this Saturday at Indiana.
So with the Michigan and Ohio State games in the past, along with Penn State’s hopes at a College Football Playoff berth, ‘why not play the kid?’ is a question many are asking.
Of course, Clifford turning the ball over four times — three interceptions and a lost fumble — Saturday’s doesn’t hurt the case for the former five-star recruit from Medina, Ohio. In his postgame press conference, Franklin complimented Clifford’s effort but noted that four turnovers are unacceptable.
“I thought he played gutsy and made some big-time plays, but he can’t have the turnovers,” Franklin said. “I don’t know if the one (the fumble) was necessarily his fault. It was a pressure and a strip sack. The other ones, whether we left the ball inside or whether he has to find the throwing lane around really athletic long defensive ends. I thought he played gutsy. He did some really good things, but there’s some things that we have to get cleaned up, too.”
For some fans, what Franklin said wasn’t anything surprising. There were positives from Clifford’s performance— 371 yards, three touchdowns and a 68.1 completion percentage— but Clifford’s turnovers hurt Penn State big time, and Franklin would have been insulting people’s intelligence if he didn’t reference it.
But there are also some who see Franklin’s comments as a sign that a switch could be coming.
Penn State’s last four games are at Indiana, at home against Maryland, at Rutgers and against Michigan State on Senior Day at Beaver Stadium.
Franklin’s team is a good bet to win all those games regardless of who’s at QB. But thinking about the possibility of him making a switch sure is compelling.
