UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State redshirt senior quarterback Sean Clifford has been named to the Davey O'Brien Award watch list. The award is presented annually to the outstanding quarterback in college football.
Compiled by a subset of the Davey O'Brien National Selection Committee, this year's list was selected based on career player performance and expectations heading into the 2022 college football season. All nominees are required to have previously started at least one game at an NCAA Division I institution.
The Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation's best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award. The 46th Annual Davey O'Brien Awards Dinner honoring the winner will be held Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, at The Fort Worth Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sean Clifford · R-Sr. · QB · 6-2 · 212 · Cincinnati, Ohio · Saint Xavier
- Has played in 38 career games, making 33 starts.
- Is one of three Penn State players to reach 8,000 yards of total offense and one of three PSU quarterbacks to eclipse 7,500 career passing yards.
- Sits as the current all-time leader at Penn State in completion percentage (.603).
- Ranks second at PSU in career passing touchdowns (62), third in passing yardage (7,839), completions (607) and passing efficiency (141.2), fourth in attempts (1,006), tied for seventh in yards per passing attempt (7.8), eighth in lowest interception percentage (2.49), and 10th in touchdown pass percentage (6.16) and wins as a starting quarterback (21).
- Is third in school history in 300-yard passing games (7) and 200-yard games (19).
- Among Penn State quarterbacks, is third all-time at PSU in rushing yardage (897) and tied for sixth in rushing touchdowns (10).
- Is second all-time in program history in career total yards (8,736) and touchdowns responsible for (72).
- Owns 26 career games with multi-touchdown passes, including 12 with three or more TDs and three with four or more.
- Has 16 career games with multi-passing touchdown halves and nine games with multi-passing TD quarters.
- Has thrown for at least 250 passing yards and three passing touchdowns in eight career games.
- Has six career touchdown passes of 70 or more yards.
- Has completed 105 career passes of 20 or more yards.
The official Davey O'Brien Midseason Watch List will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 18, and will contain all active quarterbacks from the Preseason Watch List, all players honored as a weekly Great 8 recipient through the season's first seven weeks and any additional quarterbacks approved by the selection subcommittee.
The Midseason Watch List will then be pared down to the 35-player Davey O'Brien QB Class of 2022 on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Fan voting on social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) will again play a role in the semifinalist, finalist and winner voting totals when combined with the national selection committee's ballots. Voting will begin on Oct. 25.
Sixteen semifinalists selected from the QB Class will be named on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The Foundation will announce the three finalists two weeks later (Monday, Nov. 21). The 2022 Davey O'Brien Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 8, during The Home Depot College Football Awards.
For more information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and reserving new season tickets for the 2022 Penn State Football season presented by PSECU, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, fans can visit www.PSUnrivaled.com, call 1-800-NITTANY weekdays from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
More than 5,300 new season tickets have already been sold for the 2022 campaign.