Here’s how Penn State QB Sean Clifford’s brother Liam pushed him this offseason
Sean Clifford glanced down at the chess board and then back up at his brother across from him.
The wheels in his brain began turning, gathering information. Penn State’s redshirt junior quarterback was at his family’s Ohio home. But in his mind, he was reading his chess opponent in the same way he reads opposing defenses on the gridiron.
“When he breaks the huddle and he looks at the defense, and then they always try to do something before the snap of the ball to change the look, he said that’s how chess is,” explained his father, John Clifford. “You’re always trying to think two or three moves ahead of your opponent.”
Chess was one of the handful of activities Sean enjoyed with his younger brother, Liam Clifford, throughout the Nittany Lions’ extended offseason. The coronavirus pandemic forced Sean to come home in mid-March, shortly after Penn State went on spring break. It was during this time that Sean and Liam went through football drills, lifted weights and played board games — anything to compete against one another.
It helped, too, that Liam is a three-star wide receiver in the Class of 2021 and a Penn State commit. Sean had a built-in workout partner in a preseason filled with College Football Playoff aspirations and someone who’d run routes while he threw the ball, all in his little brother.
“No matter what they’re doing, and it doesn’t have to be sports even — if it’s even a board game — individually, they want to win,” said the boys’ mother, Kelly Burke. “That’s just the way they’ve always been.”
“They’re wired that way, yeah,” John chimed in.
The nearly three months Sean was away from his teammates were hard at first, he admitted. He missed the entirety of spring camp, and June 8 was the earliest he could return to campus. That made it difficult for Sean to connect with his receivers. And it made it impossible for them to run routes with him throwing.
“I’m a very hands-on type of guy,” Sean said during last week’s media day Zoom calls. “I like to text guys, (like), ‘Hey, let’s get some routes tonight. Let’s go to the field and work on this concept.’ And I haven’t been able to do that the past few months.”
So, naturally, Sean turned to Liam.
The two spent hours a day together working out. They set up weight lifting circuits in the family’s basement and did cone drills in the backyard. At nearby Landen Deerfield Park, which boasts 16 different sports fields, Sean would throw to Liam over and over again until they got the timing right.
Penn State’s receivers — particularly junior Jahan Dotson, redshirt junior Cam Sullivan-Brown, redshirt sophomore Daniel George, and freshman KeAndre Lambert-Smith — sent Sean videos of them running their routes. Liam would mimic the receivers to help Sean practice.
“He had a guy that could look like the guys he’s thrown to in college,” John said of Liam.
Having a receiver to work with was a luxury that not every college quarterback had during the early pandemic months. And that advantage is already paying dividends for both players. Liam recorded a career-high 300-yard receiving performance last weekend, and head coach James Franklin has noticed a difference in his own second-year starter.
“I think you’re just gonna see a more experienced, more seasoned guy, that I think is a little bit more confident, a little bit more comfortable,” Franklin told reporters after practice Wednesday.
Seeing Sean and Liam work out together earlier this year reminded Kelly of memories from when the boys were younger. They’ve always trained vigorously — one time so much so that Liam ran through the basement drywall when he was in the fifth grade, Kelly said.
Just like back in the day, the brothers motivated each other to improve over the nearly three months they were together at home. And that was crucial in Sean’s preparation for the fall, where expectations are even higher than last season’s Cotton Bowl run.
“Liam definitely looks up to Sean and always has,” Kelly said. “But now at certain times it’s, ‘Well, I’m gonna give you a run for your money, so get ready.’
“He pushes him.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
