Drew Allar details how Sean Clifford helped him prepare for first bowl start

It’s crazy to think that we are back in bowl season again. It feels like yesterday when we were all excited when the Penn State football team defeated Utah in the Rose Bowl. Now, here we are again preparing for another Penn State New Year’s Six appearance. This time, the Nittany Lions will take on Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, and the team looks very different. Last season we watched Sean Clifford ride off into the sunset as Drew Allar watched. This year, Drew Allar is QB1 and will be able to showcase his skills on the biggest stage. But it’s the lessons learned from Sean Clifford that have helped Allar ahead of the Peach Bowl.

Drew Allar: Sean Clifford helped prepare Allar for first bowl start

Drew Allar spoke to the media ahead of the Peach Bowl this morning. A year later he finds himself as the face of Penn State football. When he struggled, he had to face the media and the criticism. On the flip side, when he had success, he was the face of the praise.

Sean Clifford knew both sides of this as the Penn State quarterback for six seasons. But what did Allar learn during bowl prep last season that has prepared him for the Peach Bowl?

When asked about how Sean Clifford helped Allar prepare he said, “I learned a lot from Cliff last year. He is definitely a great mentor to me last year in the quarterback room and the whole offensive unit too. The biggest thing with bowl prep is getting your body right from the end of the season just because you know it’s a long physical season and you endure a lot. Everybody has bumps and bruises by the end of it, so getting your body back right and to 100 percent is the most important thing.

“Then just being able to sit down and maybe break down your performance throughout the season, but then also get ahead on whoever you’re playing in this bowl game. We’ve been preparing as an offense for this game for probably like at least four weeks already. So I think we’ve laid a good foundation from when we were back in State College, and then we’ve continued to build off that this week. So just taking it day by day, never looking too far into the future is probably the biggest thing I learned from him last year.”

Big opportunity ahead of Drew Allar

Playing against one of the top teams in the SEC is a huge challenge. But also, the two biggest games of the season against Ohio State and Michigan Allar struggled. He will get a chance to redeem himself on Saturday against Ole Miss.

When asked about the opportunity, Allar said, “Obviously, this is a great opportunity, not only for me, but for the whole team. We’ve been talking about it the whole bowl prep. If we win this game, we’re the first team ever in college history to win all six New Year’s Bowl games, and we don’t take that lightly.

“Again, we want to send the seniors out the right way because of how much they’ve given to this program and how much they’ve sacrificed throughout their career to get the program to this point. For me, it’s just another game. I’m not taking it any differently. I’m taking it very seriously and just have another opportunity to go out and play the game that I love to play.”

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