How a Wide Receiver Became Penn State's Backup Quarterback

Injuries have hit Penn State's quarterback room hard. So the offense turned to receiver Liam Clifford.

Penn State Nittany Lions wide receiver Liam Clifford (2) runs with the ball during the first quarter of the Blue-White spring game at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Danny O'Brien, Penn State's quarterbacks coach, sat in his office Thursday, reflecting on an unimaginable month. His former coach at Maryland is now his former boss at Penn State. And his No. 2 quarterback is a wide receiver.

"I look at it as a coach, as my job, that it's not only getting ready to play the game but it's to help [the players] navigate the emotions that certainly everyone in this building is going through right now," O'Brien said.

Penn State hosts No. 2 Indiana on Saturday after taking a month-long series of gut punches that have tried the roster and staff. The Nittany Lions last played at home Oct. 11, losing 22-21 to Northwestern.

Starting quarterback Drew Allar sustained a season-ending injury that day against the Wildcats. On Sunday, Penn State fired head coach James Franklin. O'Brien was close to both.

Franklin coached O'Brien at Maryland 15 years ago and brought him to Penn State in 2021. And O'Brien worked with Allar for three seasons, most recently as the team's quarterbacks coach.

Penn State's return to Beaver Stadium will be quite different. O'Brien reports to interim head coach Terry Smith and has one healthy scholarship quarterback in his room. Which means that O'Brien is coaching up senior wide receiver Liam Clifford as the team's emergency quarterback. It has been quite a season.

Huge changes at quarterback for Penn State

Penn State quarterbacks Ethan Grunkemeyer, left, and Jaxon Smolik pose for a photo during football media day in Holuba Hall. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State began the season with four scholarship quarterbacks: Allar, Grunkemeyer, Jaxon Smolik and Bekkem Kritza. Allar is out for the season, Smolik is "week-to-week" with an injury, Smith said, and Kritza was injured for most of the season.

Penn State activated Kritza, a true freshman, for the first time this season at Ohio State, but he didn't take a rep. Instead, the Nittany Lions turned to Liam Clifford, a fifth-year senior receiver and brother of former Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford.

At Iowa three weeks ago, Penn State sought to protect Grunkemeyer in his first start by using Smolik as a run-first quarterback. Smolik's injury against the Hawkeyes changed the dynamic two weeks later at Ohio State, though offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki still wanted to run some Wildcat.

Enter Clifford, whose receiving snaps and catches (three for 25 yards) have been limited this season. Clifford, who ran three jet sweeps in the spring Blue-White Game, took a pair of Wildcat snaps and attempted a pass on a jet sweep vs the Buckeyes.

I'm calling this play 34 2 Jet Right Dumbass On 2. pic.twitter.com/MkRdVFn5BE

— T-FrankOn3 (@ThomasFrankCarr) November 2, 2025

This week, Smith essentially admitted that Clifford has been promoted to emergency quarterback with a short, wise-cracking answer. "He might be some secret sauce or something like that," Smith said.

But the Nittany Lions have no choice.

How Liam Clifford became QB2

Penn State Nittany Lions wide receiver Liam Clifford against the Boise State Broncos during the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Penn State returned three scholarship quarterbacks from the 2024 roster, though Smolik missed the season due to injury. Behind Allar, the group was raw. Grunkemeyer threw two passes last season. Smolik played in one game in 2023 but did not attempt a pass.

Kritza, meanwhile, was the only quarterback in Penn State's 2025 recruiting class. In 2024 he transferred mid-season as a high school senior from Miami (Fla.) Central to Chaminade-Madonna, where he threw for 1,029 yards and played in the state semifinals. But Penn State considered the 6-5, 200-pound Kritza to be a project, and he missed significant development time this year with an injury.

So Penn State explored its options. The roster featured other high school quarterbacks, including Luke Reynolds and Chaz Coleman. But Reynolds is now a 250-pound tight end, and Coleman has shown promise as a freshman defensive end. That led to Clifford.

A fifth-year senior who played quarterback as a kid, Clifford knew Penn State's offense and could throw a little bit. Tight end Khalil Dinkins said that Clifford has shown some decent passing chops in practice. Plus, Clifford could ask his older brother for advice.

Ultimately, Penn State decided that Clifford was the best option as an emergency quarterback. The Nittany Lions also have the option simply to run backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton if need be. But O'Brien said that Clifford has made the best of the situation.

"He's a super-high IQ kid," O'Brien said of Clifford. "He's spending a good bit of time with us. He can do a lot. ... [We're] very fortunate to have him on our team, given the injuries we've had in the room, being a little bit short. He's just a guy who's able to do a lot mentally."

"... And yeah, he'll do whatever is asked of him. He's always been that way, Penn State kid and all that. So he'll be ready to go in whatever role we ask him to do this week."

Still processing what happened

Penn State football quarterbacks coach Danny O'Brien during a practice session outside Holuba Hall. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Allar was on Penn State's sideline at Ohio State and has returned to the quarterbacks room to help as a de facto coach. During his Zoom call Thursday, O'Brien said that Allar and Grunkemeyer were about to watch game film.

Though Allar's back wiith the team, Franklin is gone. Franklin served as a mentor to O'Brien, who played quarterback at Maryland for two years when Franklin was the offensive coordinator. Franklin then hired O'Brien in 2021 as an offensive analyst and promoted him to quarterbacks coach last year.

Saturday will mark the first time O'Brien, or any member of Penn State's staff, has coached at Beaver Stadium without Franklin on the sideline. They're still processing.

"Obviously, it's been very emotional," O'Brien said. "I lived it a long time ago at Maryland with [Ralph] Friedgen and Franklin after the 2010 season, so I've kind of taken this as an opportunity. It's been hard on all of us, but it's an opportunity to help guide these kids who have not been through something like this, some of them in their entire career.

"It's just guiding them through it, and it's how to focus on being present and focused on the mission at hand, which is a really good Indiana team coming into our house Saturday and tune out the stuff."