Penn State put its highly-touted freshman class front and center and began the painstaking process of forging a new identity.

Purdue? The Boilermakers know who they are and rallied repeatedly behind quarterback Aidan O’Connell.

But despite a huge fourth-quarter defensive play, Purdue could not bury the Nittany Lions.

Sean Clifford came back from a brief injury hiatus and an horrendous interception to rally Penn State to a 35-31 Big Ten road victory Thursday night at Ross-Ade Stadium.

Clifford overthrew a pass that Purdue’s Chris Jefferson took 72 yards for the go-ahead score, seemingly burying the Lions. But Clifford led a drive and capped it with his 4th TD pass to go along with a rushing score.

After getting both of its highly-touted freshman running backs in action early, the Lions unveiled 5-star quarterback Drew Allar to start the second half. He entered for 1 series in place of a seemingly injured Clifford, who accounted for 3 touchdowns before halftime and 5 for the game. Clifford had his leg twisted on a low hit that drew a roughing-the-passer penalty in the second quarter. He looked fine finishing the half, but couldn’t go to begin the third quarter. He returned for the next possession, though, again moving reasonably well. After the game, coach James Franklin said he was dealing with cramps as well as the blow to his leg.

In his brief stint, Allar completed 2-of-4 for 26 yards, and had a ball dropped by tight end Tyler Warren.

Meanwhile, Purdue stuck to its pass-happy approach and found a new No. 1 receiver in Iowa transfer Charlie Jones. Quarterback Aidan O’Connell, on his 24th birthday, proved his breakout 2021 season was no fluke, delivering balls on the money most of the night against a strong Penn State secondary. O’Connell’s 8th connection with Jones went for a 7-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, putting Jones over 100 receiving yards and putting Purdue ahead 24-21.

By the time the fireworks were done Thursday night, O’Connell had over 330 yards passing and Jones had reached 10 catches and 126 yards.

Purdue also got its ground game going as the game wore on, with King Doerue averaging better than 4 yards per carry through 3 quarters.

After a rough third quarter, Clifford hit a couple of big throws in a 4-play, 55-yard drive that put Penn State back on top 28-24 early in the fourth quarter.

The game had a strange ebb and flow, with a Purdue turnover setting up a Penn State touchdown with 2 seconds left in the first half, putting the Lions up 21-10.

The Nittany Lions got both their true freshman backs in action in the first quarter and stuck with the ground game throughout the first half despite limited success. The grinding style produced just 77 yards on 23 attempts in the first 30 minutes, but it did allow the Lions to possess the ball for 17:08 before halftime. The Lions’ ground game — horrible last year — stalled in the second half and Penn State finished the game with 32 carries for 98 yards (3.1 per attempt).

O’Connell and Purdue, tasked with replacing their top 3 wideouts from a year ago, got off to a solid start and were driving for a potential go-ahead score before the first turnover of the game swung momentum.

After Penn State’s Zakee Wheatley stripped the ball from TJ Sheffield on a jet sweep, Joey Porter Jr. corralled the ball just inside the sideline to give Penn State the ball with 30 seconds left in the half. A couple plays later, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford hit Brenton Strange for a 67-yard score, with Strange breaking tackles and rumbling for the TD and the 21-10 halftime lead.

Undaunted, the Boilermakers marched 75 yards to open the second half and close to within 21-17. Jones had 2 receptions on the drive, giving him 6 for 91 yards to that point. He was clearly O’Connell’s new favorite target, as no one else on Purdue had more than 2 catches to that point.

The first quarter played out as expected. Purdue lived up to its pass-happy identity; Penn State tried to establish a new identity by getting its highly-touted freshman running backs involved.

O’Connell connected on 7 of his first 11 passes for 87 yards, catching a break when a would-be interception bounced off PSU corner Porter’s hands and turned into a completion. The Boilermakers went on to drive 73 yards for a field goal.

For Penn State, true freshman 5-star running back Nicholas Singleton took off for 9 yards on his first carry as a Nittany Lion and racked up 21 yards on 5 carries on Penn State’s second possession. Fellow true freshman back Kaytron Allen took the field for the Lions’ 3rd offensive series.

On the first play of the second quarter, Penn State converted a 4th down to set itself up in the red zone. Three plays later, Clifford hit transfer wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley for the first time for a 12-yard touchdown. Allen had 5 carries for 19 yards on the drive. To that point in the game, the Lions had run the ball 14 times and thrown it 9. Clifford, after a slow start, was 5-of-9 for 60 yards and the TD.

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