Meet The Sean Clifford Fanatic From College GameDay In Texas
Penn State alumnus and Texas transplant Ryan Tracy is waiting for the Nittany Lions to earn a bid to the Cotton Bowl.
After graduating in 2016, Tracy moved to Houston to take a job as a risk engineer with a property insurance company. Since then, he’s only made it back to Happy Valley for one (albeit worthwhile) football game — the 2016 White Out against Ohio State.
If hell freezes over and Penn State somehow weasels its way into the College Football Playoff, Tracy might get to see his alma mater play for a second time since graduation and in a semifinal game three hours from his new home. But if not, he’d still have a memorable experience of rooting for the Nittany Lions this season.
Tracy attended ESPN’s College GameDay in Dallas this weekend before Texas played Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown at AT&T Stadium. He drove up to the game from Houston with some Texas alumni friends and eagerly got in line early Saturday morning to attend GameDay. After all, the show never visited Penn State during Tracy’s time in Happy Valley (or at all since 2009), but has now come twice in the three years since he graduated.
Tracy proudly waved a sign that read “Sean Clifford For Heisman” at the front of the crowd of the live pregame show, much to the approval of fans on Twitter and Penn State’s student news Sean Clifford blog.
“I always wanted to make a sign and hold it up,” Tracy said. “I thought to myself, ‘I can make another sign about hating Baker Mayfield and blend in,’ or I can do something for Penn State and make it easy for my friends and family to see me on TV.
“It’s cool what [Clifford] has done in his limited opportunities this season. He’s definitely living it up in his moments and I’m excited for the future because of him.”
In a sea of burnt orange and crimson, Tracy, dressed in all white, certainly made it easy for his friends, family, and fellow Cliffordian disciples to find him.
Tracy’s dedication got us wondering: What if we aren’t thinking big enough with our SeanCliffordForHeisman.com campaign? What if there’s something left to be done, á la Ol’ Crimson? What if Penn State is exactly the type of university with alumni obsessed enough to rain on host schools’ parades by bragging about how the nation’s top statistically performing quarterback and deserved Heisman frontrunner doesn’t even need to start?
To answer these questions and expand our movement offline, we’ve started a petition to make Sean Clifford For Heisman signs a weekly institution on College GameDay. Like Washington State fans with Ol’ Crimson, we want Sean Clifford For Heisman signs at every taping of College GameDay so we can spread the Gospel according to Sean on national television every single Saturday.
Sign and share to show your support and help bolster Clifford’s Heisman campaign, beginning with GameDay’s taping at Michigan next weekend.
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