Watch Penn State QB Sean Clifford Fire up Teammates Ahead of Minnesota Game: ‘F— Their Damn Boat’

With Penn State facing off against the University of Minnesota on Saturday afternoon, there was an expectation that this conference battle would be tightly-contested. After all, both teams entered the day with 8-0 records, so someone would be experiencing their first loss. However, one of the bigger moments of the day came prior to the battle as quarterback Sean Clifford told his teammates, “f— their damn boat!”

“Two things,” Clifford yelled to his teammates. “One: we’re the f—ing show. Everybody comes to see us. This place is going to be packed. Not for them. F— them. It’s for us. Two: f— their damn boat!”

This statement is in reference to Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck and one of his more popular sayings. “Row the Boat” has become a mantra of the Golden Gophers in recent years as Fleck’s teams have used the saying to help them focus on the moment and fight through adversity. In 2019, this saying has helped Minnesota reach an 8-0 record. Although Clifford and Penn State wanted to remove that zero from the loss column.

Early in the game, Clifford wasn’t able to lead the Nittany Lions to decisive scores. He threw two interceptions early and later added another while trying to mount a comeback. He did have one more opportunity to secure a win with fewer than two minutes remaining in the game, but he was only able to drive his team into Minnesota territory. Clifford threw an interception in the end zone, officially clinching the loss.

The 17th-ranked Golden Gophers held strong and won 31-26, upsetting the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions.

As Fleck explained back in 2017, the “Row the Boat” mantra originally came to be in 2011. He had lost his second son, Colt, to a heart condition. Row the Boat is his son’s life as Fleck continues to live for him.

“It’s a never-give-up mantra that has to do strictly with life or adversity or handling success, never giving up, and it means a few things,” Fleck told reporters, per TwinCities.com. When you row a boat, you’re rowing, don’t ever look at me and paddle. That’s completely different. We’re rowing. Your back is to the future, which is something you cannot control, nor can you see. You have to trust the person in front of you, that you’re looking at, that they’re doing their job and rowing at the same speed, same efficiency as you are. But that’s the future, you can’t control that. You don’t know if there’s rocks, waterfalls, stormy seas, you don’t know what’s ahead of you. You’re rowing in the present, which is the only thing you can actually control, and the only thing you can actually have an impact on. You either choose to take your oars and put them back in the boat and stop, or you put them back in the water and continue to go. But you’re looking at the past, which is the only thing you can actually learn from. But you can’t change.”

Clifford and the Nittany Lions certainly had the intention of sinking the boat when they arrived at Minnesota’s stadium, but they were unable to back up the talk with the nation watching. They have now fallen to 8-1 on the season and could potentially drop in the Top-25 rankings.

Photo Credit: Hannah Foslien/Getty