Penn State Football: McSorley’s spring games built confidence each year
For the greatest passer in Penn State football history, success began each spring. Trace McSorley set the tone for each offseason.
Preparation should be Trace McSorley’s middle name. The Penn State football standout quarterback embodied that word and played every game like the national title. It all began with his first spring game and carried over every single offseason.
He didn’t rest easy with his accomplishments. McSorley made sure he was in the lineup to prove he had earned the starting job and deserved to keep it. Tommy Stevens never relented his pursuit of the starting gig, but McSorley never let him get close enough.
As a three-star, under-recruited QB from Virginia, he had a point to prove. He emphatically made it. After showing flashes of his dual threat potential against Georgia in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl, McSorley led the Blue Team to a 37-0 romp in the spring game.
His day was nearly flawless completing 23-of-27 passes for 281 yards and four touchdowns. The performance didn’t end the quarterback controversy, but it did stake his claim that he belonged. As a youngster with a lot of surrounding talent, he simply distributed the ball to his playmakers.
A prosperous 2016-2017 season unfolded from there, bringing Penn State back to college football Camelot. McSorley burst on the scene with a record-breaking season. Still, the work wasn’t finished. McSorley might’ve reached elite status as a sophomore, but his journey had hardly begun.
He came right back in the spring and participated again. The stats didn’t overwhelm, throwing for 114 yards on 13-of-21 passing with one interception. Yet, he still managed to get the Blue Team a blowout, 26-0 victory and continued to instill confidence at the QB positon.
The 2017 season saw similar success to 2016. The Nittany Lions again reached 11 wins – this time earning a Fiesta Bowl Championship at season’s end. McSorley threw for 3,000-plus yards for the second straight season and racked up more than 30 total touchdowns.
He’d cemented his name in Penn State football’s history as the signal caller that turned around the program. McSorley had set himself up to shatter most of Penn State’s career passing marks and put his name in the conversation of the greatest QB in the school’s history for 2018.
Before he could begin a what should be a coronation season, he focused on his final spring. The result was 10-for-14, 107 yards, one touchdown and zero picks through the air. He then rushed for 41 more yards on the ground in a 21-10 Blue Team win.
The victory was his most impressive yet. Without drafted and graduated stars and contributors Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki, DaeSean Hamliton, Saeed Blacknall and Chris Godwin (who left after the 2016 season), he created new life for the offense.
He went from a facilitator to the main attraction, hitting new faces like Mac Hippenhammer. The offense looked like it had a top-10 quarterback in the nation. All of that starts with a quality spring, which McSorley regularly gave.
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In total, he hit 74-percent of his passes for 502 yards, five touchdowns and just one interception over his three career spring games. I know these games play out like a padded-up seven-on-seven, but confidence in the QB is key for any offense. Every year McSorley gave his team that swagger, and there’s no doubt he’s done it again headed into 2018.