Trace McSorley enters Senior Bowl week doubted once again

Former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley will participate in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama this week.

Following a storied career at Penn State where he broke several quarterback records and won a Big Ten Championship, Trace McSorley will be one of the eight quarterbacks playing in the Senior Bowl on January 26. The Senior Bowl, an exhibition football game consisting of the top college seniors in the nation, serves as a platform to perform in front of several NFL scouts.

If you scroll through NFL Draft Twitter these days, you’ll see everyone who covers the NFL Draft tweeting about West Virginia’s Will Grier, Duke’s Daniel Jones, N.C State’s Ryan Finley, Buffalo’s Tyree Jackson, Missouri’s Drew Lock, Washington State’s Gardner Minshew, and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham. Most of these analysts have already counted out Trace McSorley, who finds himself in a position he’s quite used to: the underdog.

Let’s rewind to high school, where Trace McSorley went 55-5 as the starting quarterback of Briar Woods High School in Virginia, leading his team to four straight state championship games in which he won three. Despite McSorley’s crazy successful high school career, he failed to receive offers from big time college football programs.

Following McSorley’s senior season of high school, he was ranked the 571st prospect in the nation, and 15th best dual threat quarterback according to 247sports.com. McSorley’s best offers were from Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Purdue, Boston College, and North Carolina. He was committed to Vanderbilt, and didn’t receive an offer from Penn State until James Franklin was hired as head coach in January of 2014. Remember, Penn State football team it is now, but rather a team recovering from sanctions.

Once six-foot-four Christian Hackenberg departed for the NFL Draft following his junior season in 2015, in walked six-foot Trace McSorley, who beat out 6six-foot-fiveTommy Stevens for the starting quarterback job. The phrase that comes to mind when describing the vibe around the Penn State Football program once Trace McSorley took over for the 2016 season is “the unknown.”

Penn State hadn’t even come close to recovering from sanctions yet, and if James Franklin and the Nittany Lions couldn’t succeed with a physically gifted quarterback like Christian Hackenberg under center, how were they going to succeed with an undersized quarterback in Trace McSorley? Not only did Trace McSorley prove everyone wrong, but he exceeded all expectations, winning a Big Ten Championship, and then a Fiesta Bowl in the following season. Trace McSorley is the quarterback the brought back Penn State Football.

Fast forward to the present time, when McSorley now faces the same stereotypes he had two separate times prior while being recruited, and while becoming the starting quarterback at Penn State. McSorley might not have that size of Drew Lock, or the arm strength of Tyree Jackson, but he did win more games than any other of the Senior Bowl quarterback with a 30-9 record as Penn State’s starting quarterback.

Furthermore, McSorley has shown us that in the biggest games, against top defenses, he can perform at the highest level. Look at the 2016 Big Ten Championship against the 13th-ranked Wisconsin defense. McSorley threw for 384 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-35 win where Penn State once trailed 28-7. One of those passing touchdowns included an absolute dime to Saquon Barkley, who ran a wheel route past T.J Watt.

Look at the way McSorley perfectly places that ball between the linebacker and the safety while under pressure from the Wisconsin pass rush. In the 2016 Rose Bowl, Trace McSorley had four passing touchdowns, and one rushing touchdown. This included one of the most perfectly thrown balls on the run you’ll ever see.

In 2017, against Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, McSorley threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns in the win. He also had 12 carries for 60 yards on the ground. The Huskies were the fifth-ranked defense in the country that season.

How can I leave out the Ohio State game this season, where McSorley had 286 passing yards and two passing touchdowns to go along with 175 rushing yards?

Of course the last game Trace McSorley played is fresh in everyone’s mind, where he led Penn State to 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to bring the Nittany Lions all the way back in the Citrus Bowl.

Trace McSorley has shown his ability to perform at the highest level on the big stage. In terms of NFL traits, I love his  pocket awareness, and ability to extend plays with his legs. You know McSorley won’t run as much in the NFL, but so many of the successful quarterbacks in the NFL have the ability to extend the play like McSorley does.

Everyone also loves McSorley’s character and ability to be a leader of a team. As a quarterback, it’s crucial that your teammates respond well to you on the field. It sounds cliche, but it’s a fact.

The trait with the biggest question mark for McSorley is his accuracy. After a 66.5 percent completion percentage in his junior season, McSorley followed it up with a 53.2 percent completion percentage this past seaosn. What’s the reason for that massive drop? Is it all the talent that left him to go to the NFL? Is it the all the Penn State dropped passes? Or is it the injuries that nagged McSorley all season?

The accuracy is something that’ll be watched very closely this week at the Senior Bowl, where Trace McSorley will be coached by Raiders head coach Jon Gruden. We know Gruden loves the high character, gritty players, so it should be interesting to see the clips from practice and interaction between McSorley and Gruden, as I can see it being a pretty good match.

Think about some of the quarterbacks that played in an NFL game this season. We have Mark Sanchez, Josh Johnson, Taylor Heinicke, Kyle Allen, Jeff Driskel, Cody Kessler, Kyle Lauletta, and Nick Mullens, just to name a few. With that level of quarterback play, are we really going to doubt that Trace McSorley can play in the NFL? Personally, I wouldn’t.