Penn State Football: Top-25 players of the James Franklin Era

Penn State Football: Top-25 players of the James Franklin Era

When it comes to the quarterback position, no player did it better for head coach James Franklin than Trace McSorley. After playing sparingly behind Christian Hackenberg during the 2015 college football season, McSorley took over as a signal-caller for the Nittany Lions in 2016, and the rest is history.

During that 2016 season, McSorley not only led the Penn State Nittany Lions to the first Big Ten East division championship, but they also beat the Wisconsin Badgers for the Big Ten title. That season, McSorley finished with over 3,600 yards passing and 29 touchdowns, firmly establishing himself as the starter and Happy Valley.

Over the next two seasons, McSorley would throw for over 6,000 yards and would be named second-team all-Big Ten twice. While he put up tremendous numbers in his career, throwing for nearly 10,000 yards, he is most known for being a clutch performer.

In fact, McSorley helped lead the Nittany Lions to one of the biggest upsets in program history, as they took down No. 2 Ohio State when they were not even ranked in 2016. McSorley still holds Penn State’s single-season passing record for yards, as well as most games with over 300 yards passing in a single-season, and when all was said and done, he made it so you cannot write the history of this program without him being a big part of it.