Living in the Moment
Trace McSorley was admittedly taken aback upon first hearing his own name included in the Heisman Trophy conversation.
Fresh off a debut season in 2016 that lifted Penn State to a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth, the Nittany Lion quarterback had never even considered the possibility that he would be listed as a Heisman contender in the wave of too-early preseason predictions that began appearing on websites and magazine stands in the spring of 2017. In spite of his 3,614 yards passing and 36 touchdowns through the air and on the ground, McSorley was convinced that teammate Saquon Barkley’s sterling sophomore performance was the only one to warrant that type of national attention.
“It wasn't even a thought to me,” McSorley said. “And then I saw something where my name was kind of mentioned, and I was like, ‘Holy —, that’s pretty cool.’ ”
It was one of the more surreal moments of his football career, but since then McSorley has had plenty of time to acclimate to the possibility. He followed up his first full season at the helm by spearheading a 10-2 regular season and a Fiesta Bowl win last year, and the awards, accolades and attention surrounding McSorley have only grown. So much so, in fact, that as his final season at Penn State quickly approaches, he is considered one of the favorites to win the 2018 award.
The luster hasn’t become a distraction, however. During the first half of the 2017 season, he shared a backfield with the Heisman front-runner, only to see the talk surrounding Barkley’s candidacy diminish as the year went on. Recalling how quickly the conversation shifted, McSorley is wary of prognostications.
“Week four, five, he was a sure lock for the award. Everyone was saying, ‘Hey, Heisman committee, put in your votes now!’ Then at the end of the year, he's not even in New York as a finalist,” McSorley said. “You realize that all the stuff that’s been talked about doesn’t really matter. Even what’s talked about halfway through the season doesn’t matter. It’s going to be determined by the end of season, the whole body of work.”
As the Nittany Lions came to painfully learn, that whole body of work simply was not enough last season. They opened with three breezy non-
conference victories and followed them with a walk-off win at Iowa to open the Big Ten season. By late October, they were 7-0 and ranked second nationally.
But after spending the first two months of the season building momentum slowly and steadily, they lost it quickly in a road showdown against No. 6 Ohio State, squandering a 15-point fourth-quarter lead in a 39-38 loss. They attempted to regroup at No. 24 Michigan State the next weekend, but on a dreary afternoon that included a 3-hour, 22-minute thunderstorm delay, they suffered a 27-24 walk-off loss to the Spartans.
More than eight months later, the team’s two-game swoon still visibly bothers McSorley. He and his teammates sometimes find themselves wondering how the season might have gone if not for a play here or there, still wishing they could have another shot at it. But last season’s circumstances can’t be duplicated, nor can its opportunities. That is a haunting realization given how close the Nittany Lions came to having a case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff.
“I think about it all the time. You just realize what could have been,” McSorley said. “It sucks to have that regret and understand that we’re never going to have a Saquon Barkley again. We’re never going to have that team that we had. And part of it is, was that the team to do it? That sneaks into your head. But at the same time, you’ve got to focus on moving on.
“I’m not going to say I’m harping on it and that I can’t let it go, because I’ve moved on. But in the back of my mind, we were so close last year that everything we did was not enough by about that much. So we need to do that much more this year.”
McSorley has a quiet but firm belief that this year’s Nittany Lions can do exactly that, even without so many of the familiar faces that were so integral to the program’s ascent the past two seasons.
Gone are Barkley, wideout DaeSean Hamilton, tight end Mike Gesicki, running backs coach Charles Huff, wideouts coach Josh Gattis and coordinator Joe Moorhead – and those are just the most noteworthy losses on offense. There have been plenty of departures on defense, too.
But while the Lions have lost more than their share of experience, the newcomers all appear to have high ceilings. McSorley said he and the other veterans feel a responsibility to use their experience to help coax as much productivity as possible out of the younger players around them. Should the effort prove successful, the existing talent level is no cause for concern in the quarterback’s mind.
McSorley described the offensive line as the best in his five seasons, and said running backs Miles Sanders and Mark Allen are ready for their moment. At receiver, Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins have extensive experience, while junior Brandon Polk and freshman K.J. Hamler are “explosive-play-waiting-to-happen-type” players. The combination, he said, will enable Penn State to make up for its significant losses on offense by using a wider variety of players than in the past two seasons.
“I think everyone is talking about what we’re losing, but no one is really talking about what we have and what we’re bringing to the table this year,” McSorley said. “What excites me is that we have a chance. People are saying Penn State might have had their run, but they lost so many guys. We’re going to be able to surprise some people this year because expectations are there but they’re not at the same level that they’ve been at the last couple of years.”
Naturally, the underdog angle excites McSorley, even if he’s personally garnering unprecedented respect. He seems bemused by all the talk of size and arm strength that accompanies the quarterback position, noting that the athletes who have successfully manned the position have boasted a variety of physical assets and wildly different skill sets.
In recent months, comparisons to Baker Mayfield, last year’s Heisman winner out of Oklahoma and the recent No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick, have come to McSorley’s attention. Mayfield may be at least an inch taller and 20 pounds heavier, but McSorley doesn’t take issue with the juxtaposition.
“Any time you’re put in the comparison with an ex-Heisman Trophy winner, a dude who’s won three conference championships, been in the playoffs twice, it’s something to kind of take heed of,” McSorley said. “You look at a guy who wins all the time, and there’s going to be something that’s said for that.”
Throughout his career as a starting quarterback, both at the high school level and at Penn State, McSorley has established his penchant for winning. He’s 22-5 as a starter with the Nittany Lions and is aiming to add as many as 15 more victories onto that mark.
As summer gives way to fall, McSorley is soaking up the final months of his college career, each moment carrying the heightened sense of urgency of a senior season. He’s determined to avoid the lingering disappointment of 2017 and is heeding the lessons he learned from Barkley, who managed to keep all the individual acclaim from affecting his focus. Hoping to help lift the program to new heights this season, McSorley is locked in on the here and now.
“Obviously I want to do everything I can to make it as memorable selfishly for myself because it is my last year, but also, we get one opportunity with this 2018 team,” he said. “So it’s just about going through this year and being able to look back and not have any regrets on how the year went. Because it hurts to be able to say we score five more points, you score one more touchdown throughout the entire year at some point, and we’re having a different conversation now about how last year went.
“Having that experience and realizing the margin of error is that small when you’re talking about the things we’re talking about – a national championship, a Big Ten championship – you’ve just really got to be on it every single week and have that sense of urgency starting now all the way through the second week of January.”
As prepared for the moment as he’s ever been, McSorley won’t be caught by surprise at any point along the way.
Blue White Illustrated is thrilled to present its 2018 Penn State Football Preview magazine, featuring 112 pages of the most in-depth features, news and coverage of the Nittany Lions as they prepare for the upcoming season! It's our biggest preseason issue ever, and it's mailing next week to our print subscribers, pre-orders, and will be on newsstands throughout Pennsylvania beginning the week of July 14.
Don't miss your chance to grab a copy - PRE-ORDER HERE!
What else is in our preseason preview magazine this year?
Phil's Corner - BWI publisher Phil Grosz kicks off yet another year in his decades-long coverage of the Penn State football program with a detailed look at the biggest questions this program will need to answer if it wants to achieve even better results than the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Coaches Interviews - BWI editor Nate Bauer sat down with Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin as he gets set to embark on his fifth season at the helm, as well as his three coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. Don't miss the full Q&As running with Franklin, Ricky Rahne, Brent Pry and new special teams coordinator Phil Galiano.
Player Features - Like our exclusive one-on-one interviews with Penn State's coaching staff, these are the stories you won't see anywhere else this summer. We sat down with the biggest names and faces that will determine the Nittany Lions' fate as a program this season, including McSorley, wideout DeAndre Thompkins, running back Miles Sanders, guard Michal Menet, end Shareef Miller, linebacker Koa Farmer, safety Nick Scott, and captain punter Blake Gillikin.
Position-By-Position Analysis - BWI publisher Phil Grosz takes on each of Penn State's positions across the field as we break down the entirety of the Nittany Lions' depth chart. From quarterback through special teams, we've got it all covered.
2018 Opponent Previews - BWI editor Matt Herb tackled each of Penn State's 12 opponents in the upcoming season. What will the Nittany Lions have to overcome in order to produce the dream season their hoping for? Kicking off with Appalachian State and working all the way through the regular season finale against Maryland, each of Penn State's upcoming foes are broken down here!
These stories, along with our 2017-18 Penn State Year in Review, plus all of our usual fare including comprehensive recruiting coverage, men's basketball, a monthly historical retrospective, columns from each of our staff of writers, and more, are all included in our 2018 Penn State Football Preview edition.