Wyoming Valley West School District looks for answers regarding the absence of resource school officer

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Our Opinion: Big things await region’s anglers as trout season gets underway April 16

<p>STATE COLLEGE &#8212; Trace McSorley was discussing his offseason schedule for working on arm strength. Naturally it prompted the question of how far he was able to throw the ball.</p><p>&#8220;Ah, I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; the sophomore quarterback said before deadpanning, &#8220;I&#8217;m no Christian Hackenberg.&#8221;</p><p>And Penn State isn&#8217;t treating him like it this spring. Same with Tommy Stevens.</p><p>New offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead&#8217;s up-tempo scheme &#8212; one that will often put the quarterbacks on the move &#8212; is as important to the Lions&#8217; success in 2016 as to who ultimately wins the starting job.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s significant. It&#8217;s a different offense,&#8221; Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said Wednesday after practice. &#8220;Obviously, as we&#8217;ve all discussed to nauseam, when you&#8217;re running a pro-style offense, and you&#8217;ve got a pro-style quarterback that&#8217;s gonna stand in the pocket, that puts a major emphasis on the offensive line. And you&#8217;re not going to ask the quarterback to do some of those other things, whether it&#8217;s a zone-read or a run-pass option.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a different philosophy.&#8221;</p><p>And with only 13 spring practices to install it so far &#8212; the 15th and final one will be Saturday&#8217;s Blue-White Game &#8212; Franklin and his staff aren&#8217;t planning to announce a starter until the summer.</p><p>&#8220;I doubt we&#8217;ll name one (during spring practice),&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We want to give Tommy every opportunity to fight for the job. Trace being the backup for a full year is different and Tommy&#8217;s done some really good things this spring.&#8221;</p><p>McSorley entered the competition as the favorite, having served as Christian Hackenberg&#8217;s top backup the last two seasons. Stevens is just finishing up his first year on campus after redshirting in the fall.</p><p>Still, McSorley didn&#8217;t see any significant stretch of time until January&#8217;s TaxSlayer Bowl when he replaced an injured Hackenberg in the second quarter. After a shaky start against a tough Georgia defense, McSorley finished 14-of-27 for 142 yards and two touchdowns.</p><p>&#8220;It was big for me just to get out there and gain confidence in myself, just being able to see that I can do it at this level,&#8221; McSorley said. &#8220;Going from practice to games is a lot different with the speed and going against a defense like Georgia, a top SEC defense. Getting the reps was huge.&#8221;</p><p>Was he happy with his showing?</p><p>&#8220;Would&#8217;ve been great if we won the game.&#8221;</p><p>For Stevens, his biggest edge might be his height. At 6-foot-4, he&#8217;s listed four inches taller than McSorley without sacrificing much &#8212; if anything &#8212; in terms of athleticism.</p><p>Both quarterbacks gained experience running options and designed keepers in the past.</p><p>&#8220;I really like doing it because it&#8217;s back to the things I used to do in high school,&#8221; Stevens said. &#8220;I&#8217;m comfortable with it, and I&#8217;m really excited moving forward.&#8221;</p><p>In McSorley&#8217;s case, he played in four straight state championship games and won three of them by utilizing both his arm and his legs.</p><p>McSorley said the flexibility the Lions&#8217; new offense offers is what makes it effective.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been fun. I really like being able to (run or pass),&#8221; McSorley said. &#8220;It helps to put the defense in a bind. In a way, they can&#8217;t be right. Depending on what they do, we can throw it or pull it down and run it or just give it to a running back and let him go. I really like that. The defense can almost never be right.&#8221;</p><p>Assuming, that is, that it&#8217;s executed properly.</p><p>During a brief portion of 11-on-11 available to reporters on Wednesday, McSorley got burned at the edge of the red zone. Promising sophomore John Reid &#8212; expected to start at corner opposite Grant Haley &#8212; jumped an out route, wrestled the ball away and raced nearly 80 yards the other way for a touchdown.</p><p>&#8220;It just goes to show you &#8212; you can do great things in a game or a practice, but if you turn the ball over, you&#8217;re going to have a hard time being successful,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve done a great job protecting the ball all spring on offense, but today the defense got the better hand.</p><p>&#8220;If you watch the tape, grade the tape, actually the offense would probably grade out well. But turnovers will kill you.&#8221;</p><p>Despite the gaffe, Franklin said McSorley has been the more consistent of the two quarterbacks overall, but complimented Stevens on his ability to find the open man, likening him to a point guard.</p><p>Both quarterbacks said they&#8217;ve enjoyed the battle so far. For however long it might last.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been pleased with them,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;They&#8217;re very good friends. We&#8217;ve got really good chemistry in the quarterback room. So that helps. Those guys respect each other and they like each other.</p><p>&#8220;You want to keep the competition going as long as you can.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley has been the more consistent quarterback this spring but did get burned for an interception in Wednesday&#8217;s practice. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_mcsorley201641321342344.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley has been the more consistent quarterback this spring but did get burned for an interception in Wednesday&#8217;s practice. </caption0><photoCredit0>Abby Drey | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_stevens201641321347211.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens (center) has performed well enough in the spring to delay a decision on Penn State&#8217;s starting quarterback. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_stevens201641321347211.jpg</photo1><caption1>Redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens (center) has performed well enough in the spring to delay a decision on Penn State&#8217;s starting quarterback. </caption1><photoCredit1>Abby Drey | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>BLUE-WHITE GAME</strong></p><p>2 p.m, Saturday</p><p>Beaver Stadium</p><p><strong>TV</strong>: 7 p.m., BTN (tape delay)</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> 8NMT5elCzp4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMT5elCzp4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> PSU QB Trace McSorley talks about his winter and spring.</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Derek Levarse | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Penn State’s quarterback battle likely to continue into the summer