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Trace McSorley takes off in race to become Penn State’s starting quarterback

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STATE COLLEGE &#8212; Most eyes in Beaver Stadium roamed toward Trace McSorley. Hard not to after the rising sophomore completed 85 percent of his passes and threw four touchdowns.The more important figure, however, was on the periphery of the Blue-White Game. That would be new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, who has the task of turning what had been a tanker ship of a Penn State offense into something more resembling a speedboat.&#8220;One of the most intriguing things about taking the job was looking at the roster and seeing that pieces were in place for us to be able to implement the system and do it successfully,&#8221; Moorhead said.&#8220;It&#8217;s always kind of fun when you go in and you have a plan. Then you plant the seeds, see it take root and come to fruition.&#8221;Saturday was the public&#8217;s first look at the sprouts.Naturally, it&#8217;s tough to read into the numbers from the annual scrimmage, which featured a casual 37-0 win for the Blue team over the White. As usual, the winning side was stacked with projected starters on both sides of the ball against the backups on the other.More notable than the score or the stats was the pace itself. And the dramatic switch in tempo seemed to suit the Lions players on offense just fine.No pre-snap penalties for the first-teamers. No periods of confusion as the no-huddle went into top gear, hurrying up to the line before checking to the sideline for the next play. It&#8217;s what helped McSorley throw for 281 yards on 23-of-27 passing.But it took some time just to reach this point.&#8220;Well, I think (the players) were committed to it initially,&#8221; Moorhead said. &#8220;But it was probably after two or three practices, getting into practice four, that you understand the pace of it. How fast it&#8217;s gonna go. Things like that.&#8220;I&#8217;m not saying it was clean from an execution standpoint. But as far as understanding how quickly the ball needed to be snapped, I think they picked it up.&#8221;Veteran wideout DaeSean Hamilton figured it took at least a week just to adjust to the speed Moorhead wanted to move at.It&#8217;s one thing to anticipate the tempo. It&#8217;s another to actually go out and do it. Over and over again.&#8220;Guys were winded. It really jumped up on them, the pace of the offense,&#8221; Hamilton said. &#8220;Everybody was surprised (at first).&#8220;But after that first week, the guys got used to the amount of reps we were taking.&#8221;McSorley looked comfortable for much of the afternoon, hitting wideouts Chris Godwin, Saeed Blacknall and DeAndre Thompkins for touchdowns, with a fourth going to tight end Tom Pancoast.Penn State coach James Franklin declined to call the battle for the starting job, though he did give McSorley all but one series with the first-team offense on Saturday. Redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens had little time to throw behind a backup offensive line but did lead the first-teamers to a touchdown in his lone drive with the Blue squad.&#8220;We were really playing it by feel,&#8221; Moorhead said. &#8220;We just decided to make the switch there in the fourth quarter. We would have liked to have gotten Tommy a couple more possessions with the Blue team. But for the most part, I thought (both) were able to move the ball well.&#8221;Franklin was more interested in the system itself as opposed to who will be running it against Kent State in September. Moorhead&#8217;s no-huddle spread is the scheme he has always preferred.&#8220;He&#8217;s got a system that I believe in, and I think makes sense for our team right now,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a combination of what Joe is doing and also what we&#8217;re returning. It&#8217;s a beautiful marriage at the right time. I&#8217;m very pleased with what we&#8217;ve been able to get done.&#8221;&#8220;I think Coach had a certain vision of what he wanted the offense to become,&#8221; Moorhead said. &#8220;Any time the vision of the head coach matches the scheme you want to run, and you have talent to do it, that&#8217;s a recipe for success.&#8221;Franklin estimated that &#8220;95 percent&#8221; of the offense had been installed after the Lions&#8217; 15 spring practices. Moorhead more or less agreed, saying that he thought they had gotten to 80 percent after six practices and had progressed from there, saying that the &#8220;base foundation&#8221; was in there.Overshadowed a bit was the public debut of Brent Pry as defensive coordinator. But the Lions defense isn&#8217;t expected to change nearly as much as the offense, with Pry working with largely the same system as former boss Bob Shoop.Pry did say, however, that his unit will be improved by continuously working against a hurry-up offense in practice.&#8220;That was their greatest challenge at the beginning of the spring, adjusting to the tempo,&#8221; Pry said. &#8220;To be honest, as a defensive staff, we&#8217;re thankful for the opportunity. It was challenging for the kids, but we needed it.&#8220;There&#8217;s too many teams that are doing it. And to try and self-service that and use a scout team to simulate no-huddle, up-tempo, is tough. We&#8217;ll be a much better defense for it.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley during the Blue-White spring game on Saturday in State College. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_McSorley-BlueWhite.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley during the Blue-White spring game on Saturday in State College. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>PSU debuts new look to fans</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>2016 BLUE-WHITE GAMEBlue 37, White 0White`0`0`0`0`&#8212;`0Blue`9`14`7`7`&#8212;`37First quarterBLUE &#8212; Chris Godwin 15-yard pass from Trace McSorley (Tyler Davis kick), 7:33BLUE &#8212; Safety, Evan Schwan sack in end zone, 0:15Second quarterBLUE &#8212; Saeed Blacknall 22-yard pass from McSorley (Davis kick), 9:24BLUE &#8212; Tom Pancoast 2-yard pass from McSorley (Davis kick), 0:57Third quarterBLUE &#8212; DeAndre Thompkins 35-yard pass from McSorley (Davis kick), 6:48Fourth quarterBLUE &#8212; Andre Robinson 28-yard run (Davis kick), 6:37INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRushing &#8212; Mark Allen 14-59, Andre Robinson 7-44, Tommy Stevens 12-18, Irvine Paye 1-5, Trace McSorley 4-(minus-14).Passing &#8212; McSorley 23-27-1-281, Stevens 10-17-0-100, Billy Fessler 3-6-0-33.Receiving &#8212; Allen 5-48, Saeed Blacknall 5-45, DaeSean Hamilton 4-67, Chris Godwin 3-48, Mike Gesicki 3-30, Juwan Johnson 3-26, DeAndre Thompkins 2-47, Brandon Polk 2-39, Danny Dalton 2-23, Gregg Garrity 2-21, Robinson 2-13, Jon Holland 1-7, Tom Pancoast 1-2, Paye 1-(minus-2).</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead’s uptempo offense starting to click