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State police searching for SUV in connection with a crash that happened in Schuylkill County

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

<p>Pass after flawlessly-thrown pass kept leaving the firm right hand of Trace McSorley and finding an intended target with such pinpoint precision that one thing became obvious by the time he walked out of Beaver Stadium.</p><p>There&#8217;s no quarterback competition at Penn State.</p><p>McSorley made that almost perfectly clear.</p><p>He opened the game Saturday by completing eight straight passes. After his next one was picked off, McSorley came right back and completed 10 more.</p><p>He went 18 for 19 in the first half for 217 yards and three touchdowns and finished the day with 23 completions in 27 attempts, for four scores and 281 yards.</p><p>This wasn&#8217;t Phil Simms in the Super Bowl, hitting 22 of 25 passes for the New York Giants to beat the Denver Broncos in 1987.</p><p>Rather, it was Penn State&#8217;s annual Blue-White game, where McSorley completely mesmerized 65,000 fans who came to get a glimpse during an intrasquad spring football game of what they might see in the fall.</p><p>The players have been seeing it for weeks.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been doing it all spring,&#8221; said Nittany Lions wide receiver DeSean Hamilton, who finished with four catches from McSorley for a game-high 67 yards. &#8220;Everybody got a taste of it in the Georgia game.&#8221;</p><p>Most everyone at the Blue-White game noticed how smooth McSorley looks as the leader of Penn State&#8217;s new, uptempo offense except head coach James Franklin. And if Franklin sees it, he&#8217;s not saying it, instead choosing to promote a battle between McSorley and Tommy Stevens for the Lions&#8217; quarterback job.</p><p>&#8220;The two quarterbacks did a very good job of running the offense,&#8221; Franklin said, adding that both will be jockeying for the starting job through the summer and into preseason camp. &#8220;I thought Tommy did some nice things. I thought Trace looked poised, looked confident, looked under control.&#8221;</p><p>Actually, Trace looked like a true quarterback, taking about a split second to identify open receivers before pasting passes between their numbers.</p><p>Stevens looked more like a confused kid who couldn&#8217;t wait to scramble, taking off 12 times for a total of 18 yards which hitting 7 of 14 passes for 48 yards.</p><p>Consider, though, that Stevens was saddled working with the backup offense against Penn State&#8217;s first-string defense (minus a few players held out while recovering from injury), while McSorley worked exclusively with the Lions projected starters while throwing against the team&#8217;s backups.</p><p>But the fact McSorley never took a snap with the second stringers in the Blue-White game is telling enough.</p><p>And Franklin did offer plenty of praise for McSorley.</p><p>&#8220;The thing I was probably most impressed with, he looked very, very comfortable,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He looked in control.&#8221;</p><p>Maybe that&#8217;s because he was.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, I felt real good out there,&#8221; McSorley, a red-shirt sophomore, said. &#8220;I think I did a good job of executing, taking what the defense gave me. I definitely see myself as a throw-first quarterback, and I use my legs if I need to. Overall, the offense moved the ball real well. We have one job to do &#8212; to score a touchdown.&#8221;</p><p>McSorley did that plenty.</p><p>He hit all five passes on his opening drive, mixing solid strikes from the pocket with cool completions on the run, and finished the march with a 15-yard touchdown toss to Chris Godwin. Later, McSorley launched a pretty 22-yard scoring strike to Saeed Blacknall. He flipped a two-yard shovel pass to Tom Pencoast for another score. And McSorley recovered from a string of three straight incompletions to deliver his final connection &#8212; a 35-yard touchdown bomb to DeAndre Thompkins while leading the Blue team to a 37-0 victory over the White.</p><p>But that wasn&#8217;t enough to earn McSorley the starting quarterback job. Yet.</p><p>&#8220;I think it stays the same,&#8221; Franklin said of the fight for the top quarterback spot. &#8220;Trace, as the backup quarterback all last year, was preparing to go in the game. Tommy was red-shirting. I just don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s fair to this football team and fair to Tommy to name a starter at this point.&#8221;</p><p>That point will come soon enough.</p><p>Get ready for Trace McSorley.</p><p>Get ready for a season of offensive excitement at Penn State.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>In the Huddle</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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