Blue White Illustrated

assertion sounded like sour grapes more than anything else. And, to be fair, who could blame them for wanting to vent? But it wasn't the touchdown pass that had irritated those fans. Instead, they were /xated on a moment a1er the game ended. McSorley, riding the wave of adrenaline that followed the most dra- matic victory of his career, took the snap on a game-ending two-point conver- sion, downed the ball and then booted it deep into the night sky. When he met with the media shortly a1erward, coach James Franklin began by o0ering a stern rebuke of McSorley's actions, then the quarterback himself apologized, saying he "meant absolutely no disrespect to Iowa or their program or their fans. I was caught up in the mo- ment and I really apologize for it." The incident doesn't need to be reliti- gated here, but in interviewing McSorley for a feature story in this magazine, it did come up in conversation. Discussing his desire for competition, his willingness to use it as motivation on and o0 the /eld, he said the trait existed deep within him long before he ever stepped foot on Penn State's campus or even his high school /eld. McSorley's parents had always encouraged him to be outside playing something rather than parking himself in front of a television. He spent his youth outdoors, playing kickball in the street, hoops in the drive- way or football on a front lawn with other neighborhood kids. There, he said, his competitive streak developed in earnest. "My friends back home would tell you that I would ruin recess games," McSor- ley said. "If I would lose, I would just get all mad and cause problems. So I de/- nitely always had that competitive streak in me. It's just something that's always been there. I've always hated to lose and I've always loved winning." During the past two seasons, he has helped li1 the Nittany Lions to a 22-5 overall record as a starter and two New Year's Six bowl appearances. He has shown that his competitive streak be/ts him perfectly – so much so that when asked to guess who might have provided the quote above, Penn State o0ensive coordinator Ricky Rahne needed little time to choose McSorley as one of a few likely candidates. And although it might have prompted McSorley to make an impulsive mistake in that heated moment at Kinnick Sta- dium late last September, the trait isn't something Rahne would trade. If any- thing, he suggested, it's one of McSor- ley's de/ning features. "I would hope that we have a lot of those guys," he said. "[Coach Matt] Limegrover would probably say that. I know Coach Franklin's friends would probably say that. I would hope that most of our team members would say that." Penn State's entire coaching staff will be counting on McSorley to impart a bit of that personality to the entire team this season. With many of the key players on last year's team having departed, both on offense and de- fense, the senior quar- terback is embracing that responsibility, car- rying it through the off- season, into preseason camp, and eventually into the season itself. To do so successfully might lead the Nittany Lions right back to the situation that elicited one of McSorley's very best competitive moments to date. "To be able to punch it in right at the end of the game when we absolutely needed it to happen" was a huge accom- plishment, McSorley said. "And then obviously the punt just kind of hap- pened. I can't say I remember. I almost went blank for a second and just kind of did it. It was just one of those things that was a culmination of everything in an outburst at one time." This fall, the Nittany Lions are almost certain to /nd themselves in at least a few long, hard-fought games in which not everything rolls along with apparent ease for the o0ense. If the outcome is the same – minus the post-buzzer blackout – nobody at Penn State will complain. ■ THE LATE SHOW In the final minutes of Penn State's game at Iowa, McSorley led an 80-yard, 12-play drive that produced the winning touch- down. Photo by Steve Manuel

• Cover