Blue White Illustrated

all the time, and there's going to be some- thing that's said for that." Throughout his career as a starting quarterback, both at the high school level and at Penn State, McSorley has estab- lished 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 height- ened 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 ac- claim 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 en- tire 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 re- ally 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 sur- prise at any point along the way. ■ P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> 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