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TRACE McSORLEY YEAR-BY-YEAR PASSING RUSHING OPP ATT COMP PCT YDS TD INT LONG SACK EFFIC ATT YDS AVG TD 2015 40 20 50.0 185 2 0 21 1 105.4 13 43 3.3 0 2016 387 224 57.9 3614 29 8 80 23 156.9 146 365 2.5 7 2017 427 284 66.5 3570 28 10 85 27 153.7 144 491 3.4 11 2018 328 175 53.3 2288 16 6 93 22 124.2 151 723 4.8 11 TOTAL 1182 703 59.5 9657 75 24 93 73 144.9 454 1622 3.6 29 P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E and-12, and the snark that greeted his entry into the game began giving way to grudging admiration. One Twitter com- menter declared him "semi promising." Another said he was "not as accurate as Hack, but maybe [has] better intangibles." Later, McSorley fired a pass between three defenders, finding DaeSean Hamil- ton in the end zone to draw Penn State within a touchdown. He converted four fourth downs in the game's final quarter and came up just one Hail Mary short of tying the score at the end of regulation after the Nittany Lions had fallen behind by three touchdowns early in the second half. So even though it wasn't a win, the Bulldogs' 24-17 escape somehow didn't feel quite as hollow as a typical loss. The Lions had suffered through two consecu- tive low-scoring, sack-ridden seasons leading up to the game, but suddenly it seemed they had a gutsy, playmaking quarterback to go with promising tailback Saquon Barkley and new offensive coor- dinator Joe Moorhead. The sample size was small, comprising only three quarters of action in a game that Penn State ulti- mately lost. But this was a program eager for something to feel good about, and if the mood swing on Twitter was any indi- cation, maybe the Lions had found it. @kaidrae: Good game. I'm liking this Trace McSorley. @MesserOfLand: McSorley is a baller. @JimMWeber: Trace McSorley should go pro. @StrykerBrig24: McSorley for Presi- dent!!! @machdogg: Holy crap! This McSorley kid ain't so bad when he gets rolling!! Over the next three seasons, McSorley got rolling. Boy, did he get rolling. The fifth-year senior goes into Penn State's game against Kentucky as the program's all-time leader in passing yards (9,657), passing touchdowns (75) and total offense (11,279 yards). He's the only quarterback in school history with multiple 3,000- yard passing seasons and multiple 80- yard completions. His streak of 34 consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass, a streak that began in the TaxSlayer Bowl and ended against In- diana this past October, eclipsed Kerry Collins' previous mark by 20 games. Those would be extraordinary numbers for any quarterback, but they're espe- cially noteworthy given the skepticism that McSorley faced even after signing with the Nittany Lions as a late addition to the recruiting class that Franklin hastily assembled in the weeks after tak- ing the Penn State job. He wasn't a five- star prospect like Hackenberg. He didn't go to IMG Academy or field recruiting of- fers from all over the country like the other quarterback in his recruiting class, Michael O'Connor. At 6-foot-0, he didn't really resemble a prototypical col- lege QB. As Franklin acknowledged, "The one thing he didn't pass was the eyeball test." He did pass all the others, though, and he had the most important quality of all: a willingness to put in the work. That was the ingredient that would make everything else possible – the stats, the awards, the victories. It was the hidden superpower in McSorley's origin story. "I don't know if anything has ever come easy to Trace," Franklin said. "He's earned everything he's gotten in life. No one has given him anything. … So I think he's built for these types of things. I think that's why there's so much confidence and trust in our locker room and [among the] coaches with him, because all he knows how to do is walk in a room with a chip on his shoulder and prove people wrong." That sense of determination has ele- vated Franklin's program over the past three seasons, as McSorley recently passed Todd Blackledge to become the winningest quarterback in school history with 31 victories in 39 starts. But it could easily have been some other school that tapped into all that potential. McSorley had hit it off with Franklin and his quarterbacks coach, Ricky Rahne, when they were still at Vanderbilt. A state-title-winning passer at Briar Woods High, he committed to the Com- modores in the summer of 2013. Every- thing was looking good until Franklin and his staff left for Penn State the following January. McSorley was stunned. And making matters worse, the new staff was in limbo, unable to set foot in the Lasch Building or call recruits on behalf of Penn State until the coaches had been cleared by the university's human resources de- partment, a process that took about a week. When they finally received permission to call, the coaches gathered at the Penn Stater Conference Center to begin reach- ing out. Most of the prospects they con-

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