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NFL DraB. But give the Nittany Lions this: ABer losing the most indispensible player on their roster in the second quar- ter of their matchup with Georgia, they did not back down. Not even a little. The Lions got two second-half touch- down passes from Hackenberg's backup, redshirt freshman Trace McSorley, and were 39 yards from sending the game to overtime aBer getting a fourth-down stop deep in their own territory late in the fourth quarter to regain possession one last time. But McSorley's final heave of the game fell incomplete at the goal line, and the Bulldogs escaped with a 24- 17 victory Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. Coach James Franklin said McSorley "took a little while to get going, but a couple of guys made some plays for him, and it built his confidence and he was able to go from there. "We do two-minute drills at the end of practice, No. 2 offense vs. No. 1 defense, and he's been suc- cessful," Franklin added. "I think there's a lot of confidence in our locker room in what he brings to the table, and it was good to see him go out there and have some success, some- thing to build on." McSorley had attempted only 13 passes in his career before coming on in relief in the second quarter. But during his two seasons on campus, he had watched how Hackenberg handled pressure and tried to learn from the veteran's approach so that he would be ready if and when the time arrived. "That taught me a lot about how he was able to come out aBer wins and losses, the highs, the lows, how he's been able to handle himself and be even- keeled," McSorley said. "It was good for me to see that." As for taking over the offense without any warning in a high-profile game against a nine-win opponent, well, that was "just business as usual" McSorley said. And sure enough, facing the top- ranked pass defense in the country, he kept his composure, nearly bringing Penn State all the way back from a 24-3 deficit with fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 17 yards to Geno Lewis and 20 yards to DaeSean Hamilton. McSorley finished the game with 14 completions in 27 attempts for 142 yards. "Guys rallied around him," Franklin said. "One of the big [keys] to playing quarterback is other guys stepping up and making plays for you when maybe the ball's not per- fectly thrown." Against Georgia, one of those guys was Chris Godwin. The sophomore wideout had six catches for 133 yards and played a big role in getting McSorley into his comfort zone. "When you first come in, you kind of have to get your feet wet a lit- tle bit," Godwin said. "ABer those first couple of throws were completed, I think you saw a confidence boost from him. … The fact that we were able to make a cou- ple of plays for him was really big." Penn State's decision to pull Hacken- berg in the second quarter, shortly after he suffered a sprained shoulder on a scramble, had seemed as though it might consign the six-point underdogs to a lopsided loss. He had completed 8 of 14 passes for 139 yards to that point in the game, but a tipped pass had scuttled his most promising drive of the game. The Bulldogs had also bottled up star freshman running back Saquon Barkley – he would go on to finish with 69 yards on 17 carries – and Hackenberg's injury threatened to make matters much worse. But aBer surrendering touchdowns on a 44-yard pass from receiver Terry God- win to Malcolm Mitchell, a 17-yard pass from Greyson Lambert to Godwin and a 21-yard run by Sony Michel, Penn State regrouped behind McSorley. His touch- down pass to Lewis was a fourth-and-12 gem on which the junior wideout tapped his toes down just before tumbling out of bounds. The throw to Hamilton was sim- ply dazzling, a dart over the middle that the sophomore managed to pull in be- tween three defenders. But Penn State wasn't able to come all the way back as it had a year earlier in an overtime bowl victory over Boston Col- lege, in part because it had simply spot- ted the Bulldogs too big a lead. Said Franklin, "You can't come out and start slow the way we did and think you're going to beat that type of opponent in a bowl game." So now the Nittany Lions turn their at- tention to the 2016 season. They'll have a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback, and they'll have to replace their most celebrated defensive player, J A N U A R Y 3 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2 BRIGHT SPOT Hamil- ton's 20-yard touch- down catch in between three Geor- gia defenders trimmed PSUs' deficit to seven points in the fourth quarter. Photo by Steve Manuel

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