Blue White Illustrated

spring, and it sounds as though it may turn out to be the marquee battle of the Lions' preseason sessions, too. Franklin said recently that if McSorley had an edge, it was primarily because he saw action last year as Christian Hacken- berg's backup, while Stevens ran the scout team. "When you're the No. 2 quarterback and you know that you could go in at any point, you prepare di=erent- ly," he said. "So that experience, the fact that he played in the Georgia game and he played a little bit in some other games in some mop-up-type stu=, that helps him. So he's still a little bit ahead. But it doesn't matter who's ahead a?er practice seven of spring ball. It really matters where they are halfway into [preseason] camp if it takes that long to decide." While Penn State's quarterback battle might not come to a head until August, its parameters have been taking shape for the past two years. New Jersey standout Brandon Wimbush had com- mitted to the Nittany Lions in May 2014, but as he examined their depth chart more closely, he began having second thoughts. There were no guarantees at that point that Hackenberg would leave early, and even if he did, the Lions ap- peared to have a capable replacement al- ready lined up in four-star IMG Acade- my prospect Michael O'Connor. So Wimbush bolted for Notre Dame, and Penn State scrambled to pry Stevens away from Indiana late in the recruiting cycle, adding him to the Class of 2015 a couple of months before signing day. Then O'Connor transferred to the Uni- S T A F F P I C K S • W H A T W E ' L L B E W A T C H I N G I N P E N N S T A T E ' S NATE BAUER WEBSITE EDITOR The Blue-White Game rarely fails to produce a breakout story or two among the walk-ons and underclassmen who aren't familiar names or faces to the Penn State fan base. That trend will likely con- tinue this year, but my attention will be elsewhere. And, for the ;rst time in the past few years, it won't be exclusively centered around the Nittany Lions' o=en- sive line (although, rest assured, the OL will deservedly get plenty of attention). What I'll be interested to see on April 16 are the performances of Penn State's young quarterbacks – their actual skill level and not just their leadership quali- ties. I'll be interested to see the interior of the Nittany Lions' defensive line in ac- tion, especially this spring's "buzz" play- er, redshirt freshman tackle Kevin Givens. And maybe above even Penn State's per- sonnel, I'll be interested to see the cial spring roster, with a legitimate two- deep at all ;ve spots. I want to see if Bates and Gonzalez and the other young linemen can help transform this unit's performance and allow the o=ense to play up to its full potential. ■ MATT HERB CONTRIBUTING EDITOR My default answer to this question is to focus on matters of health. If everyone walks o= the ;eld in the same condition they were in when they walked onto it a few hours earlier, it was a successful Blue-White Game. All the other stu=? Doesn't really matter too much, except as grist for three months of message- board debate and media speculation. But this year is a little bit di=erent. The Lions have a new o=ensive coordinator, a bold new scheme and a new QB running it. It seems unlikely that they will reveal too much on Saturday, especially with BTN set to rebroadcast the game multiple times. But it will be interesting to see how the quarterbacks react to playing in front of the 60,000-plus fans who are likely to show up. We already know, thanks to his performance in the TaxSlayer Bowl, that Trace McSorley isn't easily rattled. But Tommy Stevens has only made one public appearance at PSU, going 3 of 11 for 19 yards in last year's spring game. The other scholarship quarterback, Jake Zembiec, has only been on campus for three months, so he's the biggest unknown of all. All three QBs will likely be o=-limits to opposing tacklers, so they won't ;nd themselves in harm's way very o?en. Here's hoping no one else does, either. ■

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