Blue White Illustrated

Blue-White Postgame

Penn State Sports Magazine

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A P R I L 1 6 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 Franklin said. "Tommy was redshirting. Tommy has a lot of ability and is going to be in this battle till the end. I don't think it's fair to this football team and I don't think it's fair to Tommy right now to name a starter when I think Tommy can close the gap between now and [presea- son practice]. That's also going to create a competitive edge in our locker room and keep Trace working, because he's got a lot of areas to improve as well. So we'll go into camp, we'll let those guys com- pete and see what happens. But right now, I feel like we've got two quarter- backs we can win with." The battle between McSorley and Stevens was the main draw in the spring game, during which the starter-laden Blue squad pulled out to a 23-0 hal@ime lead en route to a 37-0 victory over the White. McSorley opened the game operating behind a Blue offensive line made up of likely starters (including redshirt fresh- man Ryan Bates at le@ guard). He was throwing to the first-team receiver corps, too, and those players all looked sharp on their first possession. Tight end Mike Gesicki made a nice lunging catch for 22 yards, and Chris Godwin caught a 15-yard TD pass to give the Blue a 7-0 lead. McSorley had the Blue on the move on its second drive, too, before an off-target pass seemingly aimed at Gesicki was in- tercepted by Amani Oruwariye. In the second quarter, he had several impressive moments, including a throw on the run to DaeSean Hamilton, a 22-yard touchdown pass to Saeed Blacknall, another throw to Godwin on the sideline and a short touch- down pass to tight end Tom Pancoast. His best play of all may have been a third-quarter touchdown throw to De- Andre Thompkins. McSorley looked ini- tially to Blacknall, then stepped up in the pocket and fired downfield to Thomp- kins, who was open for a 35-yard score. "I thought the receivers did a great job of coming back to the ball, and I thought he did a great job of taking what defense was giving," Franklin said of McSorley. "The thing I was probably most im- pressed with in standing out there on the field with him was that he looked very, very comfortable. He looked poised, he looked in control. And I thought Tommy did the same thing." Stevens did more running than McSor- ley, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. The White went three-and-out on its first possession, as Stevens didn't have any time in the pocket to work. On his second possession, he showed some of the elusiveness that he displayed in high school, and he also made a beautiful deep throw to Juwan Johnson on the sideline that would have given the White a first-and-goal had the redshirt fresh- man wideout been able to hang on. Stevens was on the run for much of the day, a consequence of playing behind a youthful offensive line. January enrollee Connor McGovern was at right tackle, and late in the first quarter, defensive end Evan Schwan got around him and laid a hand on Stevens to give the Blue a safety. As soon as Stevens switched jerseys early in the fourth quarter, he began mak- ing plays, hitting Brandon Polk for a 27- yard gain on his first play with the Blue offense, and leading the team on a 84- yard scoring drive that ended with a 28- yard touchdown run by Andre Robinson. Stevens finished with 10 completions in 17 attempts for 100 yards, and he also had 18 rushing yards and would have had a lot more if not for the fact that the quarter- backs were considered down as soon as a defensive player got a hand on them. Franklin said the challenge for Stevens going forward will be to develop a better sense of when to run and when to throw. "He has such confidence in his athletic ability and his ability to break the pocket and make plays that he needs to be care- ful in certain situations," Franklin said. "When you're backed up, it's not worth the risk of scrambling. When it's two- minute [offense], it's not worth it. There are times and places to use that athletic ability, and there are times when you have to throw the ball away and live to play another down." Backup running backs Robinson and Mark Allen had some strong runs in place of Saquon Barkley. Barkley hadn't been expected to see much action on Saturday, and as it turned out, he didn't play at all even though he dressed for the game. Allen finished with 59 yards on 14 car- ries, and Robinson had 44 yards on seven carries. "We just felt like we know what we have with Saquon," Franklin said. "Saquon still has to get better. There are a lot of areas for growth. But to go out and go live in the spring game, we didn't think it made a whole lot of sense, espe- cially since we have a pretty heated com- petition going on right now between Mark Allen and Andre." Overall, Franklin said he was pleased with what he saw – not just on Saturday but throughout spring drills. "I thought both quarterbacks did some really nice things and were efficient," he said. "I thought [defensive tackle] Kevin Givens showed up on the defensive line and made some plays. I thought overall we had a great spring. We accomplished what we needed to accomplish, but we've got a lot of work to do before the season." SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 7:33 BLUE Godwin, Chris 15-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 70 yards, TOP 2:53...................................................................7-0 0:15 BLUE Schwan, Evan safety............................................................................. 9-0 2ND 9:24 BLUE Blacknall, S. 22-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 5:50................................................................ 16-0 0:57 BLUE Pancoast, Tom 2-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, T. kick) 12 plays, 68 yards, TOP 6:41.............................................................. 23-0 3RD 6:48 BLUE Thompkins, D. 35-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, T. kick) 9 plays, 75 yards, TOP 5:10................................................................30-0 4TH 7:58 BLUE Robinson, Andre 28-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 5 plays, 84 yards, TOP 3:15.................................................................37-0

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