Blue White Illustrated

C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K L Y P R E S S E R What did you expect from Trace McSorley when you decided on him as the starter? Has he met those ex- pectations? Where has he made the most progress since August? I think it's probably most likely con- sistency and confidence. Obviously, we saw traits in him that we thought in the recruiting process would fit well here at Penn State. Then what we saw in prac- tice: He displayed those types of traits, consistency in practice, understanding the offense, how to get us in and out of the right plays. He has some play-mak- ing ability and protects the football. We keep all those statistics. Really that's who he's been. He's done a much better job of protecting the ball in terms of carrying the ball in the pocket, which I think has been really important for us. He's about on schedule. I still think there are a lot of areas he can improve. We'll be saying that when he's a senior, as well. But overall, he's on schedule and we've been very pleased with him. Not only what he's doing on the field but things you don't see behind the scenes, in terms of his leadership, his approach, his demeanor, those types of things. Trace said earlier today he's starting to feel more comfortable taking a vocal leadership role with the team. What have you noticed in that regard since the start of the season? I think I mentioned to you guys before, I told you I talked to his parents. I thought there would be this moment where he really just kind of broke out of his shell, but that's not who he is. I wouldn't say he's any more vocal now than he was before. Having some success and building confidence helps with all those things, but I wouldn't say that we've seen a transformation. I don't know if we will. Again, according to his parents, this is kind of who he's been, very level emotionally, never gets too high, never gets too low. He believes in himself and has a lot of confidence. He has a very strong relationship with everybody on our team. He's one of those guys who relates to so many dif- ferent groups and backgrounds and is well-respected. I don't think there's been a whole lot of change in who he's been even from his freshman year. I don't think that will change a whole lot in his career. I think this is who he is. Trace is one of the guys who is very comfortable in his own skin, which I think is a very important trait, something I'm very attracted to in peo- ple. You can have all different types of per- sonalities; you can be eccentric, outgo- ing, introverted, but you just need to be comfortable in your own skin and with who you are. I think Trace and Brandon Smith are good examples of if you stay true to yourself, you have a chance to earn people's respect. You talked about the turnover mar- gin, how that's been a key for you guys in this four-game winning streak. Why do you think you have been so good at holding onto the ball like that? We emphasize [limiting turnovers]. I think I've told you guys before, we work on ball security more than any program that I've been a part of. I think probably most of our coaching staff would say we work on ball security more than any place they've ever been. We do it every single day in a drill, and that's the entire focus. A lot of people make it a priority all prac- tice, and we do that as well, but every single day we do a ball security drill. I think that's something that's very important for us. It's no different than doing tackling drills every single day, because those two things are just so im- portant to your success. We think it's sustainable. This is really the model of how we want to play. We want to protect the football. We want to play great defense. We want to be ex- plosive. We want to eliminate explosive plays on defense. Then we want to be able to make sure that special teams are emphasized and that we're not just giv- ing it lip service. That way, all three phases – offense, defense and special teams – have a chance to factor into our success week in and week out. This is the model. This is how we want to play consistently. You said on Twitter a2er the Purdue game that you wanted to see another White Out this Saturday. How has your social media lobbying been re- ceived so far? It's funny, what I said aBer the game was that I wanted the stadium to be rocking and sold out and create an un- believable environment. Then I put in there, who says we can only have one White Out a year? I was really talking about the mentality and what we need in terms of an environment and excite- ment in the stadium. But it kind of went crazy, went viral and people ran with it. I think all that's great. Most impor- tantly we need that stadium rocking. I would assume that most people are going to wear some of our colors any- way, white or blue, but most important, we need that stadium rocking. We need a home-field advantage. This is a very good football team. They played in the conference championship game last year. They returned almost everybody from that team. They've been success- ful. They have the most veteran coach in our league, probably the most veteran staff in our league. Coach [Kirk] Ferentz has an 8-4 record against Penn State. We need a home-field advantage. We've had that. We need this place to be rock- ing and as supportive as we possibly can be of our team, while also being a great host to our guests. That's something that Penn State has done for so long. When people come to visit Penn State and Happy Valley, they're treated in a first-class manner before the game, during the game, then aBer the game. It is about how we cele- brate and how we conduct ourselves. That's important. We need that stadium rocking on Sat- urday to make sure we have a true home-field advantage. DaeSean Hamilton has been a huge part of your offense since you took over. His production and playing time have been going down a little N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12

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