Blue White Illustrated

California in the Rose Bowl nearly four months earlier. As with most spring games, the scrim- mage did less to showcase the team's stars than to give some up-and-comers a platform to show off their potential. Daryll Clark played sparingly for the Blue, attempting only 13 passes, of which he completed 10 for 123 yards. Veteran tailback Evan Royster was even less busy, carrying three times for 21 yards. Meanwhile, playing for the backup-laden White squad, a young quarterback named Matt McGloin com- pleted 5 of 8 passes for 49 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 28 yards on his only carry of the day. Michael Zordich led the White in tackles with six, while one of his fellow line- backers, Michael Mauti, made four stops and also picked up the Jim O'Hora Award at halftime as the team's most improved defensive player. A lot of peo- ple seemed to think those kids had a bright future at Penn State. As the Lions get ready to wrap up their latest batch of spring practice sessions, there are a couple of obvious parallels with that game eight years ago. Once again, Penn State is coming off a loss to the Trojans, and once again it will be trying not to expose its standout quar- terback and running back to much if any risk on the final day of off-season drills. Saquon Barkley didn't play in last year's Blue-White Game, with Franklin explaining that "to go live in the spring game, I didn't think it made a whole lot of sense." Presumably, it still doesn't. Trace McSorley did play, and he was fantastic. Making his debut at the con- trols of Joe Moorhead's revamped offense, he was the breakout star of the game, completing 23 of 27 passes for 281 yards, with four touchdowns and only one inter- ception. While a lot of people probably chalked up those numbers to the game's quarterback-friendly ground rules and assumed they were unlikely to be dupli- cated once he began taking live fire during the regular season, McSorley went on to lead the Big Ten in pass efficiency. Look- ing back on it, his performance last April doesn't seem the least bit fluky. Come Saturday, McSorley will likely have Franklin standing directly behind him on the field, possibly ready to throw a block if any would-be tacklers look as though they might violate the rules that protect quarterbacks from contact. And then he'll head to the sideline and watch Tommy Stevens, Jake Zembiec and a walk-on or two battle it out. No matter how much (or how little) Barkley and McSorley play, the game should be closer than the 37-0 shellack- ing that the backups absorbed last year. Franklin talked recently about the likeli- hood that this year's scrimmage will be more competitive and entertaining than the first three spring games he coached at Penn State. Since his arrival, the Nit- tany Lions have rebuilt a sanction-de- pleted roster to the point where they can compete with the likes of Ohio State, Last year, I ;gured an 8-4 record and a solid bowl invite was feasible, if not prob- able. I ;gured a 9-3 season and a New Year's Day bowl would be super, but prob- ably not likely. This year, I think a 10-2 season is very achievable with another big prime time New Year's Day bowl invite. There's a big part of me that believes the Lions ;nish at 11-1, with a loss to Ohio State in Columbus... or perhaps a win there and a er two 7-6 ;nishes.) This isn't a negative thing, and I think PSU has the leadership and team culture to remain focused, but it will be a di=er- ent mindset for many in this program to go from trying to improve on 7-6 and earn national respect to coming in as a top dog. vslice02 This team has expectations. That hasn't been the case for a while and that comes with a whole other list of possible concerns. Personally, I think we have the leadership both on the ;eld and on the sideline to handle it. 34EVER Wet blanket alert. First o=, I'm ex- tremely excited for the season and I do think it will be a year for us to ;nally get back in the conversation about elite teams. That said, the only thing that gives me pause is that things always seem to get tough when expectations get high. I've always said that there are no better seasons as a fan than when your team absolutely blows away expecta- tions, and that was de;nitely true last year. I think last year will go down as an all-time favorite for a lot of fans around here once we get more and more dis- tance from it. CKSmith45 Maybe it's just the way I'm wired and my general New England negativity, but I'm not one of those people who think we're going to win a national title. I'd love to – and we have the best returning core of a great team that I've ever seen at Penn State (we're talking less than 20 seasons), but that's just such a high bar to clear that I can't look at things that way. However, I do think we have a GREAT chance to get back to a New Year's Six bowl game (in some capacity), which I believe would be the ;rst time in more than 30 years that we would go to back-to-back NY6 games. Overall, I think an 11-1 season would get us to the CFP, and 10-2 would get us back to a New Year's Six game, and I certainly think the former is possible and the lat- ter is plausible. berg3438 P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> S I T E L I N E S B W I . R I V A L S . C O M R E A D E R S S O U N D O F F

• Cover