Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/888885
O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 3 Clark, O'Korn is steeped in Nittany Lion lore. When he was a sophomore in high school, O'Korn and his mother, Paula, moved to Fort Lauderdale, where he attended south Florida prep football power St. Thomas Aquinas. O'Korn led the Raiders to a state championship as a senior and went on to sign with Houston, where he made a spec- tacular debut, throwing for 3,117 yards and 28 touchdowns and winning Freshman All- America honors from Athlon. But he lost the starting spot six games into his sopho- more season and later transferred to Michi- gan. In 2016, he lost the battle for the Wolverines' starting spot to Wilton Speight, and he continued to serve as the backup QB until four weeks ago when Speight suffered a back injury against Pur- due. With Speight possibly out for the season, O'Korn has gotten a second chance to show what he can do. He threw for 270 yards to lift Michigan over the Boilermakers, 28-10, but his first start, on a wet night against Michigan State, was a struggle. Playing at times in sheets of rain, O'Korn completed only 16 of 35 passes for 198 yards. He also threw three interceptions and was sacked four times in a 14-10 loss to the Spartans. Against Indiana last week, O'Korn hit 10 of 20 passes for 58 yards in the Wolverines' 27-20 overtime victory. Modest numbers, to be sure, but O'Korn didn't throw any in- terceptions and wasn't sacked, and that's what Harbaugh wanted to see coming off of the loss to the Spartans. "Avoiding the plays that get you beat – that was an em- phasis," the third-year coach said. "I thought he did a fine job." The Wolverines will likely need more productivity out of their offense this week- end. But how much more? That's an open question. Their recent history shows they have enough defense to turn any game into a low-scoring slugfest in which one or two big plays by the offense or in the kicking game could prove decisive. Said Harbaugh, "We have the most punts against us of any team in college football this year, the most three-and-outs. We're doing some really great things on defense." JOHN O'KORN Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog