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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> WINNING PERSONALITY C O V E R S T O R Y In high school, Trace McSorley almost always found a way to engineer victory. He's trying to do the same for PSU hen he became a late addition to Penn State's 2014 recruit- ing class, the thumbnail bi- ography of Trace McSorley might as well have consisted of one word: winner. That was all anybody really knew about the three-star prospect from Ashburn, Va. McSorley, who had been committed to Vanderbilt before shifting his alle- giance to Penn State when coach James Franklin left Nashville for University Park, knew how to win. He had led Briar Woods High to the state championship game in all four of his seasons as a starter, and the Falcons were victorious in three of those games. To Franklin, the trophies were as telling as any piece of video. "He and the guy who just won the Super Bowl are the only two quarterbacks to ever take their team to four straight [Vir- ginia state] championship games," Franklin said on signing day, referring to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. "He's a winner in every sense of the word." Given that Briar Woods started claim- ing titles shortly after he began taking snaps, it would be easy to assume that McSorley had stepped into a favorable situation, one in which the other key pieces were already in place and all he had to do was avoid screwing it up. But the Falcons had gone 4-6 the year before, and their plan to build the offense around the running game blew up when tailback Michael Brownlee suffered a broken leg on his first carry of the year. Later that same game, Brownlee's backup limped off the field with a foot injury, leaving the Falcons with little choice but to put their hopes on the shoulders of their 150- pound freshman quarterback. They ended up winning the game, 10-8, on a field goal following an 88-yard drive that McSorley engineered. And then they won 54 of their next 59. What McSorley discovered during his four years at Briar Woods was that it didn't take a personnel overhaul to change the direction of a football team. It just took a handful of players with the vi- sion and charisma to get others to buy in. "A strong corps of leaders can really change the perspective of everyone else on the team," he said. "How guys came in and approached each day when we kind of turned the corner [changed]. It wasn't that we were going into games just kind of hoping to be competitive; we were going in expecting to win in high school, and that was something that really stayed with me. I learned from the older guys my freshman year and continued to carry that throughout my time in high school. "I've tried to bring a little bit of that here." McSorley has indeed brought a little bit of that to Penn State since enrolling in the summer of 2014. More than a lit- tle, actually. Heading into the Nittany Lions' home finale against Nebraska, he was 19-5 in his two seasons as a starter and had led the Lions to a Big Ten cham- pionship as a redshirt sophomore by throwing for 384 yards in a comeback victory over Wisconsin in the league title game. In helping thrust Penn State back into the national spotlight, McSorley has put himself in elite company. With one more season of eligibility still ahead of him, he is already Penn State's career leader in touchdown passes with 52, and he is only the fourth quarterback in school history to surpass 6,000 career passing yards, joining Christian Hackenberg, Matt Mc- Gloin and Zack Mills. Those numbers reflect Penn State's of- fensive evolution, of course, but they also reflect McSorley's upbringing. His father, Rick, used to take him along to his rec league basketball games, hoping to instill an interest in competition. Rick had played football at Richmond, and by the time Trace was in the eighth grade, he was opening eyes as quarterback of Briar Woods' JV team. And while McSorley was passionate about football – his favorite NFL quarter- backs were Drew Brees and Michael Vick – his devotion to the sport didn't come at | W

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