Blue White Illustrated

P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> the expense of other interests. He was also a 4.0 student who could often be found volunteering at youth football camps in the area, or taking part in char- ity fundraisers. He has continued his community in- volvement at Penn State, where he is co- president (along with linebacker Jason Cabinda) of the Nittany Lions' chapter of Uplifting Athletes. And he has also con- tinued to win football games. McSorley's numbers have translated into the kind of team success that the program hasn't en- joyed since Joe Paterno's late-career resurgence a decade ago. There was the league championship last year, only the fourth in the program's history. And if Penn State wins 10 games this year, it will be the first time since 2008-09 that the team has posted double-digit victory to- tals in consecutive seasons. And yet, he and his teammates have done such a thorough job of changing at- titudes over the past two years that the team's victories have only served to leave a lot of people wanting even more. Penn State's surge has reawakened a craving for the kind of success that it used to enjoy during Paterno's glory days, the kind that seemed unattainable for a while after the NCAA levied its sanctions in 2012. The Nittany Lions have fallen just short of their loftiest goals, losing to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl on a late field goal in the final game of the 2016 season and dropping games to Ohio State and Michigan State this fall by a com- bined total of four points. Those two reg- ular-season losses have ended any hope of a return to the Big Ten Championship Game. McSorley finds motivation in moments like those. The photo gallery on his phone includes a shot from the final game of his high school career. It was the Virginia 5A championship, and Briar Woods let a 15- point halftime lead slip away in a 35-28 loss to L.C. Bird. McSorley threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns, and he also had 10 tackles and an interception on de- fense, but the Falcons still fell short. Why hold onto such an agonizing memory? "Because I never want to feel that way again," he told USA Today earlier this year. Inevitably, though, as a player in one of the most competitive conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision, McSorley has had to find a way of coping with defeat. What's more, he's had to accept that he's going to play an outsized role in the team's fortunes, good and bad. Penn State's offensive scheme calls on him to take shots downfield, and while the risk- reward calculus has mostly worked in the Lions' favor, it's not a foolproof system. In three of the team's five losses over the past two years – to Pitt, Southern Cal and Michigan State – fourth-quarter inter- ceptions have had a big impact on the outcome. Following the Lions' 27-24 loss at Michigan State, McSorley found himself searching for answers in the postgame media room. He said he wasn't surprised by the Spartans' game plan or their tenacity or toughness. "They're a great program, so I'm not stunned," he said. "My personal feeling is more of anger. I just feel like that's not me with the turnovers." The following week against Rutgers, he threw for two touchdowns and ran for an- other, and he didn't toss any intercep- tions. It wasn't enough to get the Lions back into Big Ten title contention, but it did burnish their postseason credentials, and it showed that McSorley's sense of determination hadn't wavered in the af- termath of the team's midseason swoon. That wasn't at all surprising. One of the telltale characteristics of a winner is a willingness to keep fighting. ■ TRACE McSORLEY GAME-BY-GAME PASSING RUSHING OPP ATT COMP PCT YDS TD INT LONG SACK-YDS EFFIC ATT YDS AVG TD Akron 25 18 72.0 280 2 1 43 0-0 184.48 12 48 4.0 1 Pitt 28 15 53.6 164 3 1 46 1-7 130.99 8 65 8.1 0 Georgia State 23 18 78.3 309 4 0 85 0-0 248.50 3 24 8.0 1 Iowa 48 31 64.6 284 1 1 23 4-12 116.99 17 61 3.6 0 Indiana 36 23 63.9 315 2 1 36 5-34 150.17 16 -19 -1.2 1 Northwestern 34 25 73.5 245 1 0 38 4-29 143.76 16 -1 -0.1 1 Michigan 26 17 65.4 282 1 1 42 2-11 161.49 11 76 6.9 3 Ohio State 29 17 58.6 192 2 0 37 2-9 136.99 13 49 3.8 1 Michigan St. 47 26 55.3 381 3 3 70 3-13 131.71 7 2 0.3 0 Rutgers 21 16 76.2 214 2 0 25 2-16 193.22 13 44 3.4 1 TOTAL 317 206 65.0 2666 21 8 85 23-131 152.44 116 349 3.0 9

• Cover