Blue White Illustrated

O F F - S E A S O N R E P O R T Likewise, McSorley acknowledged the difficulties he had going against McP- hearson. The rising senior captain fin- ished the day with only four incompletions on 14 attempts. Two of those unsuccessful passes were swatted away by the 5-foot-11, 182-pound McP- hearson. "He's extremely long," McSorley said. "He has great make-up speed, so he can cover really well. Then with the length of his arms and how aggressive he is, he's able to jump routes and able to recover and make windows a lot smaller. He did a good job today, made a couple of good plays on some balls and was able to knock them away at the end." McPhearson said he likes to use his nat- ural abilities to his advantage, and he agreed with McSorley that his reach is one of those assets. "I've got long arms, so I'll use them a lot at the line of scrimmage or even at the top of routes," he said. "I can get my hands on receivers and keep my leverage on them, and I like to use that in my game." Had it been live action during special teams, McPhearson might have had an- other check on the stat sheet, thanks to his speed and reach. Following the first touchdown of the game, he burst across the line of scrim- mage at the snap of the PAT. Untouched off the edge, he nearly got a hand on the kick from Carson Landis before he pulled up due to Franklin's instruction. Consid- ering his long arms, it's not farfetched to believe McPhearson would have gotten his hands on that one, too. ■ Lamont Wade is on the move. A for- mer Rivals.com five-star prospect and the No. 1-ranked cornerback in the Class of 2017, Wade is getting ready for his second season of action with the Nittany Lions, and this one will be at a new position: safety. He made the switch at the beginning of spring practice, and the results were on display in the Blue- White Game, with Wade making five stops and a forcing a fumble for the White team. Defensive coordinator Brent Pry said that the rising sophomore began to look more comfortable at his new posi- tion toward the end of spring drills. "He's really gotten a better grasp of the safety position at this point," Pry said. "It was a tough transition, midstride from corner to safety. Coach [Tim] Banks does a great job with those guys, but there's a lot to those positions. La- mont was just getting comfortable at corner, but with our needs and where we're at with the depth we have at cor- ner, we felt like we would give him a shot at safety and see if he can shore us up there a little bit." The question for Wade is whether the move will stick. Pry lauded Wade's physicality, explosiveness and talent, and he added that the player's experi- ence at safety this spring was benefi- cial, but the coaches have not ruled out moving back to his original posi- tion. "We'll look at it in the off-season and see if he's going to be a corner [or] safety, but it was really good to see him get the work at safety," Pry said. Meanwhile, Penn State's starting spots at both strong and free safety appeared to be in the grasp of Nick Scott and Garrett Taylor this spring. Scott has been a mainstay at Penn State each of the past three seasons. He was named a special teams captain last year and will be a defensive cap- tain this coming fall. Taylor was a backup the past two years, appearing in 25 games. During that time, he earned a measure of con- fidence from the coaching staff, al- though Pry had mixed feelings about his showing in the spring game, in which he finished with two assisted tackles. "Garrett has really worked at his craft. He's a guy who kind of hung in the wings behind some pretty good players and has worked and worked. He's gotten faster. I didn't think he had a great scrimmage today, but he had a really good spring," Pry said. "He's a solid tackler, he's where he's supposed to be in the defense, he de- fends the leverage that's required. He's just a smart football player. "He's a little bit of a field general out there. I think him and Nick Scott have developed a relationship where they work very well right now in that first group out there." That is not to say, however, that Tay- lor won't face competition in presea- son camp. To the contrary, he will have "his hands full" for the starting job, Pry said, with the coaches determined to ensure that the best players end up playing, regardless of their class standing. "There will be a good competition for that strong safety spot," Pry said, citing Wade, Scott, Ayron Monroe and Jonathan Sutherland all as possibili- ties. "We're going to find the best two, and [that may mean] Nick plays out at strong and somebody else is in the boundary. It's the same way at line- backer. I tell those guys, it doesn't matter where you're playing right now. Learn the position, learn the concepts, learn the traits, but ulti- mately you could end up somewhere else. If you're one of the top two or three at the position, we're going to get you on the field." –N.B. Questions abound at safety as Nittany Lions rebuild WADE

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