Notebook: Amidst mounting records, McSorley focused on present
Eleven games into a grind-it-out season, the Penn State football program isn’t turning away wins, however it can get them.
Such was the case Saturday afternoon in Piscataway, N.J., as the Nittany Lions topped Rutgers, 20-7, without ever truly taking control of the game offensively.
Defensively, of course, was another story as Brent Pry’s group limited the Scarlet Knights to 234 yards of total offense, just 17 first downs, and most important, just 7 points. The Nittany Lions also added another four sacks to their season tally, bringing the total to 38, just nine shy of Penn State’s all-time record of 47 in a season.
They’ll get an opportunity to add to that number next Saturday at Beaver Stadium, hosting a Maryland team that is 69th in the nation, averaging 2.27 sacks allowed per game.
But before moving on to the Terrapins, let’s take a look at some of the news, notes, and observations to emerge from Saturday’s postgame:
1) Penn State’s offense again struggled Saturday during a season full of challenges connecting on that side of the ball.
The Nittany Lions’ passing offense produced just 183 yards on 17 Trace McSorley completions and is now ranked No. 83 nationally at just 212.2 yards per game through the air.
Even so, head coach James Franklin found positives to highlight afterward. Particularly challenged by four-minute offense situations this season, most notably in efforts to wrap up wins against both Ohio State and Michigan State, the Nittany Lions managed to respond Saturday against the Scarlet Knights when faced with a similar proposition.
Coming off a Rutgers touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, the Nittany Lions possessed the ball for 12 plays and 5 minutes, 40 seconds, to effectively end the Knights’ opportunity at a comeback.
“I thought the 4-minute drive at the end of the game was pretty impressive. We did a great job of working the clock and running the ball and mixing those things in there,” said Franklin. “Obviously you don’t want to fumble it. We’ve got to get that cleaned up, but I thought the way we were able to run the ball and eat the clock up, that was a positive, something we worked really hard at.”
Sanders, guilty of the fumble at the Rutgers 17-yard line with just 1:17 left to play, owned the mistake but also expressed his own pride with the four-minute drive.
“The whole year we’ve been getting better, in my opinion, getting better at grinding,” said Sanders. “And in four-minute situations, we did a lot better. But I got a problem right now with ball security, and that’s on me. I gotta fix that.”
2) With the win, fifth-year senior quarterback Trace McSorley improved to 30-8 as a starter, making him the program’s all-time winningest at the position.
In doing so, he also eclipsed the century mark for touchdowns responsible for, connecting with tight end Pat Freiermuth for his 100th and 101st touchdowns at Penn State. The mark allowed McSorley to join a group that includes only Drew Brees and J.T. Barrett.
Asked his perspective on his place in Penn State history and, specifically, how he’ll be remembered as a Nittany Lion, McSorley kept his focus on the present.
“I don’t really think about it too much. That’s something that I just kind of focus on what I need to do in the here and now. When I’m older and able to look back on my career, hopefully in 10, 20 years, I can come back. Maybe people still might know my name, but there’s always someone else coming through,” said McSorley. “I think I kind of always go back to what Coach Moorhead told me. In the moment, try to live it up and shake every hand and take as many pictures as you can, sign autographs for little kids, because at some point no one is going to really remember you and at some point, no one is really going to care as much as they do now. Just from my perspective, try to live in the moment with everything and when I’m old and decrepit, I’ll be able to look back on it and be proud of everything.”
Anticipating a future that includes professional football, McSorley had news to that end this week when he revealed that he’d been invited to participate in the Senior Bowl following the season.
“It’s a big honor, a big opportunity obviously to be able to try and showcase what I can do at the next level,”
said McSorley. “But at this point, I’m just focused on finishing out my season and finishing out my career at Penn State on as high of a note as possible.”
3) Though junior Cam Brown was dressed for warmups with the Nittany Lions Saturday morning, the linebacker did not appear on the field at all during the first half of the game.
Coming out of the halftime locker room, however, Brown appeared alongside Koa Farmer and Jan Johnson upon Rutgers’ first possession of the second half.
According to Franklin, Brown missed the first half due to a “small violation of team rules,” which in turn opened up the opportunity for Micah Parsons to start.
“He’s been playing a bunch of reps anyway, so it wasn’t really dramatic. But it was basically Friday morning, we had a little bit of an issue and made the adjustment there, so those guys probably found out Friday late afternoon that would be one of the changes,” said Franklin.
In the game, Parsons had a strip sack and finished with seven total tackles and a pair of tackles for a loss.
4) Led by K.J. Hamler, Jahan Dotson, Miles Sanders and Freiermuth in receptions on Saturday, the Nittany Lions finished the game with just one catch for any of the season-opener starters at wide receiver.
DeAndre Thompkins grabbed a 5-yard reception in the third quarter, but the likes of Juwan Johnson and Brandon Polk both did not see any action on Saturday. Johnson was dressed in street clothes while Polk dressed for the game but saw no action, which has been true dating back to the Michigan game on Nov. 3.
Judging from Franklin’s postgame comments, however, a return for at least Johnson appears to be likely sooner rather than later.
“With the experience that we’ve got at the quarterback position and with some of the young players who are starting to come on for us and then hopefully be able to get some of those veteran guys back as well - it’d be great to be able to get Juwan back, who is close,” said Franklin.