Naming McSorley as starting QB was smart for win-hungry Penn State

If James Franklin wanted to surprise Penn State fans at his latest media availability, he would have announced redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens as the team's starting quarterback for its Sept. 3 season opener against Kent State at Beaver Stadium.

But even as he admitted that "the statistics were pretty even" in the quarterback competition during the first two-plus weeks of training camp, Franklin decided to go with experience in redshirt sophomore Trace McSorley.

It was a safe and smart move by the third-year head coach at the start of an important season. After a pair of 7-6 records during which the Nittany Lions were still shorthanded on scholarship numbers - a lingering effect of NCAA sanctions - the team must show improvement in the win column now that it is close to, if not exactly at, the maximum of 85 scholarships.

The 6-foot, 205-pound McSorley backed up Christian Hackenberg in each of the last two seasons. He didn't get a chance to see meaningful playing time - not counting one snap in 2015 that resulted in a sack against Maryland - until last season's TaxSlayer Bowl. That's when he replaced an injured Hackenberg in the second quarter and completed 14 of 27 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the Nittany Lions' loss to Georgia on Jan. 2.

As it turned out, McSorley's experience as the team's backup quarterback and in the bowl game went a long way with Franklin, as did other factors.

"It's how he went about meetings. It's about practice. It wasn't one thing," the coach said Wednesday. "Tommy asked what was the one thing, and it's not one thing. . . . It was spring practice. It was meetings. It was the bowl game. It was being the backup for two years. It was everything."

Those two years in the program might be the only factor in McSorley's favor. Certainly he and the 6-4, 218-pound Stevens are pretty close in terms of their familiarity with the new offense installed by offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, one that calls for a more mobile quarterback.

Moorhead, who assumed his job last December, said he likes a quarterback "who can beat you with his brains, beat you with his arm, and beat you with his legs."

"When you have a quarterback who is a threat to run the football successfully, either by design or when the play breaks down, I think that makes it that much more difficult to defend your offense," he said this month at Penn State media day.

"You want a passer who can run rather than a runner who can pass, simply because of what we ask our quarterback to do in our passing game from a drop-back perspective. But it becomes a point where if a guy's not athletic enough, it really doesn't matter how good of a passer he is. If he can't [do] some of the things we're asking him to do in the run game, then it's just not a guy who would be a great fit for our system."

Moorhead said of the two quarterbacks, "Tommy's a little bit taller. Trace is a little bit faster. But from a skill-set perspective, they're incredibly similar."

It remains to be seen how well McSorley will lead the offense in the early games, including hostile atmospheres at Pittsburgh and at Michigan in the season's first month. But Franklin's timing in his decision was important, allowing McSorley to get the majority of practice time with the first unit as the Nittany Lions transition from camp to game-week preparation for their opener.

And while media and fans made a big deal out of the quarterback announcement, Franklin did not. He said he felt no need to inform the players of his decision.

"It's no different than any other position on the team," he said. "I didn't feel like it was appropriate. Those guys were going to find out anyway. I've never announced who the [starting] quarterback is to the team."

Now everyone knows.

Sophomore running back Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 1,076 yards last season, has been named to the watch list for the Lombardi Award. The award, which used to be given to the outstanding lineman in college football, now includes players at all positions who combine excellent performance with great leadership attributes. Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib won it last year.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq