Something old…
…but he’s still five months shy of his 30th birthday. So, let’s just call Trace McSorley “familiar.”
The former Penn State quarterback, who went 31-9 as a starter and was a huge catalyst for the return to prominence of Penn State football in 2016 under James Franklin, was on the field and working at the Nittany Lions’ first official spring practice on Tuesday, on the fields outside of Lasch and Holuba Hall.
McSorley had been a frequent visitor to Penn State’s practices last fall. Now, it’s his coaching career hopes that spring eternal. After a half-dozen stops in the NFL — Ravens, Cardinals, Patriots, Bears, Steelers and Commanders — after going in the sixth round to Baltimore in the 2019 NFL Draft, McSorley is home.
Home. Where he made his name. And No. 9. Where he met his wife, Kasey Moreno, a former PSU field hockey player. Where his sister went to school. Where his best friends, even today, played football and frequently return, all crashing in the same condo. And where his family will soon expand to three.
At Tuesday’s practice, under sunny skies and temps in the high 50s, McSorley was literally running with the current Nittany Lion quarterbacks and QB coach Danny O’Brien. McSorley wore a white hoodie and a huge grin, as he hustled left and right, punctuating the air with his right index finger, trying to make a point to brand-new freshman quarterback Bekkem Kritza.
Make that Penn State assistant quarterbacks coach Trace McSorley.
Something new…
…“Let’s go!” yelled Stan Drayton during one of the very first drills of the day, of spring practice and of his tenure at Penn State. “Let’s go!”
Tom Brady couldn’t have said it better. Like McSorley, Drayton had a huge bounce in his step on Tuesday afternoon. In fact, the new Nittany Lions’ running back coach had a three-foot high black bouncy ball at his feet.
Drayton was bouncing the huge ball in the path of a steady stream of incoming running backs, who had to deftly dodge getting knocked down. Drayton’s RBs, BTW. Next, he hustled them downfield to the gauntlet blaster machine, where Drayton put the Penn State backs and quarterbacks through a drill testing their ability to hold on to the football.
Through it all, Drayton displayed an energy and an intentionality that was evident a 40-yard dash away and a bit new to that group. He wasn’t goofing around.
And, oh: Make that former Temple head coach Stan Drayton. Who has coached running backs longer than either Nick Singleton or Kaytron Allen have been alive, with stops from A to V — at Allegheny, Bowling Green, Chicago Bears, Eastern Michigan, Florida (twice) Mississippi State, Ohio State, Penn, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas and Villanova.
Something borrowed…
From a rival, no less.
On Tuesday afternoon, in the northeast corner of Penn State’s practice field that is traditionally home to the Nittany Lion defense during Franklin’s reign — through Bob Shoop and Brent Pry and Manny Diaz and Tom Allen — Jim Knowles was an island until mostly himself.
Knowles stood in the middle of the grass field, overseeing 360 degrees of the Nittany Lions’ defense from a near mid-point of the defensive practice field, oftentimes no one within 10 yards of the Nittany Lions’ new defensive coordinator. Make that former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.
The metaphor was not lost on me. Knowles was…is…outstanding in his field. The football field.
That’s why Penn State and former Indiana walk-on linebacker Pat Kraft are paying him $3.1 million to oversee the Nittany Lion defense in 2025. And $6.2 mil to do it again in ’26 and ’27. A national title for Penn State, which some folks are already predicting for this season, would net Knowles another million. No DC in college football is paid more.
Knowles was cool as a cucumber on Tuesday. Stoic, even. In the 10 minutes or so I watched him, Knowles had like two conversations. Brief conversations. He ambled slowly from here to there, watching the largest collection of assistant coaches ever gathered in one place in the soon-to-be 138-year history of Penn State Football. (Welcome back, Greg Gattuso. And to you as well, Andrew Jackson.) Knowles watched. Boy, did he ever. He walked. He crouched. He stared. He cogitated.
Then, finally, when a practice period was over, he blew his whistle. (I do not think Franklin is going to de-whistle Knowles as he did Allen last season.)
Why? Well, Knowles knows D. He led defenses at Cornell, Western Michigan, Duke, Oklahoma State and Texas. And Ohio State.
Did I tell you that Ohio State won the national championship last season? Take away the Buckeyes’ epic 32-31 loss at Oregon last October, Knowles’ Ohio State defense yielded an average of only 11.7 points per game. By game: 0, 0, 6, 7, 7, 10, 13, 14, 14, 15, 17, 17, 21 and 23. Those 23 were scored by Notre Dame in the CFP national title game, which Ohio State won.
Six days later, Knowles signed that deal to be Penn State’s defensive coordinator. Fifty-nine days after that —Tuesday — he was on Penn State’s practice field. Krafty.
So…the something blue?
Well, that would be the skies over State College on Tuesday. A good omen for 2025 after a long winter, if you Knowles what I mean.
