There’s a familiar face within Penn State’s facilities this offseason. He stands beside quarterbacks coach Danny O’Brien and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, watching players whose shoes he was in not too long ago. Trace McSorley, the second-leading passer in program history, has returned to the Nittany Lions after a six-year NFL career.
As Drew Allar trades reps with backups Ethan Grunkemeyer and Jaxon Smolik, McSorley is there behind them as a sounding voice and teacher. He’s the team’s new assistant quarterbacks coach, a role once held by O’Brien before his promotion that followed the fire of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich in November 2023.
“You guys know how I feel about Trace and his whole family. Trace is a special guy to me. He’s a special guy to Penn State, our history and our tradition,” James Franklin said after practice on Tuesday. “So, he chased his dream as long as he thought it made sense in the NFL, and was able to play at a level that very few people get to play at for a number of years.
“And we’ve been talking over the last couple years that he was going to probably get into coaching, whether that was at the NFL level or with us. We had an opportunity open up and presented it to him and had some good discussions on what it would look like. And he’s been great.”
McSorley is following a similar trend in the Franklin coaching tree. O’Brien played quarterback for Franklin at Maryland, eventually turning to coaching after a multi-year professional career. Franklin offered O’Brien his first collegiate job.
“You look at Danny O’Brien, who played for me and coached for me. Trace McSorley, who played for me and coached for me,” Franklin said. “I think that helps with the learning curve, because they already know the culture, they already know the expectations.”
There likely hasn’t been an offseason with as much anticipation surrounding the Nittany Lions since 2017, when McSorley led one of the nation’s top offenses, one that consisted of Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki and Juwan Johnson. McSorley likely understands, better than anyone, the pressure that Allar is under ahead of a year with national title aspirations.
McSorley was around practice, at times, last season as he trained for a potential return to the NFL after his release by the Washington Commanders in August. He now returns to a program similarly stacked to Penn State’s 2017 roster. It’s an offense that is set to include Allar, starting running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and one of the nation’s top offensive lines.
McSorley led the push that returned the Nittany Lions to the national stage nine years ago. And a national championship, less than a decade later, is officially a realistic possibility. His return, this season, just makes sense.
“I also think it helps our quarterback room, having somebody that played quarterback at Penn State, because until you’ve actually sat in that chair, it’s different,” Franklin said. “You guys heard me say it before, the head coach and the quarterback, it’s different. So having Trace to be able to mentor that room from his experiences, I think is valuable.”
