Trace McSorley Returns to Penn State as a Valuable Coaching Resource

James Franklin has hired nearly a dozen Penn State football lettermen in recent years, bringing together multiple generations onto an eclectic staff. This year alone, Franklin hired Greg Gattuso, a member of Penn State's 1982 national championship team, as a senior defensive analyst and Aeneas Hawkins as assistant director of player development and revenue sharing strategy.

But Franklin made his highest-profile hire before spring drills began, bringing aboard former Penn State star quarterback Trace McSorley in an offensive role. McSorley was named assistant quarterbacks coach to Danny O'Brien to start a coaching career that has plenty of potential. The assistants also have plenty in common.

Like O'Brien, McSorley has a long history with Franklin. O'Brien played at Maryland when Franklin was the offensive coordinator and has been on Franklin's Penn State staff for several years. McSorley, of course, was a three-year starter for the Nittany Lions and the first quarterback Franklin recruited to Penn State.

McSorley initially committed to Franklin at Vanderbilt but flipped to Penn State in 2014, after Franklin took the job with the Nittany Lions. In his first year as Penn State's starter, McSorley led Penn State on a nine-game winning streak to the 2016 Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl appearance.

McSorley won 31 games as Penn State's starting quarterback, a program record, and threw for 9,899 yards. McSorley often returned to Penn State to work out as he pursued professional opportunities. Once his playing career ended, McSorley seemed like a natural fit for Penn State's staff.

"You guys know how I feel about Trace and his whole family," Franklin said this spring "Trace is a special guy to me. He’s a special guy to Penn State, our history and our tradition. 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."

Franklin said that he and McSorley had discussed coaching opportunities for several years before the timing proved right this offseason. Franklin presented an opening to McSorley, who was intrigued and also an intriguing option for the Nittany Lions.

"If you look at Danny O'Brien, who played for me and coached for me, and Trace McSorley, who played for me, that helps with the learning curve" Franklin said. "Because they already know the culture and they already know the expectations.

"I also think that helps our quarterback room, having somebody who played quarterback at Penn State. Because until you actually have sat in that chair, it's different. I've said, the head coach and quarterback, it's different. Having Trace to be able to mentor that room from his experience is valuable."

McSorley already has proven his impact in the Penn State quarterbacks room. Franklin likes experience at the position. Every starting quarterback Franklin has coached has been a multi-year starter. Drew Allar is entering his third season in the role. Sean Clifford started for four years. Before McSorley, Christian Hackenberg was a two-year starter at Penn State.

With Allar leading the team again in 2025, Franklin will have just four starting quarterbacks in his 12 seasons at Penn State. That's exceptionally rare in today's college football, where quarterbacks are the stars of the transfer portal. Penn State certainly has lost quarterbacks to the portal, but Franklin has yet to bring in a transfer quarterback on scholarship.

As Allar said, that's part of of the culture Franklin has built at Penn State. Allar also has found McSorley to be a vital resource.

"I'm really happy that he's a part of our offensive staff now," Allar said recently. "He's another resource for me. I'm going to continue to ask him questions, and he's been a great help for me already. He and Danny [O'Brien] have done a great job of managing us as quarterbacks and really giving us areas to improve on, but also just helping us with any questions that we have and putting together [video] cut-ups for us and really just talking through a lot of different things."