McSorley reiterates he’s a QB, not a DB

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Trace McSorley is among the most productive quarterbacks in Penn State history.

He owns program records for everything from career passing yardage (9,899) to victories as a starting quarterback (31), from rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (30) to consecutive games with a touchdown pass (34).

The personal and team statistics he put up in college are impressive. The vital statistics he will take into the NFL draft apparently are not, at least to some teams.

McSorley checks in at just over 6 feet, and a little more than 200 pounds, which means he is roughly the size of one of Ben Roethlisberger’s legs.

And while his lackluster completion percentage of 53.2 percent — a figure deflated by his receivers’ chronic inability to hold on to passes that hit them in the hands — last season could be a cause of concern for clubs evaluating his pro potential, McSorley’s size might be an even bigger (or is it, smaller?) issue.

Whatever the reason, McSorley got word during the recent NFL combine that, in at least some quarters, he was being projected as a defensive back at the next level, and that there were teams that wanted to see him go through drills designed for players who work there.

“There was a scout who said teams had talked to him about asking me to do it,” McSorley said after Penn State’s pro day Tuesday.

McSorley declined, and, while he insisted that he didn’t take those assessments as an insult, he made it clear that he doesn’t agree with them.

“I didn’t necessarily take it as a sign of disrespect,” he said. “But it did put a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, for sure.”

For the most part, though, McSorley took it pretty much in stride, perhaps because this wasn’t the first time that it was suggested that he was miscast as a quarterback.

“It wasn’t completely from left field,” he said.

Indeed, he’d heard that from numerous college coaches who recruited him and wanted him to move to the defensive backfield, even though he’d led his high school team in Virginia to four consecutive state championship games, winning three. James Franklin, who initially pursued McSorley for Vanderbilt, then convinced McSorley to follow him to Penn State, recognized his potential as a quarterback and was rewarded for it over the past three seasons.

Franklin was among those who watched McSorley’s performance during pro day, when he threw for about a half-hour and connected on all but four passes.

“I was able to throw with some good zip, good pace on it, and put it in some good spots,” McSorley said.

He declined to speculate on when he might be selected, or to identify any teams that appear to have a particularly keen interest in him.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people,” he said. “It’s hard to gauge where I might end up.”

Far tougher than predicting the position he expects to play.

“I feel like I’m a quarterback,” McSorley said. “Maybe [some teams] don’t believe that, and that’s fine. That’s their belief. But in my heart and in my mind, I’m a quarterback.”

Just like he is in the Penn State record book.