BIG DAY FOR ALL-TIME GREAT PENN STATE QBS
Quarterbacks Kerry Collins and Trace McSorley trade compliments at awards dinner in NYC.
NEW YORK — Kerry Collins was a Heisman Trophy finalist, first-team all-American and firstround draft pick as Penn State’s quarterback, leading the team to its last undefeated season in 1994.
On Tuesday, prior to being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, Collins said another Penn State quarterback compiled an even more decorated career than his.
And then Collins shook Trace McSorley’s hand.
“If you look at the wins he’s had, the bowl games, for the length that he’s done it, I feel like he’s had the best career of any quarterback at Penn State,” Collins said of McSorley.
Though bound by by their legacies as Penn State quarterbacks, Collins and McSorley had not shared a meaningful conversation before Tuesday’s College Football Hall of Fame Awards Dinner in New York.
Collins became Penn State’s 26th inductee, and first player from the 1994 Big Ten championship team, while McSorley attended as a finalist for the Campbell Trophy, presented annually to the nation’s top football scholar-athlete.
After shaking hands briefly before the Ohio State game, for which Collins was Penn State’s honorary captain, the quarterbacks finally got a chance to share a few moments about their experiences playing at Beaver Stadium.
“That,” McSorley said after chatting with Collins, “was cool.”
“Having that Penn State connection with someone I’ve heard so much about in my time at Penn State, and how great he was, it’s awesome to be able to be here and witness his induction into
the Hall of Fame,” McSorley said.
Collins has become a big fan of McSorley’s over the past three years, watching games from his home near Nashville, Tenn. McSorley broke nine school records, including the mark for career wins by a quarterback, and led the team to a Big Ten title.
Collins marveled at McSorley’s competitiveness and durability, calling him Penn State’s most successful quarterback ever.
“He’s been able to win consistently, and in the Big Ten that’s very hard to do,” Collins said. “Not only that, he’s shown he can play in the clutch. He can make
the plays when they need to be made, and he can win the tough games, the big games.
“The guy’s competitiveness and heart just comes through every time he steps on the field. That’s something, as an exquarterback, I appreciate.”
McSorley blushed at the conversation, calling Collins’ praise, “pretty cool.” McSorley wasn’t born yet when Collins threw for 2,679 yards, 21 touchdowns and a 67-percent completion rate in 1994. But that history is traced across Penn State’s football building, and McSorley has studied it over the past five years.
“I would say he had arguably the best career at Penn State, so for him to say that means a lot,” McSorley said. “When you walk through Lasch, and see all those walls, you want to cement yourself
in that legacy and be able to come back and see yourself on that wall.”
In 1994, Collins directed Penn State’s highest-scoring offense ever, a group that averaged 47.8 points per game and eventually produced more than 100 years of NFL playing experience. Collins finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, two spots behind teammate Ki-Jana Carter.
(As an aside, asked whether he thought Carter or Saquon Barkley was better, Collins demurred. “That’s a toss-up to me,” he said. “Do you want a Lamborghini or a Ferrari?”)
Collins, who graduated from Wilson West Lawn in Reading, called choosing Penn State the greatest decision he has made. He recalled recruiting visits from Joe Paterno, the late Penn State
coach, to his home and high school, saying those moments “sealed the deal for me.”
“I always had the sense that Joe believed in me and wanted me there,” Collins said. “And as I’ve gotten out and talked to different people and looked back on things, Joe was a guy who really wanted me to succeed. I’m beyond appreciative of that.”
Collins, 45, lives near Nashville with his wife, Brooke, and daughter, Riley, a competitive tennis player who takes it to her dad. He played 17 seasons in the NFL, five each with the Giants and Titans, and is at peace with his career.
Collins said he watches football but doesn’t plan weekends around it, has no desire to coach and only occasionally gets wistful about his playing days.
“I still feel like, if you give me a couple months, I could go out there and throw,” he said, “right up until the point where I had to take a hit.”
Instead, Collins is a content retiree who plays a lot of golf and tennis and, this time of year, turns toward hunting season. He hunts with Tennessee football supporters, reminding them often about Penn State’s 42-17 win over the Volunteers in the 1992 Fiesta Bowl.
“I’m about as content as someone can get,” Collins said. “I feel like I did everything I could with football. I got everything out of it that I could. I’m healthy, my family’s healthy, and I’m in a really good place.”