Penn State football too reliant on Trace McSorley? Depends on who you ask

Penn State's fine-line success seems increasingly dependent on Trace McSorley's every move.

And that's not necessarily a wise trend, McSorley's head coach said.

"My concern is that Trace is carrying too much of the load on offense," James Franklin said this week as his team prepares for a season-defining stretch beginning with Saturday's game vs. Iowa.

"That's something we need to do a better job of. We need to have more players have more of an impact on offense. Miles [Sanders] is really starting to take a step. I think last week was probably his best game. We need to to spread out some of those big plays and some of those runs."

The concern comes as the Nittany Lions' offense has become more reliant on its senior McSorley's running ability. The 6-foot, 200-pound quarterback has carried the ball a stunning 57 times over the past three games, twice gaining more than 100 yards — and absorbing a lot of hits along the way.

His 554 rushing yards through only seven games has already broken his previous season-best. He's well on pace to pass his personal mark for carries in a season.

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And it's been sorely needed because his receivers continue to drop the ball at an alarming rate. At one point they piled up the most drops in Power 5 football and lost five more at Indiana.

Two of McSorley's three interceptions have come from balls bouncing off receivers' hands.

Those increased running attempts, meanwhile, have not necessarily come from design, Franklin said.

"Sometimes there is a misconception we are running Trace more or we're using Tommy [Stevens] as a decoy. We really don’t do that. If Tommy's in the game, the [opponent's] defense determines whether he gets the ball or not. Most of Trace's run come from a scramble off a normal pass play or some type of zone-read" just before the snap.

"We don't go into a game saying, 'We're going to run Trace this many times."

McSorley, as expected, said he doesn't believe that he's overworked or relied on too much.

"I want to do whatever I can do to help our team win," he said. "To me, I really haven’t felt like it’s been a burden or I’m shouldering too much of the load. I’m going to have the same mindset."

Still, the Penn State offense, for all of its potential and talent, seems disjointed as it gets ready for a Top 25 stretch against Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.

McSorley is completing only 53.8 percent of his passes after hitting on 66.5 percent last year. He also suffered through one of his more inaccurate passing games in the recent loss to Michigan State.

With his older receivers struggling the most, he's been forced to rely on freshmen tight end Pat Frieirmuth and receivers Cam Sullivan-Brown, Mac Hippenhammer and now, possibly, Jahan Dotson.

Never does McSorley's body language or demeanor seem to dip.

"I think you guys know Trace; he's really steady-Eddie," Franklin said. "The only time you ever see [emotion] is after a touchdown when he does his celebratory grand slam home run [swing] or whatever you want to call it.

"Trace is a guy who's always part of the solution, he's never about the problem. We all realize it's easy to identify problems, but Trace is a solution guy. He's always been really good at that from a leadership standpoint, always been real good about that from an ownership standpoint."

As usual, he gathered the offense together on Monday to study game film on the team's day off, Franklin said.