Joe Moorhead rips ‘ridiculous’ narrative against Trace McSorley, Penn State offense

Joe Moorhead firmly believes there’s a senseless narrative floating around about his quarterback and offense — and the coordinator let everyone know how he feels about it.

“There’s this thought process ... that Trace (McSorley) just drops back, picks the deepest receiver and chucks the ball up and hopes the guy makes the play,” a visibly annoyed Moorhead said on Saturday afternoon at Penn State football media day. “In a lot of ways, it’s ridiculous at best and, quite frankly, asinine at worst.”

The response — which was prompted by a question about McSorley’s next step in his development — was epic and pointed.

There’s been plenty of talk this offseason about the loss of wide receiver Chris Godwin, how that’ll impact the Nittany Lions in 2017 and what options McSorley will have down the field. Godwin had an 85.7 contested catch conversion rate over a six-game stretch in 2016.

But to peg Penn State’s offense as 50-50-ball centric — or in another word, lucky — is a “gross mischaracterization,” according to Moorhead.

“You hear people say, ‘Are you going to be able to consistently live on the 50-50 ball down the field?’ Well that’s not what we do,” the second-year offensive coordinator said. “Our offense is designed to stretch defenses horizontally and vertically and create mismatches with our personnel. The things we did throwing the ball downfield didn’t happen by chance. They happened by choice.”

Namely, McSorley’s choices from inside and outside the pocket.

McSorley — the leader of a team that averaged 45.6 points per contest over its final seven games — set Penn State single-season records in passing yardage (3,614) and touchdowns (29).

With that in mind, Moorhead takes exception to any narrative that discredits those accomplishments.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I do know this: A kid couldn’t lead the league in multiple passing categories and set single-season records and be on the verge of multiple other school records if he was just throwing the ball indiscriminately down the field,” Moorhead said. “In a lot of ways, I feel like that minimizes the role of the people who gameplan the plays, who calls ’em and the player that executes them.”

Return game

Special teams coordinator Charles Huff mentioned running back Miles Sanders first while discussing potential kick returners this season.

Sanders led the team with 33 kick returns as a freshman last season in his first action at that position in his career.

“Every time he was back there was a new experience,” Huff said.

Sanders arrived at Penn State as a highly touted running back recruit, playing in the Under Armour All-America game and earning Mr. PA Football honors during his career at Woodland Hills. But he saw limited time behind starting running back Saquon Barkley and made his biggest contribution returning kicks.

He averaged 20.8 yards per kick return last year, and he’s part of a group of possible kick returners. Along with Sanders; Nick Scott, Brandon Polk and KJ Hamler will compete for time returning kicks.

“We feel really good about the guys we have,” Huff said.

Impact freshmen

Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos and cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields were mentioned by James Franklin as two freshmen to watch — and defensive coordinator Brent Pry couldn’t agree more.

Gross-Matos and Castro-Fields — a pair of four-star recruits out of Virginia and Maryland, respectively — are “two guys with a very high skill-set,” according to Pry.

“They don’t allow their mind to tie up their feet right now,” Pry said. “They may not be sure about some things, but they go hard as heck and play fast. It makes a difference. Not all young guys can do that.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Joe Moorhead rips ‘ridiculous’ narrative against Trace McSorley, Penn State offense."