Who are the best Penn State quarterbacks of the last quarter century? How our panel voted
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Penn State football: The best players since 2000
For summer 2025, we’re looking back on the past quarter century of Penn State football and Nittany Lions. We formed a panel of voters to determine the best players at each position since the 2000 season, along with the top 10 offensive and defensive players overall.
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Our summer series ranking the best Penn State football players of the last quarter century is on to the most important position on the field — quarterback.
As a reminder, we reached out to eight Penn State beat writers to form a panel of voters who have determined the best Nittany Lions at each position since the 2000 season, along with the top 10 offensive and defensive players overall, based on their stats, accomplishments and the eye test.
That panel is made up of: Neil Rudel (Altoona Mirror), Rich Scarcella (Reading Eagle), Audrey Snyder (The Nittany Dispatch), Mark Brennan (Lions247), Mark Wogenrich (Penn State on SI), Frank Bodani (York Daily Record), Daniel Gallen (Lions247), Johnny McGonigal (PennLive), Josh Moyer (Centre Daily Times) and Jon Sauber (Centre Daily Times).
Let’s look at the 10 best quarterbacks of the last 25 seasons. And after you’ve reviewed our picks, vote at the bottom of this story in a poll that covers quarterbacks and running backs.
Note: All stats and years played are from 2000 and beyond unless otherwise noted. First-place votes are in parentheses for players with a high rank of one.
10. Rashard Casey
High rank: 10 | Low rank: NR | Average rank: 10.15
Years played: 2000
Passing stats: 2,001 yards, 14 touchdowns, 8 interceptions
Rushing stats: 315 yards, 5 touchdowns
Casey makes this list as the No. 10 quarterback on 8.5 of the ballots (one shared the 10 spot with him and Rob Bolden), with only one year as a starter. That’s largely because the Nittany Lions have had a high level of consistency year over year at the position, with only 11 quarterbacks getting consistent starter reps over the last 25 seasons. Casey’s case over Bolden is a fairly simple one — he was far better as a passer and a runner, and was a team captain in 2000. His numbers may not jump off the page, but Casey also played in a very different era of football than the modern quarterbacks.
9. Anthony Morelli
High rank: 8 | Low rank: 9 | Average rank: 8.9
Years played: 2004-2007
Passing stats: 5,275 yards, 31 touchdowns, 19 interceptions
Rushing stats: -121 yards, 1 touchdown
Morelli arrived at Penn State as a highly-touted five-star quarterback and ended up starting for two years and leading the Nittany Lions to nine wins each in 2006 and 2007. He was a team captain in his final season and is now 11th in program history in passing yards, but was fifth in that category when he left campus in 2007. Morelli may not have ascended to some of the heights he was projected to based on his five-star status, but he was an above average starter for two seasons with the Nittany Lions.
8. Zack Mills
High rank: 6 | Low rank: 8 | Average rank: 7.7
Years played: 2001-2004
Passing stats: 7,212 yards, 41 touchdowns, 39 interceptions
Rushing stats: 584 yards, 11 touchdowns
Mills was a four-year starter for the Nittany Lions and has the cumulative statistics to go with that fact. He’s fourth in Penn State history in passing yards, tied for 7th in career touchdown passes and 8th in career completion percentage. The former Nittany Lion also led the team to nine wins in 2002 — his most in a single season — in an era that included massive schematic struggles offensively for the group. He was an All-Big Ten honorable mention in that year, and ultimately that helped him land ahead of a few others on this list.
7. Matt McGloin
High rank: 3 | Low rank: 8 | Average rank: 6.3
Years played: 2009-2012
Passing stats: 6,390 yards, 46 touchdowns, 19 interceptions
Rushing stats: -57 yards, 7 touchdowns
There’s a clear jump up in the level of quarterback play from eight to seven, with McGloin reaching a level in 2012 that the previous three couldn’t get to. He started his career as a walk-on and ended it by winning the 2012 Burlsworth Trophy, which is awarded to the best player who began their career as a walk-on. He excelled that season in Bill O’Brien’s first year as the program’s head coach, amassing 3,271 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and only five interceptions. McGloin’s play helped the team earn eight wins that year and ultimately finished with what is now the fifth most passing yards (6,390) and passing touchdowns (46) in program history.
6. Christian Hackenberg
High rank: 4 | Low rank: 8 | Average rank: 6.1
Years played: 2013-2015
Passing stats: 8,457 yards, 48 touchdowns, 31 interceptions
Rushing stats: -242 yards, 1 touchdown
Hackenberg, like Morelli, arrived on campus as a five-star recruit, but did so under much different circumstances. He spent the beginning of his career playing on a team that was sanctioned with scholarship reductions and a postseason ban, but was still able to find success. Hackenberg may not have been as prolific as some others — although he’s third in program history in passing yards — but he played on teams that had offensive lines that struggled with even the worst opponents. It’s hard not to think his career would have played out much differently had he had better protection up front in his time at Penn State.
5. Sean Clifford
High rank: 3 | Low rank: 7 | Average rank: 5
Years played: 2018-2022
Passing stats: 10,661 yards, 86 touchdowns, 31 interceptions
Rushing stats: 1,073 yards, 15 touchdowns
It may be odd that the program’s all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns and quarterback wins is only fifth on the list, but Clifford is still — unarguably — one of the most productive players the program has ever seen. His four years as a starter were bookended by two of the best seasons the program had at the time in the James Franklin era. Clifford led the team to a Cotton Bowl victory and 11 wins in 2019 before winning just as many games and the Rose Bowl in 2022. While the two years in between were more tumultuous, they were largely impacted by the COVID-shortened season in 2020 and a large number of injuries in 2021. Clifford’s success will be attributed to longevity by some, but there’s no denying how well he played when he was at his best.
4. Drew Allar
High rank: 2 | Low rank: 8 | Average rank: 3.8
Years played: 2022-present
Passing stats: 6,302 yards, 53 touchdowns, 10 interceptions
Rushing stats: 560 yards, 11 touchdowns
There’s a good chance that Allar will be three spots higher on this list if it’s done after the 2025 season. The senior quarterback has already helped lead Penn State to its first College Football Playoff appearance, and a game away from playing for a national title, all while dealing with the same expectations that befell Morelli and Hackenberg as a five-star recruit. Allar is first in Penn State history in completion percentage, third in career passing touchdowns, sixth in passing yards and eighth in quarterback wins — and he has a chance to move up those lists in a major way this season. While he’s been a two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him as a first-teamer in 2025, and have us all looking back wishing we’d voted him higher.
3. Daryll Clark
High rank: 2 | Low rank: 7 | Average rank: 3.6
Years played: 2006-2009
Passing stats: 5,742 yards, 43 touchdowns, 16 interceptions
Rushing stats: 619 yards, 22 touchdowns
Clark, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the most underrated players the program has had in the last 25 years (I had him second on my ballot). He was a two-time first team All-Big Ten member in 2008 and 2009 and led the team to 11 wins in each of those seasons. He was highly effective as a passer and a runner in a time before teams properly used quarterbacks with the mobility he had. Clark was ahead of his time in that regard, and still ranks second in program history in rushing touchdowns and seventh in rushing yards. Of course, he was a passer first, racking up enough yards and touchdowns to finish eighth and sixth in program history in those categories. While the cumulative numbers aren’t that of a top-three quarterback in the last quarterback century, the eye test certainly helps elevate his case.
2. Michael Robinson
High rank: 1 (2) | Low rank: 4 | Average rank: 2.4
Years played: 2002-2005
Passing stats: 3,531 yards, 23 touchdowns, 21 interceptions
Rushing stats: 1,637 yards, 20 touchdowns
The stats don’t tell the full story with Robinson. He started his career as a utility player, lining up across the board on offense and making do of what he had thanks to an offensive staff that wasn’t able to properly utilize its best player. He still managed to make an impact where he could as both a runner and receiver, but didn’t take off until he was finally made the starting quarterback in 2005. That’s when he took the nation by storm, throwing for 2,350 yards and 17 touchdowns to 10 interceptions, while also rushing for 806 yards and 11 touchdowns. Robinson was nearly impossible to bring down and was a battering ram for an offense that led the team to an 11-1 finish. His fifth-place Heisman Trophy finish makes him the only player on this list to make the top-five for the award.
1. Trace McSorley
High rank: 1 (8) | Low rank: 2 | Average rank: 1.2
Years played: 2015-2018
Passing stats: 9,899 yards, 77 touchdowns, 25 interceptions
Rushing stats: 1,697 yards, 30 touchdowns
McSorley was the obvious choice here and Mark Brennan put the reasoning well.
“No-brainer for me here,” Brennan said. “McSorley put Penn State in position to win every critical game he played save two after becoming a starter, and the losses most definitely were not on him.”
McSorley both had the peak and the longevity to earn this spot, ranking second in career quarterback wins, passing yards, passing touchdowns and total offense in Penn State history while also being first in passing yards and passing touchdowns for a single season in program history. The three-time All-Big Ten second teamer also finished first in rushing yards by a QB and rushing touchdowns by a QB — giving him the resume of the best dual-threat quarterback in program history. And all of that is without even mentioning the Big Ten title he led the team to in 2016 and the upset win over Ohio State that same year — two events that changed the course of the program under James Franklin and put them on the trajectory to land players like Allar to even further raise the program’s ceiling.
This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
