John Shaffer is old enough to be Trace McSorley’s father.
And although the two have never met, Shaffer feels a certain pride when it comes to the current Penn State quarterback.
‘He handles himself very, very well,’ Shaffer says of McSorley. ‘He’s very much of a team player. Gritty. Competitor. Winner.’
They share a special bond. Separated by over 30 years and offensive styles that are decades part, the two are still alike in many ways.
Starting quarterbacks at Penn State, but not of the Commonwealth. (Shaffer from Ohio, McSorley from northern Virginia.)
Business majors and strong students (Shaffer with a finance degree and MBA; McSorley in accounting).
Amply humble. Articulate. Modulated, even-keeled. Proverbial yet very genuine good guys. Hard workers, disciplined. Confident.
Criticized, even in victory.
Leaders. Winners.
Shaffer was 66-1 as a starting quarterback, through eighth grade in Cincinnati to a senior high school season where he led legendary Moeller to a 13-0 record and a mythical national championship to a national title for Penn State in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. He was 25-1 as a starter at Penn State.
McSorley is 72-8 as a starting quarterback, and was 55-5 in four seasons as a starter at Briar Woods High School in northern Virginia — with three Virginia state titles in four championship game appearances. He is 17-3 as a starter at Penn State.
McSorley’s record includes a 15-1 streak over the Nittany Lions’ last 16 games. That string started after they suffered their last regular season, in 2016 against this Saturday’s opponent, Michigan. His only loss over the past 386 days came in the Rose Bowl, where his four TD passes were offset by a trio of interceptions, including his last pass of the game.
Shaffer’s one loss came in the 1986 Orange Bowl, after he threw three interceptions as No. 1 Penn State lost 25-10 to Oklahoma, which won the national title — instead of the Nittany Lions. (Redemption came a year later, 14-10 over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.)
They both know the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
Shaffer didn’t have McSorley’s athletic ability; he carried the ball 133 times for minus 128 yards. Shaffer threw for 3,470 career yards; McSorley had 3,614 just last season alone. And he didn’t have McSorley’s arm, although he saw strong and steady improvement each of his four seasons. As a freshman backup, Shaffer completed just 26.5% of his passes, with three interceptions on 19 attempts. But, by the time he was a senior and two-year starter, Shaffer worked diligently to get his completion percentage up to 55.9% and he threw just four interceptions on 204 attempts in all of 1986, while leading PSU to a perfect 12-0 record.
Shaffer continues to be a winner.
He married his college sweetheart, Marta, and they have four kids. All graduated or are currently attending Duke; all played or are playing lacrosse: John, Hayley, Reed and Kohl. He spent 17 years at Merrill Lynch, under the tutelage of the late Bill Schreyer, and advanced to head of the firm’s American credit sales division, leading a team of 130 people. From there, he was at Goldman Sachs for seven more years, running leverage finance and helping to direct credit sales.
Shaffer, despite of — or, maybe, because of — that loss in the Orange Bowl, has had a fruitful and successful life. A winner, in many ways. He remains humble.
“I was lucky,” he says now. “It was good timing.”
The timing of a bye week was right, I thought, to talk to Shaffer about McSorley. As someone who has witnessed generations of PSU quarterbacks up close, I see a lot of one in the other, and vice versa — especially if you look past the RPO and the gaudy stats. I wondered if Shaffer, from afar, thought the same way.
During our conversation over the weekend, Shaffer talked about McSorley, the pressures of winning and losing (even when it is a rarity), the life of a Penn State quarterback and how his squads from the mid-‘80s remind him of the Nittany Lions today. It follows, edited for clarity.
SHAFFER SPEAKS
SC.com: You’ve seen Trace play. What are your thoughts about him?
Shaffer: An unbelievable gamer. He’s a winner. I like what he says after the games. In fact, I like that out of the whole team. (Kirk) Herbstreit said something to that effect yesterday.
He handles himself very, very well. He’s very much of a team player. Gritty. Competitor. Winner. I think this whole team has become the kind of team where they’re never out of it; they’re in the game until the very end, no matter what the score is. He’s the key to that kind of grittiness and winning attitude. He goes on the field expecting to win.
You can tell he believes in himself. He reminds me a little bit of (Matt) McGloin. They believe in themselves and the team believes in them. They’re tough, tough competitors.
SC.com: In that regard, can you see some of your 1985 and ’86 teams (which won 11 games, including the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, by a TD or less) in this group?
Shaffer: There may be some similarities, but I think there’s a little more talent at the quarterback position. (chuckles) In the ’85 season, we were criticized for winning ugly. My freshman season (1983) we were 8-4-1 and then 6-5. Going through all of that gave us a certain mentality. It really prepared us for the next two seasons.
In my junior and senior seasons, we never walked on the field expecting to lose. It sounds kind of cliché, but we always thought we were in the game. East Carolina (17-10, 1985), Cincinnati (23-17, 1986), Maryland (20-18, 1985; 17-15, 1986) were the kinds of games that went all the way down to the last minute. I was always confident, we were always confident that we would put something together to win the game. And, fortunately, we did.
This year, they’ve won most games by a big margin. They’re tough competitors. By listening to them, they worry about what Penn State football teams are supposed to worry about. And that’s just the W.
SC.com: What are the major responsibilities of a Penn State quarterback?
Shaffer: (chuckles) It’s very simple. Win.
It’s certainly running the team. It’s certainly talking the blame and giving the credit elsewhere. And produce when you need to produce. At that level, at a school like Penn State, there are so many talented players. His backfield is similar to my backfield (led by D.J. Dozier, with 3,227 career rushing yards). There’s talent all over the place. If it’s your responsibility to complete a pass or throw a touchdown pass, that’s what you need to do. But we had a lot talent to spread the ball around to. We also had a great defense.
SC.com: Most Penn State quarterbacks seem to be a special breed. What is it about being a Penn State quarterback?
Shaffer: Part of the reason I went to Penn State was because I thought I’d have a chance to play for the national championship. It was never about me. And I think that’s the case with even the greatest Penn State players and the great teams, it’s about the team.
Penn State may be known for its linebackers, but all of the quarterbacks have been very successful people and gritty winners on the field.
SC.com: What’s the pressure like being a quarterback at Penn State?
Shaffer: After the Orange Bowl of my junior year and heading into my senior year, playing at the time in front of 86,000 people, was and is the most pressure I ever faced in my life. More than working at Goldman or anywhere else, it was by far the most pressure I ever faced. Period. You’re younger, you’re a kid. As an 18-year-old kid, there’s nothing that means more to than starting at quarterback for Penn State.
SC.com: How did you deal with that pressure?
Shaffer: There’s a confidence that sometimes you have and then sometimes you have to pretend to have as the game begins or s the game progresses. If I felt that if I walked into the locker room or stepped into the huddle and looked at people and they were confident in me and felt I deserved to be there, that gave me confidence. If maybe people around you are doubting whether or not you should be in the position, then I think you question yourself a little bit.
The team used to stay in Milesburg the night before a (home) game. We’d get on the bus at 8:30 for a 12 o’clock game, and we’d take that 30-minute ride in and look at all the traffic and the fans. In my mind, I can remember sitting there, thinking to myself, “How many interceptions can I throw today and still not lose my job? Maybe two, maybe three.” By the time I got to the stadium, I’d be thinking, “OK, no interceptions.”
You go through the self-doubt. But by game time, you’ve warmed up and you know what you’re supposed to be doing. You’ve practiced it well, you’ve scripted it. Then you go in and it comes down to the first series and you take it from there. Fortunately, it all worked out well for us.
SC.com: Like Trace, you had great success in high school. What kind of foundation was that for winning and leading at the next level?
Shaffer: (Gerry) Faust was at Moeller until the end of my sophomore year (1980) and then he left to go to Notre Dame. He recruited me when he was there. If I had not gone to Penn State, I probably would have gone to Notre Dame.
We lived in Cincinnati since third grade and that’s where we grew up. My dad was a salesperson for a steel company called Allegheny Ludlum Steel. Going to Moeller, it was just one of those things — we always won. We never, ever walked onto the field thinking we would ever lose. That preparation and that conditioning was a large part of my success.
I don’t know if I did anything special. I just stood in line and did what the coaches told me to do. I worked really, really hard. Then, it all just happened. In 1983, we were No. 1 in the country in the USA Today poll. It was my senior year and we won all of our games. Knowing and expecting to win was very, very important when I went to Penn State and started competing.
Our offense at Moeller was a very sophisticated offense. We read defenses, we changed plays. When I went to Penn State I was advanced because of the high school program I was part of. As I look back, going to Moeller was a big part of my leg up going into Penn State.
SC.com: In the Orange Bowl, you had three interceptions. Then, for the entire next season, you only had four interceptions. How did that loss change you?
Shaffer: It was devastating. We were No. 1 in the country. We were going to play the national championship and they delayed the game for a half-hour, waiting for Miami (Fla.) to lose to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl. It was a big, big deal.
Oklahoma had a very fast defensive backfield. We weren’t as prepared as we should have been and I didn’t play very well. I felt that at the time, after the game, I had to say what I said, which was, “It’s a shame that one individual had so much to do with the outcome of the game.” I was naïve about the real impact that would have in the coming months.
I went back to Penn State and I sat down with Coach Bob (Phillips, the QB coach) and sat down with Joe (Paterno). Joe basically said, “You don’t have the starting position any more. It’s going to be a competition.” Everything snowballed from there.
On the way to class in the morning, kids would tell me how poorly I played. People all over would tell me how poorly I played. That was in January 1985 and my grandfather died in March 1985. The wake was in Pennsylvania and we went. I was there with my dad and my uncle, and a guy came into the wake and said to his wife, “Hey, honey, let me introduce to John Shaffer. He’s the guy that lost the Orange Bowl and lost us $1,000.”
The Orange Bowl loss was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to go through and endure. You’re just a kid trying to deal with all of that stuff. In my life, I’ve never had more pressure than that or as fierce a competition. Matt Knizner was a great quarterback and he was a competitor. It was until the middle of my senior year where I felt it was my position.
What also changed was that Jim Caldwell came that season and he changed the offense. For the first time in a long time, we threw the ball on first down. And I still remember the tight end scheme that he put in, where basically the tight end rolled in between the two linebackers and he sits down in one of three different spots. It was a full read and gave us a confident five-yard pass that we threw a lot. Jim’s possession passing and his mentality helped our offense to be as productive as it was.
SC.com: What was your relationship with Joe like?
Shaffer: My relationship with Joe was fantastic. It was all business. He was the boss. And he made the decisions. But because of what happened in the Orange Bowl and what happened in the ensuing season, our relationship turned out to be a fantastic one. Ultimately, I certainly trusted him and I hope he trusted me. Joe was responsible for changing kids’ lives, but he was also responsible for putting a product on the field and winning.
SC.com: What are you most proud of in your time at Penn State?
Shaffer: I’m proud of the people I played with the teams I was lucky enough to be on. I was lucky to be there. Because of high school and how I grew up, I learned to work really, really hard.
We had some great, great players. As you get older, you look back and you hear about all the legends who played at Penn State. I’m happy to be one of the lettermen who had the opportunity to play at Penn State. Because of our team and the national championship that we won, we may be remembered a little bit more.
SC.com: What are your thoughts on Penn State’s return to prominence after the sanctions?
Shaffer: What Penn State went through is not something you would wish on anyone. When you look at some of the kids — a Zordich, a Mauti — a few years ago, plus the kids there now, they have a real chip on their shoulder, to prove the brand. I think they’ve done a wonderful job. It makes all of us very, very proud.
I pay a lot of attention to what they say after the game, which is important to me, and they seem like great kids. And I hear from others that it is true, that they care about the team.
We were all very similar — whether it was Shane (Conlan, a two-time All-American linebacker) or D.J. (also an All-American). We just cared about winning, then going out to practice on Monday and getting ready to win again. We were lucky to have that opportunity and that we were taught that way.
