LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Quarterbacks Trace McSorley and Sam Darnold will be in the spotlight at the Rose Bowl on Monday.
For good reason.
Actually, make that great reasons. Plural.
The two first-year starters threw for a ton of yards, passed for over two dozen touchdowns and led their squads to season-ending winning streaks of nine (PSU) and eight games (USC).
They’re athletic, play-makers and confident.
And both appreciate what the other brings to the table, as well as to the mirror – and, in some ways, the mirror image. To wit:
“Our guys on defense say he plays like me kind of,” Darnold told me on Friday.
“Everything I’ve heard about him, there’s a lot of similarities — athletic guy,” McSorley said, also on Friday.
Here’s a 10-point look at the two quarterbacks, with all quotations coming from their media day appearances here on Friday:
1. WINNING
Record as a starter, all in 2016: McSorley, 11-2 (.846); Darnold, 8-1 (.888).
Winning streak: McSorley, 9 games; Darnold, 8 games.
Average margin of victory during winning streak: McSorley, 19.9 points; Darnold, 20 points.
2. THE BASICS
Richard Thomas McSorley III – 6-foot, 205 pounds; junior, with two years of eligibility after 2016. Briarwoods H.S, Ashburn, Va.; 55-5 as a high school starter. Also played basketball and lacrosse. Accounting major. Father Rick played football (defensive back) at University of Richmond. Mother Andrea. Age: 21 (Aug. 23, 1995).
Samuel Darnold – 6-foot-4, 225 pounds; sophomore, with three years of eligibility after 2016. San Clemente H.S., Capistrano Beach, Calif.; 15-3 as a high school starter. Also played basketball (all-league MVP). Communications major. Father Mike played football (guard) at Redlands. Mother Chris. Age: 19 (June 5, 1997).
3. THE NUMBERS – PASSING
McSorley, 2016 — 206 of 358 (57.5%), 3,360 yards, 25 TD passes, 5 interceptions; 258.5 yards per game; 16.3 yards per completion; 9.4 yards per attempt.
Darnold, 2016 – 213 of 313 (68.1%), 2,633 yards, 26 TD passes, 8 interceptions; 219.4 yards per game; 12.4 yards per completion; 8.4 yards per attempt.
4. THE NUMBERS – RUNNING
McSorley, 2016 – 140 attempts for 352 yards (563 gain, 211 loss), 2.5 yard average; 6 rushing TDs.
Darnold, 2016 – 57 attempts for 230 yards (288 gain, 58 loss), 4.0 yard average; 2 rushing TDs.
5. DARNOLD ON McSORLEY
“Trace is a really great player. I haven’t had an opportunity to watch him a ton this season. I know our defense is working hard to stop him right now. He can make plays when something isn’t there at first. I just know he’s a really great player.
“I know our defense is really looking forward to trying to stop him. Our guys on defense say he plays like me kind of. He can kind of make plays when something is not there. He has a quick release, all that kind of stuff. He’s just a really natural football player, I guess, out there. You can see that in whatever offense watch you Penn State in. It will be interesting to see how much our defense gives up against their offense.”
6. McSORLEY ON McSORLEY
“You can measure how tall I am, how much I weigh, how big my hands are, whatever it is. But you can’t measure someone’s heart.”
7. McSORLEY ON DARNOLD
“Sam’s a tremendous player. He’s a big, strong kid. Real athletic. He’s more athletic than people give him credit for. He makes a ton of plays with his feet and creates a lot of problems for the defense.
“Everything I’ve heard about him, there’s a lot of similarities — athletic guy. Obviously, stature wise, he’s a big dude. He’s 6-4, 220, 230, something like that. Obviously a little different there. But he’s a tremendous player. He does a lot of things for the defense to create issues. He’s got a big, strong arm. He’s accurate in his throws. He’s athletic and makes plays with his legs and creates issues for the defense. Probably a lot of similarities with his athleticism and stuff like that.”
8. DARNOLD ON DARNOLD
“I think I have a lot of good qualities that you find in quarterbacks. At the same time, I focus on my game and I just play every single game to the best of my ability. That’s really all I’m focused on. I don’t think any moment is too big if you just take it on with the abilities that you’re given. I think it’s really interesting ’cause with the abilities I’m given, I think I can achieve anything to my ability. With that being said, yeah, I think anything’s possible. I don’t think any situation is too big for me ever.”
9. McSORLEY ON THE PENN STATE TURNAROUND
“After we started off 2-2, and we lost (49-10) to Michigan, everyone almost had a pit in their stomach, knowing we kind of got blown out by Michigan. We didn’t want to have that happen again. We knew we needed to make a change… A lot of what we decided to do is look towards our preparation and kind of how we were preparing for games from a mental standpoint.
“Mondays are our off days. So on Mondays, me, Brian Gaia, (Chris) Godwin, DaeSean (Hamilton), Andrew Nelson and a couple other guys, got together after the Michigan game and started doing these player-run film sessions where we got as many guys as we could on the offensive side of the ball, watching as a unit. We were getting guys in on Mondays before we got into our game plan on Tuesdays — our first real practice on Tuesday. Guys would be able to know where we’d be going, have an idea how we might block up certain runs, how to protect, what kind of routes we’d be running
“We changed up our preparation from a mental standpoint. And then once we got on the field, we took the urgency and energy that we had out to practice. It was completely different from the first four weeks to the last nine weeks.”
10. DARNOLD ON THE USC TURNAROUND
“The key to our turnaround I think is just trusting each other, trusting the coaching staff. I think after the Utah game (a 31-27 loss), we came in as players only and had a team meeting that way, without the coaches in there. We just developed a trust with each other. It’s not like we didn’t build a trust before. We had to reassure it with each other, reassure with the coaching staff that we were going to be fine, everything is going to be fine – let’s just take it one game at a time and move on from there.”
