Keeping 'contain,' 'squeezing' the keys for Iowa vs Penn State QB

IOWA CITY — Saturday against No. 23 Penn State marks the first game of the final third of Iowa's football season. It also marks the first of two games in those final four that features an opposing quarterback who can make life difficult on defenses in more ways than one.

The Hawkeyes (5-3, 2-2 Big Ten) will have to keep the Nittany Lions' (6-2, 4-1) quarterback, Trace McSorley, from doing what he's done to more than a few opponents this year: making and extending plays with his feet and arm.

'(He's) extremely elusive,' defensive end Parker Hesse said Tuesday. 'He likes to throw on the move; he's always moving to find new lanes to throw it in. It's going to be a challenge for us up front just to contain him; to keep him in the pocket and keep squeezing him and make him uncomfortable.'

McSorley has 1,818 yards and 12 touchdowns through the air so far this season, and is the team's second leading rusher with 251 yards and four rushing scores.

The effort to 'contain,' as Hesse said, was thrown around by almost every defender at the Hansen Performance Center on Tuesday, and that's easier said than done. McSorley didn't have a great day completion percentage-wise against Ohio State two weeks ago, but his 19 carries for 63 yards and rushing touchdown, to go with 154 and a score through the air, were more than enough to beat one of the best teams in the country.

The redshirt sophomore isn't the most physically imposing player at 6-foot, 205 pounds, but a host of quarterbacks have proved that — especially in college football — the ability to keep a play alive is far more important than how high above the line a guy can see. Defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson pointed out that ability from McSorley, combined with that of his receivers to find their own space creates headaches.

'There are plays where he'll scramble and throw it, and they have good receivers, too, who can go up and grab it for a big gain,' Johnson said. 'What we really need to do with this quarterback is keep him contained.'

As much as containment, too, there's also the 'squeezing' Hesse mentioned. It's something Hawkeye assistant coaches use to illustrate what they want to do to a player like McSorley, who desperately wants to get in space to do his damage.

Iowa has Nebraska's Tommy Armstrong in the offing as the other quarterback in the vein of McSorley, so how they do Saturday could have a foreshadowing effect.

'We're really stressing as a d-line, really squeezing in the quarterback and making sure he doesn't get out and scramble and make plays,' defensive end Matt Nelson said. 'We've just got to keep him within the pocket and not let him squirt out through any of the gaps or anything like that so he can keep his eyes downfield and make plays. We have to keep him bottled up in the pocket.

'That's our primary responsibility is to contain the quarterback. Coach (Reese) Morgan uses the concept of squeeze contain to constrict the pocket and make sure he doesn't get out.'

REALIGNMENT BLUES

Iowa and Penn State have played in some whoppers of Big Ten games while Kirk Ferentz has been head coach of the Hawkeyes.

There was 2009 in State College, where No. 5 Penn State was up 10-0, and the Hawkeyes scored 21 unanswered to win. There was the year before, in 2008, when a field goal beat the No. 3 Nittany Lions in the closing stages at Kinnick Stadium. There was the 42-35 overtime thriller in 2002, when Iowa prevailed. And there was the 26-23 win in 2000, the first program-defining win for Iowa under Ferentz.

And while Iowa-Penn State isn't a rivalry game, it had become a matchup Ferentz and Co. relished, and have since lamented not having every year. The teams haven't played since 2012, and Ferentz said it feels odd to reignite a matchup that had brought with it so many good memories after a long stretch apart.

'That's the one downside of expansion,' Ferentz said. 'It really does seem strange playing Penn State again because it seems like forever. I mean, it was, what, four seasons, but it seems like 14. So that part is a little bit strange.'

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