PISCATAWAY -- If Penn State beats Rutgers on Saturday afternoon (Noon, Big Ten Network), Penn State redshirt senior Trace McSorley will have 30 wins, most ever by a Nittany Lions quarterback.

More than Todd Blackledge, more than Kerry Collins, more than Michael Robinson, more than anyone else Joe Paterno coached. Yes, McSorley has had plenty of help to 30 wins, namely Saquon Barkley, but that isn't really the point.

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Originally a Vanderbilt commit for James Franklin, McSorley followed Franklin from Nashville to State College, committing to Penn State two weeks before National Signing Day in 2014. At the time, the Nittany Lions were on probation, a byproduct of the child sex abuse scandal that engulfed the program the previous fall. Still, McSorley opted in, and the Nittany Lions have been better for it.

"I think it's hard to talk about Trace's record, talk about our record in our time being here without talking about that," Franklin said. "We got here at one of the most-challenging times, not only in Penn State's history, but in college football history, and been able to do some pretty remarkable things.

"Trace is a big part of that."

None of this is lost on John McNulty. A Clarks Summit, Pa. native, Rutgers' offensive coordinator walked on at Penn State in the late 1980's. As someone connected to Penn State, McNulty has something he would like to tell McSorley on Saturday.

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"I'm interested to meet Trace at some point, probably after the game, just to tell him, as an alum, that a lot of people appreciate what he's done there," McNulty said on Monday afternoon at the Hale Center.

Again, Barkley was the key cog that helped fuel Penn State's resurgence as a national contender, but one look at McSorley's numbers makes it clear that his contributions should not be overlooked. In 43 games, the Ashburn, Va. native has thrown for 9,241 yards, 72 touchdowns and 23 interceptions, while completing over 60 percent of his passes.

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Between 2016 and 2017, when Penn State won 11 games twice, won the Big Ten, went to a Rose Bowl and won a Fiesta Bowl, McSorley threw for over 7,000 yards and 57 touchdowns.

All of those numbers numbers and accolades are monstrous, and, as McNulty noted, deserving of a "Thank you."

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"They've been playing very good football at Penn State for a long time, and he's gonna go down with the all-time most wins at the position," Franklin said. "At the end of the day, this is the ultimate team sport, and quarterbacks are evaluated on wins."

"To start, Trace is a great player," Rutgers head coach Chris Ash said. "He's a tremendous quarterback. He can beat you with his feet and beat you with his arm. Just spent the last five, six hours watching film of him, and he's a competitor. I don't know if it's necessarily anything that a defense is doing to slow him down, because he's still got a lot of production.

"He's still very dangerous. It's a different team than they had last year. The pieces around him are different, but he's still a great player. He's fun to watch."

Staff writer Josh Newman: jnewman@app.com; @Joshua_Newman