Striking deep and striking a nerve: Why Moorhead and his offense are ready for Year 2

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Any skepticism about Penn State's offense trying to duplicate the eye-popping number of chunk plays it produced last year was met by a swift shutdown from offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.

How swift? Moorhead wasn't even directly asked about it yet he took the 'Penn State only chucks the ball downfield and completes 50-50 balls' narrative and squashed it during the team's media day. Moorhead's response to a question that was a simple, 'What is the next step in your quarterback's development?' led to a telling response that gave insight into how the team's offensive coordinator not only isn't a fan of that narrative and thinks it's absurd, but he also doesn't like how his quarterback is being perceived, either.

"I think that brings up an interesting topic," Moorhead said. "You know kind of this thought process that's prevailing that you hear about -- and frankly, this is gross mischaracterization, number one, of the application of our offense and the role of the quarterback -- that Trace just drops back and picks the deepest receiver and chucks the ball up and hopes the guy makes the play. That's, in a lot of ways, ridiculous at best and, quite frankly, asinine at worst."