Rare air: McSorley, Blough look to follow Northwestern’s Thorson across career 10K finish line

It’s a pretty exclusive club. Amassing 10,000 career passing yards is no small feat, especially in the Big Ten.

Entering this season, Penn State’s Trace McSorley would have been the odds-on favorite to beat Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson and Purdue’s David Blough to the 10K tape. Had McSorley maintained the pace from his previous two seasons, he likely would have made up his 179-yard deficit to Thorson by midseason and become the B1G’s sixth 10,000-yard passer by early November.

Instead, McSorley might not hit 10K at all, Thorson is already there with two games left, and Blough will enter Purdue’s bowl game with an outside chance to do something rather remarkable.

These types of careers aren’t super rare in NCAA Division I. There have been 115 of them, according to sports-reference.com. But the bulk of those come out of pass-happy, defense-optional conferences. The Big Ten has progressed from the smash-mouth days of decades past, but no one wearing the B1G logo is likely to challenge Case Keenum’s all-time record (19,217 yards, 2007-11 with Houston) any time soon.

With Thorson, the Big Ten now shows six QBs among those 115, and one of those — Russell Wilson — comes with an asterisks.

Here’s a look at the B1G’s career 10K men and the two guys trying to bowl their way into the club:

x-Wilson played at NC State until his senior season
y-Two games remaining: B1G Championship, then bowl
z-One game remaining

Now, let’s break down what’s possible for the three senior gunslingers in this conversation:

Clayton Thorson, Northwestern: With a couple of decent games, he’ll pass Brett Basanez to become the Wildcats’ all-time yardage leader. If he can approach the career-best 455 yards he put up this year against Nebraska in one or both of his two remaining games, he’ll jump way inside the top 100. He could wind up keeping company with the likes of Ben Roethlisberger and Marcus Mariota on the list.

Trace McSorley, Penn State: After consecutive seasons topping 3,500 yards, McSorley’s passing numbers fell off the proverbial cliff as Lions receivers dropped balls and the team rediscovered its power running game behind an improved offensive line. He has not a single 300-yard game this year after posting 10 such efforts through his sophomore and junior campaigns. To reach 10K, he needs 346 yards in PSU’s bowl game, a figure he has reached three times — most recently 17 games ago. Penn State’s game plan most likely won’t tilt that heavy toward the pass. What seemed like a sure thing when McSorley entered the season needing 2,631 yards now seems like a long shot.

David Blough, Purdue: Entering fall camp, he was coming off his worst season, recovering from an ankle injury and competing for the starting job. Three months later, Blough stands 450 yards from the 10K milestone and looks to have better odds than McSorley. Why? Because he has a school-record 572-yard effort to his credit this year (40-37 loss to Missouri) and a 458-yard game as a sophomore. He’s 479 yards from the Boilermakers’ first 4,000-yard season (Curtis Painter holds the team record at 3,985 in 2006), and Purdue (6-6) very well could wind up in a high-scoring bowl game.

Who’s on deck?

It’s a long shot that any league QB hits 10K in the 2019 season, and the best odds go to Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins even though he’ll only be a junior next fall. Here’s the three guys in best position to hit the milestone, assuming good health:

Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State: The sophomore has already obliterated most of the school single-season and game records. He has 4,081 passing yards this season, making him the B1G’s first 4K man. With two games left, it’s not totally insane to think he could hit 5,000. We’re talking about a guy with four 400-yard games with a best of 470 against Purdue. If he stays healthy and doesn’t leave early for the NFL, he’ll zoom past Drew Brees for the Big Ten career record.

Peyton Ramsey, Indiana: With no bowl game to pad his numbers, the sophomore sits at 4,127 career yards after posting 2,875 this season. If he and the Hoosiers make slight progress over the next two years, Ramsey will squeak into the 10K club.

Adrian Martinez, Nebraska: Having finished his freshman season with 2,617 yards, he’s on pace past the quarter pole. A lot can happen in three years. We’ll see.

Anyone else? There’s not a junior in the league above 6,000 career yards. Unless they and their programs dramatically change style, Nate Stanley (Iowa), Shea Patterson (Michigan), Alex Hornibrook (Wisconsin) and Brian Lewerke (Michigan State) aren’t going to make it. Anyone with three years left has a chance, but no freshman outside of Martinez is on the radar at this point.

Luke Glusco

Luke Glusco is a Penn State graduate and veteran journalist. He covers Penn State and occasionally writes about other Big Ten programs and topics. He also serves as the primary copy editor for Saturday Tradition.