With baseball in full swing, it’s hard to think football, but that’s what many of you did over the weekend as 73,000 fans poured into Beaver Stadium for the annual Blue-White Game.
For the second consecutive year, the weather was perfect and fans turned out in droves to watch the scrimmage, which is officially the Nittany Lions’ final practice of spring.
In this edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a closer look at the Blue-White Game. We’ll break down the quarterback competition and we’ll hit some JoePa contract news from the weekend. We’ll also take another look at a future Lion.
Daryll Clark started with the first team and performed well in the Blue-White Game.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
QB Competition
In the battle for the starting quarterback job, Penn State coach Joe Paterno has said time and time again that there is no clear front-runner when it comes to the horse race between Daryll Clark and Pat Devlin.
Heck, Paterno insists that third-stringer Paul Cianciolo is still in the mix.
But the waters are cloudy for sure. And Saturday’s performances in the annual Blue-White Game did nothing to clear the water. In fact, both Clark and Devlin did their best to throw a little more mud into the stream.
Statistically, Devlin had the better afternoon. As a member of the White squad, he completed 8-of-13 for 62 yards. As a member of the Blue squad, he completed 4-of-5 for 60 yards and a touchdown. For those keeping score at home, Devlin was 12-of-18 for 122 yards and the one score. Clark played only as a member of the Blue squad, completing
9-of-16 for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
Neither QB threw a pick. Muddy water? Oh yeah, you bet. This is a battle that is going to last into the dog days of summer and still may not be settled when the team takes the field for the season opener against Coastal Carolina on Aug. 30.
After the game on Saturday, both quarterbacks met with the media and both discussed the competition.
“It’s been a great competition. A couple of guys came up to me and said ‘I haven’t seen a quarterback competition that tight in a long, long time,'” Devlin said. “Me and (Daryll) are real good friends.
We’re helping each other out. It’s been great.”
Devlin admitted that he had some butterflies, playing in front of 73,000 fans on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon. It’s a far cry from high school football Friday nights, where Devlin threw his last meaningful pass. But a few throws into Saturday’s game, and the butterflies went away, he said.
In addition to having some butterflies on the field, Devlin also looked a bit nervous in the media room. When his name was announced, Devlin was immediately surrounded and broke into a bit of a sweat under the bright lights of television cameras.
Clark, on the other hand, looked very cool and collected. Clark’s been through this before, of course. He made quite an impression at the team’s media day in 2007 when, he said he would be the starter when Anthony Morelli finally departed.
Well, Morelli is gone now, but Clark was making no such claims on Saturday. Still confident but not cocky, Clark talked about the competition with Devlin, which he dubbed “healthy.”
“There’s no controversy, just competition,” Clark said.
Clark also said that he still views himself as the front-runner for the starting job. And that’s not being cocky, that’s being confident.
Make no mistake about, Clark is one confident guy.
“Any time you take the field, whether it’s practice or game, your approach has to be ‘I’m the man.’ That has to be your mindset. I feel that I can run our offense and be a success. That’s my mindset,” Clark said. “It’s been a good competition with Pat, but I’m keeping that mindset. The rest is up to coach Joe.”
There’s a possibility that the battle may not end with someone winning the starting job. Perhaps a starter will not be named. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Nittany Lions will employ a two-QB system in 2008.
If Saturday’s performances are any indication, that may not be a bad thing.
Contract Controversy
Although Penn State president Graham Spanier has said that there will be no more contract talks, JoePa’s contract continues to be a hot-button topic. At his news conference before the game, Paterno got into a heated discussion with a reporter from the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
Here’s the complete tran scri pt of that exchange:
Reporter: People are worried about recruiting with this one year at a time contract status.
Paterno: Eh, that’s ridiculous. You take a look at the wideouts, Butler was a walk-on, Norwood only had one scholarship. Scirrotto only … the best freshman skill guy we got is Astorino. Astorino was going to go to Kent State if we didn’t give him an offer. You guys can all get caught up … I think we had a heck of a year recruiting.
Reporter: The fans get caught up.
Paterno: That’s your problem.
Reporter: It’s not your problem?
Paterno: No, it’s not my problem. Why is it my problem?
Reporter: Well, they’re supporting this program.
Paterno: You know what your problem is? You’re succumbing to. You succumb to the Web site mob and that’s what it is.
Reporter: What’s the Web site mob?
Paterno: The people sending you guys letters without signing their names.
Reporter: Oh, they sign their names.
Paterno: Well that’s fine. Then you answer them.
Reporter: Well, I can’t answer them. That’s the whole point.
Paterno: Well, I can’t answer them either.
Reporter: Well, you could.
Paterno: I just told you what the answer was. I think we’re doing great.
Reporter: Well, a lot of players would want to know who their coach is. Don’t you agree with that? In two years?
Paterno: Don’t you think that they talk to me about that and I talk to them?
Reporter: And what do you tell them?
Paterno: I tell them, you know what, some of the guys that tell you I may not be here are washing streets and doing dishes and things like that. Alright? I don’t get into that. I tell them exactly what I think. Hey, I hope I’m going to coach here while you’re here. I may not only the Lord knows what’s going to happen. I’m excited about the team I got. I’m excited about our prospects for recruiting. I’m excited about your being interested in Penn State and if I’m not here, the people you see around you, the facilities, the commitment to this program, the kind of attitude that Penn State has had about athletics … we have a whole mess of kids up here today. We must have 50 high school juniors up here today. They take a look at this place and say hey this must be one heckuva place. And if I walked out, they might not even know me.
Reporter: They don’t know you?
Paterno: They may not. I don’t know. I keep looking at the girls on the way over here. I drove over here like this looking at those girls with their shorts. I hope they know me.
Reporter: One more thing and I’m going to get this out of the way. I won’t say another word about it. In your perfect world, one of your assistants would be your successor?
Paterno: I would hope. I don’t know. I think when I decide to get out of it, I think that will be up to some people who are more responsible for the program than I would be if I’m not here.
Reporter: Are you working toward it though?
Paterno: I’m looking forward to having a good football team this year.
You guys waste my time with all of this.
Reporter: This isn’t a waste of time though.
Paterno: But it is a waste of time because it doesn’t have a darn thing to do with whether we’re going to have a good football team this year and that’s the only thing I’m worried about.
Reporter: It has a lot to do with next year and the year after that.
Paterno: Oh horse manure next year and the year after. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Hey, do me a favor and get an anonymous trustee who doesn’t have enough guts to use his name.
Reporter: You should have seen the quotes we didn’t use.
Paterno: Well that’s fine but you’re still using an anonymous guy and if a trustee is anonymous enough to not use his name, that’s his problem and it’s not going to bother me.
The exchange was heated and with good reason. Paterno is tired of talking contract but reporters keep asking because people want to know. On our message boards at
www.bluewhiteillustrated.com, that’s 70 to 80 percent of the discussion.
The bottom line is this: if the team plays well in the fall, the contract stuff will go away. If the team doesn’t play well, the contract stuff may still go away.
And if the team doesn’t play well, Joe may go as well.
Brandon Ware could be a run-stopper for the Nittany Lions.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Future Lion: Brandon Ware
Ware became the final piece of the puzzle for the class when he verbally committed to Penn State on Jan. 27.
The 6-foot-4, 345-pound run-stuffer was an immovable force for George Chaump’s Cougars in 2007, which made a run deep into the state playoffs before falling to eventual champ Pittsburgh Central Catholic in the state semifinals. He recorded 35 tackles in 2007, 15 of which were for a loss. He also recorded eight sacks.
He was named to the Associated Press and Pennsylvania Football News Class AAAA all-state first team as a defensive tackle. Ware also earned all-conference honors as both an offensive and defensive lineman in 2007. He was recently named to represent Pennsylvania in the Big 33 Classic, which will be held in June.
Most observers think he will need to shed a few pounds and get into better shape before he sees the field, but the potential is there. He will likely redshirt in 2008 in order to do both and acclimate himself to college life.
Ware was recruited for the Nittany Lions by Johnson and took his official visit to Penn State on the weekend of Jan. 25.
In addition to writing for gantnews.com, Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a magazine devoted to Penn State sports. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.