Week One is in the books.
The Penn State football team opened the 2011 season with a relatively easy win against the overmatched Sycamores of Indiana State on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium.
This week, the competition gets just a tad better when No. 2 Alabama visits Happy Valley for a 3:30 p.m. clash in front of a national TV audience.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a closer look at Saturday’s 41-7 win over the Sycamores. Specifically, we’ll examine the quarterback battle and break down the clash with the Crimson Tide.
Let’s start with the QBs.
Matt’s the Man
If you watched Saturday’s season-opening tilt with the Sycamores, you had an ample opportunity to see both Penn State quarterbacks – Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin – in action. For the record, Bolden started the game but he and McGloin split time pretty evenly.
In the end, McGloin won round one. He had better stats, better end results. McGloin directed three scoring drives while Bolden was able to engineer just one. McGloin completed 6-of-8 for 77 yards while Bolden completed 6-of-12 for just 37 yards. Neither QB tossed a TD or an interception.
The Bolden apologists will tell you that the sophomore was a victim of a couple of bad drops. That’s true: He had a couple of drops that would have added to his meager statistics.
The bottom line, however, is points. For one reason or another, the Nittany Lions respond better to McGloin. Even when they’re simply running the football, the backs appear to hit the holes harder when McGloin is running the offense.
Right now, McGloin appears to have a swagger and the confidence that Bolden just doesn’t have – yet.
“Obviously, I’d like to be the guy,” McGloin said. “I think I played well. I was 6-for-8 and I engineered three scoring drives in the four times when I was in there. I felt the offense played really well when I was in there, but it’s not up to me. It’s up to the coaches. All I can do is continue to take one day at a time and see what they decide next week.”
Although he led the Lions to paydirt just one time on Saturday, Bolden talks like a guy who expects to be the starter no matter who is on the visiting sideline.
“I can’t even comment on that,” Bolden said of sharing snaps with Mac. “I’m just here. It’s Joe’s call. I’m just going to keep practicing and playing, doing what I’m supposed to do. I think if I handle that, then the rest will play itself out.”
And therein lies the problem. Bolden doesn’t appear to have the fire for the game that McGloin does. Remember, Bolden tried to bolt Happy Valley in the offseason, only to be shut down by the elder Paterno.
In this writer’s opinion, Bolden has the “I” mentality, while McGloin is the better team player.
Case in point: When third-string QB Shane McGregor scored on a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter, McGloin was one of the first players to congratulate him on the sidelines. McGloin ran over and hip-bumped him to celebrate the score. Little things like that go far in the minds of teammates.
But if you’re expecting either McGloin or Bolden to be named No. 1 as we head into Week Two, think again.
“I think both of them can help us, can do things to help us win. Everybody got caught up in who was getting off the bus first and who was taking the first snap,” said QB coach Jay Paterno. “Really, we’re not looking at it that way. We’re looking at that they’re both going to play. They can both help us win.”
If JayPa actually believes that, then he hasn’t been watching closely. Think back to two of Penn State’s ugliest losses in recent memory – 24-3 shellackings in 2010 at the hands of Alabama and Iowa. Both of those games got away from State early. In both losses, Bolden was the starter.
We could be looking at a rerun in 2011.
Heading into this week’s showdown with Alabama, McGloin should be named the starter and should play the entire game. The Lions are 11-point underdogs at home. It says here that if McGloin starts, the Lions will have a fighter’s chance. If Bolden gets the nod, the Lions will find themselves in an early hole and will likely be unable to recover.
It’s pretty simple, you have to play the better QB. Right now, the better QB is Matt McGloin.
Gameday: Alabama
Like Penn State, Alabama had a tasty cupcake in Week One in the form of Kent State. The Crimson Tide dismantled the Golden Flashes, 48-7. In that game, the ‘Bama defense was the story of the day as it dominated. It held Kent State to just 90 yards of total offense. Kent State had 99 yards passing and minus -9 rushing yards.
Sure, the big-name players like Mark Ingram and Julio Jones are gone, but if there’s one lesson we’ve learned from Nick Saban through the years, it’s that he doesn’t rebuild, he simply reloads. Ultimately, Penn State doesn’t have enough firepower to hang with the Crimson Tide.
We’re guessing that Bolden will start. That puts the Lions in a 14-0 hole. McGloin will bring them back but ultimately, the Lions will fall short.
Gantdaily.com prediction: Alabama 28, Penn State 13.
Chris Morelli is an award-winning writer/editor who lives in Centre County and covers Penn State athletics for gantnews.com. He’s also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com. Also, be sure to check out Morelli OnLion on Facebook!