Penn State Rumor Mill

There are a couple rumors floating around that need to be discussed. First and foremost with the play of Daryll Clark in the Notre Dame game some have speculated that there is a quarterback controversy at PSU. Like the swallows to Capistrano, this yearly ritual is held near and dear to some Penn State fans.

Must be quarterback controversy time

The backup quarterback is always the most popular guy in some hearts. Unfortunately, fans can forget it, Paterno is going to stick with Morelli for a long time. Paterno has always been loyal to his players, sometimes to a fault. Morelli was the good solder and waited patiently on the sidelines for two years while Zack Mills and Michael Robinson ran the offense. He paid attention, listened, learned, and above all never complained; you do that on a Paterno team and he will reward you with his loyalty. Morelli’s the starter unless he completely and utterly implodes. That brings us to the second part of this gossip: Morelli’s play. A quarter of play against Notre Dame’s second team D doesn’t push Clark past Morelli in my mind. Anthony has played quite well for the first two games and there should be no questioning his leadership just yet. The offense is going to get better as the year goes on and along with that, improved play at quarterback.

The second question to arise is the health of Paul Posluszny. Paul doesn’t seem to have the step he had in the past leaving many to question the condition of his knee. One of those not questioning Poz’s play is teammate Dan Connor:

"I disagree with that, I wasn't aware that the criticism was out there," Connor said.

With Sean Lee’s emergence and a dearth of depth at defensive end, the Penn State coaches moved Tim Shaw to defensive end, put Sean Lee at Poz’s old spot and moved him to the middle where he is responsible for, well, just about everything.

"He has a young line in front of him," Connor explained. "His job before was to concentrate on linebackers, but now he has to know every position on defense. Now he has to make checks for positions he has no business making checks for. He's so smart that he can pick that up right away. All this criticism is very incorrect. If you watch games, they know Paul's a playmaker, they're gonna double team him in locking, which will tire you out. If you watch tape and see what he does, you know he makes big plays."

People were shocked when Posluszny asked to be taken out of the Notre Dame game last week, but one can imagine that the entire defense was probably exhausted after the amount of time they spent on the field.

"Against Notre Dame, I'm not gonna lie, I did get tired," Posluszny said. "But that'll happen during the course of the game."

With the new position and new responsibilities, I would imagine as Posluszny gets more and more comfortable with his new role and will get better as the year goes on. Given that most teams are also going to give him much added attention, he probably won’t come close to the monstrous year he had last season, but I would love for him to prove me wrong.

As I stated before, I speculated that Austin Scott might redshirt this season due to ongoing injuries and the play of Tony Hunt. Now it appears that may indeed be the case. In his press conference this week Paterno answered questions about the backup running back:

Until Austin Scott is 100 percent and if he isn’t 100 percent pretty quick, we are going to have to decide to redshirt him. He still limps a little bit. He comes out there and doesn’t limp, but after you run him three or four plays, the ankle gets sore.

I know that Mike at Black Shoe Diaries may disagree with me but I think a redshirt is the best option for both parties: Scott isn’t going to be 100% for a while and Penn State could use a veteran running back next year. I fully understand that takes away another scholarship that could be used to get a young running back, but I’ll take Austin next year over an unproven freshman.